Navy Names Wennergren CIONavy Names Wennergren CIO

The U.S. Navy has promoted David Wennergren to CIO. Wennergren, who'll manage an IT budget of $6 billion, had been deputy CIO for enterprise integration and security for the past few years. He replaces Dan Porter, who retired after 30 years of federal service, including the last four years as Navy CIO.

As deputy CIO, Wennergren has advocated privatizing IT services and partnering with other agencies on IT projects, a philosophy that fits well with the Bush administration's outsourcing goals and interagency E-government initiatives. He has chaired a government group that oversaw the rollout of smart cards across the Defense Department. The Navy alone has distributed smart cards to 1 million employees.

Before joining the CIO's office, Wennergren was attached to the Naval Operations-Logistics Office, where he managed a continuing Navy program to reduce infrastructure costs.

Porter this week joined IT services firm R.M. Vredenburg Co. as senior VP for strategic development. Under his watch, the Navy became among the first federal departments to use reverse auctions to buy goods. At Vredenburg, Porter will help the IT firm expand into homeland-security and acquisition-management products.