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Gary Sladic to Succeed Mark Simione as Noblis CFO; CEO Amr ElSawy Quoted
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Gary Sladic to Succeed Mark Simione as Noblis CFO; CEO Amr ElSawy Quoted

Mark Simione, who currently serves as senior vice president, chief financial and administrative officer, treasurer and board of trustees member for Noblis, has announced his planned retirement in July 2022.

Noblis said Monday that Gary Sladic, who currently serves as the company’s vice president of finance and accounting, has been named deputy chief financial officer and will succeed Simione as CFO upon his retirement.

Two-time Wash100 Award winner Amr ElSawy, CEO and president of Noblis, thanked Simione for his leadership and dedication, and he wished him well in his next chapter.

“During his time at Noblis, Mark has helped expand our mission areas, acquired key companies and capabilities and established a strong foundation for sustainable growth,” ElSawy noted.

In 1996, Simione was a founding member of Mitretek, which became Noblis in 2007. Throughout his 25-year tenure with Noblis, Simione has been responsible for financial, operating and administrative activities within the corporation, as well as strategic planning and portfolio shaping.

Gary Sladic to Succeed Mark Simione as Noblis CFO; CEO Amr ElSawy Quoted

In addition to expressing his gratitude for Simione’s notable contributions to Noblis, ElSawy congratulated Sladic on his appointment as CFO. ElSawy added, “His deep institutional knowledge, demonstrated financial acumen and leadership skills will serve him well in his new role as CFO.”

Sladic also joined Noblis in 1996 and has since been responsible for financial accounting, tax, audit and treasury functions within the company. During his time at Noblis thus far, he has held multiple financial leadership roles and has led the company’s major mergers and acquisitions.

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US Treasury, Israel Expand Cooperation Against Ransomware; Wally Adeyemo Quoted
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US Treasury, Israel Expand Cooperation Against Ransomware; Wally Adeyemo Quoted

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the government of Israel have formed a bilateral partnership to broaden international cooperation and safeguard critical financial infrastructure from ransomware threats. The partnership launched a U.S.-Israeli task force to advance financial technology innovation and cybersecurity, the Treasury said Sunday.

The new task force will come up with a memorandum of understanding to drive information sharing related to the financial sector, promote personnel training and study visits to encourage cooperation and advance competency-building activities.

The task force will also introduce technical exchanges on regulation, policy and outreach efforts in support of fintech innovation that comes with cyber protections and achieve compliance with international standards on counterterrorist financing and anti-money laundering.

“As the global economy recovers and ransomware and other illicit finance threats present a grave challenge to Israel and the United States, increased information exchanges, joint work, and collaboration on policy, regulation, and enforcement are critical to our economic and national security objectives,” said Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury.

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President Biden Signs Secure Equipment Act of 2021; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted
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President Biden Signs Secure Equipment Act of 2021; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted

President Biden signed into law a measure that will bar the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from assessing or issuing authorization for equipment that poses a national security risk. 

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., advanced the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 in Congress, the White House said Friday.

“With President Biden’s signature, we are taking strong action to protect our nation from global technological threats that can undermine our future prosperity. I look forward to now working with the President and every member of the FCC to implement this critical measure,” said Markey.

The law will preclude FCC from issuing licenses to companies included in its list of covered communications equipment or services, particularly products made by Huawei, Hytera, ZTE, Dahua, Hikvision and other Chinese state-backed companies.

“The Secure Equipment Act of 2021 will improve our safety as a nation by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of FCC.

Eshoo and Scalise proposed the legislation in June a month after Rubio and Markey introduced a similar measure in the Senate.

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DOD Highlights Challenges Affecting Fiscal 2022 Performance
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DOD Highlights Challenges Affecting Fiscal 2022 Performance

The Department of Defense is facing challenges in strategic competition, cyberspace, budgeting and other areas with regard to DOD’s performance and management for the fiscal year 2022. 

These challenges are highlighted in the Top DOD Management Challenges document, which tackles issues on multi-domain missions, procurement, installation management and workforce, DOD said Friday.

DOD said Friday that it faces the challenge of multi-domain mission execution in the areas of space dominance, nuclear deterrence, missile defense and cyber operations.

The department is also facing procurement-related challenges with regard to supply chain reinforcement, contract oversight and financial management.

The document also tackles the need for DOD facilities to be resilient to environmental events and maintain health, modernity and trust in the DOD workforce.

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White House Urges Congress to Pass FY 2022 Appropriations Bills
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White House Urges Congress to Pass FY 2022 Appropriations Bills

The White House is calling on Congress to reach a bipartisan agreement and pass appropriations bills for fiscal year 2022 to avoid the continuation of funding at FY 2021 levels under a continuing resolution.

The president’s FY 2022 budget proposal and appropriations measures from the House and Senate support the COVID-19 pandemic response and other public health programs, seek to address national security challenges, strengthen U.S. leadership and improve the delivery of citizen services, according to a White House fact sheet published Friday.

The president’s budget would strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness by investing $13 billion more in research and development efforts and provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with at least $1.6 billion in additional funding in support of pandemic response efforts.

Other national priorities in the appropriations bills that the administration is pursuing are ensuring defense modernization and readiness, supporting NASA’s lunar exploration program, investing in election infrastructure, combating the opioid epidemic and accelerating processing of Social Security disability benefits.

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VA to Pilot Model for Determining Hazardous Exposure
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VA to Pilot Model for Determining Hazardous Exposure

The Department of Veterans Affairs will test a military exposure model designed to reduce burdens on veterans potentially exposed to environmental hazards.

VA said Thursday it will pilot the new model to determine the association between veterans’ medical conditions and environmental hazards.

The model will build on VA claims data, military environmental research, veterans’ health outcomes and scientific input from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

The pilot will initially focus on constrictive bronchiolitis and respiratory cancers. VA will run the pilot from Nov. 15 this year to April 1, 2022, and expects to produce answers by the middle of next year.

The agency has been helping veterans exposed to chemicals including Agent Orange over the past half-year.

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Professional Services Council Provides Recommendations on Proposed Purchasing Rule; Stephanie Kostro Quoted
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Professional Services Council Provides Recommendations on Proposed Purchasing Rule; Stephanie Kostro Quoted

The Professional Services Council (PSC) has issued recommendations to help NASA, the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense better maintain competition in technology and services industries amid proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation Buy American Act. 

PSC said Thursday it made these recommendations to address possible burdens and challenges associated with the proposed amendment, which would impose new requirements.

The council advises the agencies to implement an alternative to post-award reporting requirements, and provide waivers for commercial off-the-shelf items and exemptions for commercial information technology.

Another one of the recommendations encourages the agencies to recognize that services contracts historically have not followed BAA requirements and therefore are not connected to the proposed rule.

“The FAR rule as proposed could burden both agencies and contractors—for example, complying with BAA component requirements would be immensely challenging, if not impossible, in a services context—and its implementation could undermine U.S. competitiveness in our industry sector,” said Stephanie Kostro, executive vice president for policy at PSC.

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Larry Frazier Named Iron Bow Director of Sales Strategy; Stu Strang Quoted
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Larry Frazier Named Iron Bow Director of Sales Strategy; Stu Strang Quoted

Larry Frazier, a former Cisco executive and retired U.S. Army veteran, has been tapped to lead sales strategy at Iron Bow Technologies, an information technology firm serving commercial, education and healthcare markets.

As director of sales strategy, Frazier will spearhead the execution of programmatic business, form strategic growth initiatives and drive the advancement of the company’s global sales practice, Iron Bow said Wednesday.

Stu Strang, senior vice president of Sales at Iron Bow, said Frazier’s role will be “fundamental” in accelerating the company’s innovation and transformation goals.

Of the new sales strategy director, Strang said, “His deep expertise in sales with some of the most reputable partners in the industry as well as his years of service to our country make him an invaluable addition to the team as we continue to deliver the best for our partners and customers, expand our sales team, and grow overall as a company.”

Prior to joining Iron Bow, Frazier spent nearly three years at Cisco, serving in roles including senior director of strategy and plans for the company’s workforce experience, as well as chief of staff for the office of the chief digital officer. 

Previously, Frazier also held the role of senior technical executive advisor at the Defense Information Systems Agency, and he served for over 21 years in the U.S. military. 

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Former Bloomberg Exec Kai Weidie To Lead Dentsu’s First Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Team
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Former Bloomberg Exec Kai Weidie To Lead Dentsu’s First Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Team

Kai Weidie has been selected to serve as Dentsu International’s first senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In the newly created role, Weidie will drive diversity initiatives, increase support for minority new hires and create more inclusive client campaigns across Dentsu’s media agencies in the Americas, Adweek reported Monday.

She will report to Dentsu CEO Doug Rosen and chief equity officer for Dentsu Americas, Christena Pyle.

Rosen said the role was created to reflect Dentsu’s mission to champion “meaningful progress” for its employees, its clients and the media industry, and that Weidie’s appointment as DEI executive will help ensure that diversified representation exists at the core of the company’s media plans.

“As we continue our pursuit to make real change in media, Kai’s experience challenging the status quo and tackling inclusion issues head-on in advertising will lead us into an equitable future like never before,” Rosen continued.

Weidie joins Dentsu from Bloomberg, where she served as a diversity and inclusion client partner. Previously, she also served for over two years as director of diversity and engagement at McCann New York.

The new SVP said a major component of her decision to join Dentsu was the company’s readiness and commitment to implementing new diversity and inclusion strategies.

As part of its commitment, Dentsu released its first diversity, equity and inclusion report in May to detail the firm’s focus areas and strategic framework for deploying DEI principles across all business operations.

Weidie added, “It was really important to me that I work with an organization that’s nimble and really ready to take a fresh approach.”

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Dayton University’s Research Arm Books $88M AFRL Contract for Autonomous Tech Maturation
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Dayton University’s Research Arm Books $88M AFRL Contract for Autonomous Tech Maturation

The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded the University of Dayton Research Institute an $88 million contract for autonomous technology-focused research and development efforts.

Under the Soaring Otter program, UDRI said Thursday it will work on the development, testing, evaluation and integration of autonomous systems, novel computing approaches, new application spaces, open system architectures and maturing system support.

Patrick Hytla, senior image processing engineer in UDRI’s applied sensing division, said the university will bring to Soaring Otter expertise in machine learning, neuromorphic computing and other related areas to help the U.S. Air Force improve global situational awareness, information sharing and decision making.

The university’s research arm received initial funding of $1.8 million for the program and will work on automated technologies for five years.

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