Timothy Bishop, former deputy program executive officer for the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, has been appointed as the Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s director of the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence.

In this role, he will be responsible for managing space and global ballistic missile defense doctrine and training, developments and decision support as well as the Training and Doctrine Command capability managers for space and high altitude strategic missile defense, the Space and Missile Defense School and the Army Personnel Development Office, the Army said on Monday.

In his previous role, Bishop oversaw a portfolio of fielded systems valued at over $2.65 billion in 125 locations and more than 335,000 training devices in 19 foreign nations. 

He will be promoted to tier II in the Department of Defense Senior Executive Service and will formally assume his new position on Feb. 12.

Established under the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence is tasked with building the nation’s space and missile defense forces.

Leidos has selected company veteran Mike Chagnon as deputy defense group president, a role he previously held before transitioning into the airborne solutions operations manager position in 2020.

Tim Freeman, formerly senior vice president for business development and strategy for Leidos subsidiary Dynetics, will succeed Chagnon as airborne solutions operations manager, the Reston, Virginia-based organization shared with ExecutiveGov on Tuesday.

“I am eager to assume the role of deputy group president to help the Defense Group achieve new heights in 2023 and beyond. I look forward to continuing to focus on supporting our customers’ critical missions by delivering innovative and transformative solutions across the enterprise,” Chagnon commented.

Chagnon has spent over three decades with Leidos, beginning as senior vice president and operations manager of the company’s Mission Systems Integration Operation, where he directed a large team focused on hardware and software development, systems engineering and integration, modeling and simulation and geospatial product development in support of command and control, maritime and live-virtual-constructive training systems.

In his earlier position as president of the former advanced solutions group, Chagnon supervised over 2,700 scientists and engineers and assisted with the creation of the Leidos Software Factory.

Freeman joined Leidos in 2018 as senior vice president of business development and strategy for the company’s defense sector.

“I am excited to be back with the Defense Group to lead one of the most dynamic teams in the company. With top-notch facilities and highly skilled workforce, this team delivers full-service aviation mission, support, integration, and maintenance capabilities,” said Freeman.

Prior to joining Leidos, Freeman held multiple leadership roles at Raytheon centered around profit and loss and business development responsibilities. During his time with the organization, he progressed upward into the role of business development executive, where he oversaw Raytheon IIS, Mission Support and Modernization, a product line valued at $1.2 billion annually.

Before entering the private sector, Freeman served in the U.S. Air Force for 27 years, where he held positions spanning engineering, flight testing, program management and acquisition.

Alongside these leadership changes, Tom Dove, the current deputy group president, will retire.

Leidos is sponsoring the Potomac Officers Club’s 4th Annual CIO Summit, which will host top industry CIO’s to discuss IT problems and solutions on April 13. To learn more and register for the event, please visit the Potomac Officers Club events page.

Jeff Smith, former deputy for operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been appointed interim director of ORNL as the laboratory searches for a permanent successor to Thomas Zacharia, The Oak Ridger reported Thursday.

Smith previously led a $400 million modernization effort at ORNL and oversaw the development of major scientific facilities during his tenure, including a neutron science facility, a carbon fiber technology facility and a supercomputer center.

He serves as the president of UT-Battelle Development Company, a special-purpose entity organized to support the development of facilities at ORNL.

Zacharia retired at the end of 2022 after more than five years as director of the science and energy laboratory.

UT-Battelle, which manages the national laboratory for the Department of Energy, has selected executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to help fill in the top post at ORNL.

Rich McManus, former senior technical advisor to the U.S. Strategic Command, has joined the U.S. Space Force as deputy director of its Force Design Integration Office, he announced in a LinkedIn post.

He built his 27-year career in the Department of Defense, serving in positions in the Armed Forces as well as in combatant commands.

McManus began as a mission commander and function check pilot for the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 under the U.S. Navy in Guam. He transferred to the Navy’s Helicopter Training Squadron 18 in Florida as an instruction pilot.

The executive’s first role in the U.S. combatant commands was chief of plans evaluation and research/experiments under the Strategic Command. He went on to become a crisis action planner for the Africa Command, and returned to STRATCOM as a strategic planner at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.