People on the Move

• Feb 18, 2005

Carlos Solari, who spent the last 2 1⁄2 years as White House CIO, left last week to return to industry.

He plans to reopen his consulting firm, Solari Innovations Inc. in Shenandoah, Va., he said.

Solari previously spent more than 20 years in federal service, including 13 years in the Army and seven with the FBI's Criminal IT Investigative Division. After working in industry, he returned to government service for the White House CIO post.

President Bush has nominated Transportation Department chief financial officer Linda Combs to be controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management at the Office of Management and Budget. Combs will replace Linda Springer.

Combs currently is CFO and assistant secretary of Transportation for budget and programs. The Senate must approve her nomination.

She previously was CFO at the Environmental Protection Agency and during President George H.W. Bush's administration was assistant secretary for management and CFO at the Treasury Department.

John Thomas Flynn, the first CIO for Massachusetts and California, is vying for a congressional seat representing California's 5th District.

Flynn announced last month that he will run for the seat formerly held by Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Calif.), who died suddenly Jan. 1 of pneumonia complicated by a rare blood disorder.

The 55-year-old Republican businessman joins a field of 12 candidates for the open seat, which represents the state capital of Sacramento. A special election is slated for March 8.

OMB has named deputy secretary of Labor Steven J. Law to be chairman of the President's Management Council's E-Government Subcommittee. He replaces Samuel Bodman, who became Energy secretary earlier this month.

As subcommittee chairman, Law oversees the e-government part of the President's Management Agenda. The subcommittee deals with funding, disagreements and overall direction of e-government efforts.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has named Alfred Schenck acting program manager for its Net-Centric Enterprise Services initiative.

The job became vacant when DISA reassigned the former NCES program manager, Betsy Appleby, to its Strategic Planning and Information Directorate.

Meanwhile, Henry M. Beebe, DISA's systems engineering transformation executive, is taking over as technical adviser for NCES.

Both Beebe and Schenck will report to Debra Filippi, NCES program director.

Emily Murphy is the General Services Administration's new chief acquisition officer.

Murphy was acting associate administrator for government contracting at the Small Business Administration. She replaces Karl Reichelt, who left for an industry job in November.