Comings and Goings

A regular feature of GovExec.com, Comings and Goings announces the arrivals and departures of top federal managers and executives. To submit an announcement, e-mail it to webmaster@govexec.com or fax it to 202-739-8511.

C O M I N G S

New Postmaster General William J. Henderson has picked Jon M. Steele to become the Postal Service's acting chief operating officer and executive vice president, the position Henderson held before taking USPS' top spot. Steele, a 28-year postal employee, is head of New England postal operations.

Rear Adm. Richard A. Nelson, a senior health care executive with the Navy, has been nominated as a vice admiral and as the chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and Surgeon General in Washington. Nelson is the commander of the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif.

Robert L. Jones has been appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. He was most recently a special assistant to the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, before which he served as the national executive director of AMVETS, the nation's fourth largest congressionally-chartered veterans service organization.

G O I N G S

The Federal Aviation Administration's airline safety chief is leaving the agency. Guy Gardner, a former astronaut who took the job following the 1996 ValuJet crash in Florida, plans to become a motivational speaker.

Tom Sullivan has left the Environmental Protection Agency's congressional and intergovernmental relations office, where he handled regulatory reform, small business, enforcement and compliance concerns. Sullivan has taken a job as regulatory policy counsel at the National Federation of Independent Business.