Joseph Wassel, former cyberspace operations executive at the Defense Information Systems Agency, has been chosen as CEO of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s First Responder Network Authority.

Wassel’s expertise in public safety communications, cybersecurity and resiliency are vital qualifications that led to his appointment to the role, said Richard Carrizzo, fire chief of the Southern Platte Fire Protection District in Mississippi and vice chair of the FirstNet Authority Board.

Wassel has 34 years of experience under his belt, which includes service in the Department of Defense. In 1998, he was director of the Secretary of Defense Communications. Ten years later, he became deputy director of the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Task Force. He was also director of C4 resilience and mission assurance and founder and chair of the agency’s global public safety communications working group.

“I am honored and excited to be joining the FirstNet Authority,” Wassel commented. “I look forward to working closely with public safety stakeholders at all levels of government to ensure FirstNet evolves and provides the tools they need for their lifesaving mission.”

The Senate voted 54-42 Thursday to confirm Danny Werfel, most recently managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service within the Department of the Treasury.

President Joe Biden nominated Werfel to lead the IRS as commissioner in November 2022.

Werfel previously served as acting IRS commissioner and controller at the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration and helped implement the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 under the Bush administration.

He joined BCG in 2014 and helped launch the management consulting firm’s U.S. public sector practice.

Werfel holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University, a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University and Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Raj Iyer, former chief information officer at the U.S. Army and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, has joined digital workflow provider ServiceNow as global head of public sector.

The Santa Clara, California-based company said Monday that the executive, who is versed in both commercial and government business, will apply his three decades of experience to help enable digital transformation in an array of international markets.

In a statement, Iyer shared that the cloud-based impact ServiceNow could have on governments is what drew him to the organization.

“I’m thrilled to join a company that is equally as passionate and excited about the potential for change as ServiceNow. It has never been easier to leverage the power of a platform like ServiceNow to truly transform how governments serve their citizens,” Iyer continued.

Prior to his nearly two-and-a-half-year stint as the Army’s first civilian CIO — wherein he steered a $16 million dollar IT budget — Iyer was chief technology officer of the U.S. Army Materiel Command; senior technology advisor for Healthcare.gov at the Department of Health and Human Services; and director of data management for the Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.

Additionally, Iyer has worked in the private sector in roles such as managing director of government and public services at Deloitte and CTO and vice president of product development at Aspire 3D / Imagecom, which he helped expand (and ultimately sell) from its days as a start-up in the 1990s.

His new company’s Now Platform is an end-to-end software that aims to ease digital migration through workflow enhancements. Iyer’s addition to the team and the creation of his position reflects ServiceNow’s recent public sector growth, attaining clients like the Defense Logistics Agency; the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Crown Commercial Service; and Australia’s New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

Iyer is slated to oversee concentrated efforts to bring ServiceNow’s digital transformation offerings to government customers in Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. through a scaled strategy and customized activities. In a LinkedIn post on Monday, he noted that, “the promise of digital transformation in the government has never been more real. Quite frankly, it’s an imperative.”

Iyer indicated he would be stepping down from his historic Army post in early January.