John G. Grimes

Defense
John G. Grimes
Chief Information Officer (Designate)

Assuming some pension-related concerns are worked out and the Senate confirms him, John G. Grimes will become assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration and chief information officer for the Pentagon this fall.

The new job will be a return to the Defense Department for Grimes, who is vice president for intelligence and information systems at Raytheon, the Waltham, Mass.-based defense contractor. Previously, Grimes served at the Pentagon in several deputy assistant secretary positions in the early 1990s and spent 20 years as a civilian at the Army, including a stint as assistant deputy chief of staff for operations and plans of the Army Communication Command. He also served on active duty in the Air Force for four years, and is a graduate of the University of Arizona and the U.S. Army War College.

As the information chief for the largest organization in the world, Grimes will work to integrate the information systems of the Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army and supporting Defense agencies. That's no small task given that the Defense Department is fighting two wars, has operations in 6,000 locations in 146 countries and a workforce of 1.4 million active-duty military personnel, 650,000 civilians and 1.2 million members of the guard and reserves.

Instead of trying to create a single system, Grimes will oversee the development of standards for Defense systems to follow so that data and information can flow easily among the systems. "We must move to an environment where information is shared and available to those who need it in a timely manner," Grimes told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing July 28. "The development and the deployment and integration of a departmentwide information infrastructure and supporting network that is global, interoperable, secure, real-time and user friendly are critical underpinnings for its success."