Pentagon’s Wennergren Retiring After 30 Years

Dave Wennergren, a Defense Department technology and management leader, has announced plans to retire in August after a 30-year federal career, Federal News Radio reported.

Emails announcing Wennergren’s Aug. 1 going-away party circulated inside the Pentagon, though no official announcement has been made.

Currently the department’s assistant deputy chief management officer reporting to Beth McGrath, Wennergren previously was deputy chief information officer. He served for five years as vice chair of the Federal CIO Council, director of the Pentagon’s Business Transformation Agency and earlier was the Navy Department’s chief information officer.

A frequent speaker at Government Executive events, Wennergren in May 2012 offered 10 observations on how the Pentagon -- particularly in information technology -- is creating a sense of urgency for change to reflect the digital revolution and the up-and-coming workforce. At a time of “financial challenges, it gets tough and people tend to hunker down so that the first things that fall off the bus are the new things,” he said. “Some of the Pentagon business systems are old, but they have constituencies and they love their babies,” he said. “We have to let some people know their babies are ugly.”