Roster change

The Senate, by a vote of 98-0 on Aug. 2, confirmed Robert Mueller to be FBI director. Mueller has served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California and has a reputation for being a tough but effective manager. He inherits a troubled law enforcement agency rocked by spying, misplaced files, lost or stolen weapons, and other problems.

For more, see "Mueller confirmed with IT mandate" [FCW.com, Aug. 3, 2001]

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Army Lt. Gen. Paul Kern has been nominated for appointment to the grade of general with assignment as commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Alexandria, Va. Kern is serving as the military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, Washington, D.C., where he is active in the Army's transformation projects.

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Reginald Brown was sworn in as the assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs July 31. Brown is responsible for the overall supervision of manpower, personnel and reserve component affairs for the Department of the Army.

Among his areas of responsibility are Army organization and force structure, readiness and mobilization, training and education, recruiting and advertising, military compensation, military and civilian manpower, personnel policy and health affairs.

Formerly, Brown served at the U.S. Agency for International Development as assistant administrator for the Near East, managing foreign aid programs in North Africa and the Middle East. Earlier, he had served as assistant administrator for program and policy coordination, managing USAID's budget and policy process.

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Bill Bunting has been appointed meteorologist in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service Forecast Office in Fort Worth, Texas, the agency announced July 31. Bunting replaces Gifford "Skip" Ely, who retired. NWS has 121 forecast offices throughout the country.

Bunting will supervise a staff of 26 forecasters, technicians and support personnel. His responsibilities include all forecasts, as well as weather advisories, watches and warnings for the 46 northern Texas counties served by the NWS office in Fort Worth.

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Al Decker and Rebecca Whitener, co-founders of the security and privacy services firm Fiderus and former IBM Corp. executives, have joined Electronic Data Systems Corp., the company announced last week.

Decker is now director of EDS Global Security and Privacy Services and will report to Brad Rucker, executive director of EDS bluesphere. Decker has global responsibility for EDS' efforts in online security and privacy, and is charged with expanding the company's presence in the security and privacy market. Decker was most recently chief executive officer at Fiderus.

Whitener is now director of EDS' Privacy Services practice. Other Fiderus professionals are joining Decker and Whitener at EDS, which has more than 350 security and privacy consultants. There was no consideration to Fiderus for this transaction.