Pentagon fills key slot in business transformation agency

Defense officials have selected Army Major Gen. Carlos "Butch" Pair to serve as business systems acquisition executive in a recently created agency designed to bring the Pentagon's business modernization programs under one roof.

Pair, the chief of staff at the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, will be a key member of the Business Transformation Agency's leadership team, said Paul Brinkley, Defense deputy undersecretary for business transformation.

"He will be directly responsible for the executive oversight of the [department's] enterprise-level [acquisition] programs," Brinkley told Government Executive Wednesday. "There are a series of key initiatives … that the department is unifying under his leadership."

Those initiatives include the Defense Travel System, the Defense Cash Accountability System, the Automated Purchase System and the Standard Procurement System.

At the Transportation Command, Pair worked under Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz in coordinating all staff activities of the transportation and distribution support organization, according to his official biography.

Pair, who will join the Defense transformation agency on Nov. 14, is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the National Defense University Strategic Leader's course and Syracuse University's National Strategic Leaders course.

Prior to his position at Transportation Command, Pair was deputy commander of the Military Traffic Management Command in Alexandria, Va. He graduated from Alabama's Jackson State University with a degree in business administration.

The Defense Department budgeted $4.2 billion in fiscal 2006 for business transformation efforts, of which $777.7 million is slated to go to departmentwide projects. The fiscal 2007 budget numbers are projected to drop slightly, to $4.19 billion overall, with $739.5 million allocated for departmentwide efforts.

Pair will not be responsible for all Defense business transformation projects, according to Thomas Modly, Defense deputy undersecretary for financial management. Rather, he will handle those that extend across the military services. He will report directly to the transformation agency's chief.

"We are breaking down those functional stovepipes," Modly said. "One of the areas that we're trying to reinforce with this group is you need to think about the enterprise."

Modly and Brinkley are leading the new agency until a permanent director is found.

Brinkley said that "senior people" from the military, civilian agencies and private sector will be considered for the director job. The department hopes to fill the position within a year, he said. He acknowledged, however, that it could take up to 18 months to find the "appropriate person."

The Defense Department's 164-page enterprise transition plan, delivered to Congress Sept. 30, provides a roadmap for improving support to warfighters and increasing financial transparency and accountability, Brinkley said.

Modly said that the department remains opposed to appointing a person to serve in a senior-level management-focused position for a seven-year term, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office, but recognizes the need for continuity in the Pentagon's business management transformation efforts.

"That's a thing that's necessary … to make that more of an institutional thing rather than something that's depended on either personalities or the political changes that can happen at the top," Modly said.