Obama to nominate new DHS undersecretary for management

Russell Deyo will be nominated to be the Homeland Security Department's next management czar. Danny Marti also is in line to be the next White House Intellectua...

President Barack Obama finally is filling a key management position at the Homeland Security Department.

The President plans to nominate Russell Deyo to be the undersecretary for management at DHS. Deyo would replace Rafael Borras, who left government in February to return to the private sector. Chris Cummiskey, the deputy undersecretary for management, has been acting since Borras left.

Deyo comes to the government after spending 27 years at Johnson & Johnson, where he retired from in 2012. He has limited government experience, spending seven years as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey.

During his tenure at Johnson & Johnson, Deyo served as vice president and general counsel, and as vice president of administration, where he oversaw human resources and procurement for the company.

Deyo inherits a much more mature DHS management structure. Borras pushed DHS to use data to make better decisions, and he brought senior executives together to be more collaborative over his four year tenure.

Among Deyo’s biggest challenges is to continue bringing DHS’ back-office functions closer together under the “unity of effort” approach led by Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Along with Deyo, Obama nominated Danny Marti as the new White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, replacing Victoria Espinel. Espinel left government in September 2013 to be the CEO of The Software Alliance. Howard Shelanski, the administrator in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has been performing the duties of the IPEC since Espinel left government.

Marti comes to the White House from the law firm of Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton, where he was managing partner of its Washington office.

Among Marti’s biggest challenges will be to address supply chain security challenges, creating common international norms of behavior to protect IP and the continued battle against counterfeit goods coming over the border.

The Senate must confirm both of these nominees.

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DHS management chief Borras to return to private sector

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White House IP coordinator Espinel steps down

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