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The White House

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 7-30-09

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  July 30, 2009

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:
  • Frank Kendall III, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, Department of Defense
  • Daniel Werfel, Controller, Office of Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget
  • Susan Tsui Grundmann, Chairman, Merit Systems Protection Board
  • Anne M. Wagner, Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, with the Designation of Vice Chair
President Obama said, "I am grateful that these fine individuals will be filling these important posts in my administration, and I and look forward to working with them to serve the American people at this important time for our nation."

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:
Frank Kendall III, Nominee for Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, Department of Defense
Frank Kendall is currently a Managing Partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, an Arlington, Virginia based aerospace and defense sector consulting firm.  Mr. Kendall has over 35 years of experience in engineering, management, defense acquisition and national security affairs in private industry, government and the military.  For the past decade Mr. Kendall had been a consultant to defense industry firms, non-profit research organizations, and the Department of Defense in the areas of strategic planning, engineering management, and technology assessment.  For the past several years Mr. Kendall has also been very active as an attorney in the field of human rights, working primarily on a pro bono basis.  He has worked with Amnesty International USA, where he is currently a member of the Board of Directors, Human Rights First, for whom he has been an observer at Guantanamo, and for the Tahirih Justice Center, where he is currently Chair of the Board of Directors.  Within government, Mr. Kendall held the position of Director of Tactical Warfare Programs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the position of Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategic Defense Systems.  Mr. Kendall was Vice President of Engineering for Raytheon Co, where he was responsible for management direction to the engineering functions throughout the company and for internal research and development. Mr. Kendall also spent ten years on active duty with the Army, serving in Germany, as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at West Point, and in research and development positions.  Mr. Kendall is a former member of the Army Science Board and the Defense Intelligence Agency Science and Technology Advisory Board and he is currently a consultant to the Defense Science Board and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Mr. Kendall was born in Pittsfield, MA.  He is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and he holds a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from California Institute of Technology, a Master of Business Administration Degree from C.W Post Center of Long Island University, and a Juris Doctoris from Georgetown University Law Center.
Daniel Werfel, Nominee for Controller, Office of Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget
Daniel Werfel has been the Deputy Controller at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) since March of 2006.  Previously, he served as the Chief of the Financial Integrity and Analysis Branch within OMB, as a budget examiner in OMB's Education Branch, and as a policy analyst in OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.  Mr. Werfel has also served as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Mr. Werfel holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Duke University, a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelors Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Susan Tsui Grundmann, Nominee for Chairman, Merit Systems Protection Board
Since 2002, Susan Tsui Grundmann has served as General Counsel to the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), which represents 100,000 federal workers nationwide and is affiliated with the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).  At NFFE, she has successfully litigated cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  In 2004, Ms. Grundmann represented NFFE and other labor unions in the statutory "meet and confer" process with officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which sought agreement on how to proceed with new DHS personnel regulations.  She currently represents NFFE and the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, consisting of 36 labor unions, and has served on the Coalition’s litigation team in a coordinated response to the proposed personnel changes at Department of Defense (DoD).   In addition to DoD employees, Ms. Grundmann represents employees in the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Passport Services, Veterans Administration, General Services Administration, and some 25 additional federal agencies.  Since 2003, she has been a regular instructor on federal sector law at the William W. Winpisinger Education Center in Placid Harbor, Maryland.  Prior to joining NFFE, she served as General Counsel to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).  She earned her undergraduate degree at American University and her law degree at Georgetown University Law Center. 
Anne M. Wagner, Nominee for Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, with the Designation of Vice Chair
Anne Wagner is currently the General Counsel of the Personnel Appeals Board of the U.S. Government Accountability Office.  As General Counsel, she has vigorously prosecuted prohibited personnel practices and other violations of federal employment law.  Prior to that, she served a five year statutory term as an adjudicating Member of the Personnel Appeals Board having been appointed to that position by the Comptroller General of the United States.  Ms. Wagner began her career as a staff attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the General Services Administration, where she primarily handled labor and employment issues.  From there, she went on to become an Assistant General Counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, the largest federal sector labor organization representing more than 600,000 federal and District government employees.  In her nearly twenty years with AFGE, she led precedent setting litigation and handled cases arising under the full array of laws governing federal employment.   Ms. Wagner graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.