AAP staff report
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 29, 2010) – The White House Office of the Press Secretary on Monday, said President Barack Obama intends to nominate Teresa Takai to the key administration post of Assistant Secretary for Networks and Information Integration at the Department of Defense.Since December 2007, Takai has served as Chief Information Officer for the State of California. As a member of the Governor’s cabinet, she advises him on the strategic management and direction of information technology resources as the state works to modernize and transform the way California does business with its citizens.
Prior to her appointment in California, Takai served as Director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology since 2003, where she also served as the state’s Chief Information Officer. In this position, she restructured and consolidated Michigan’s resources by merging the state’s information technology into one centralized department to service 19 agencies and over 1,700 employees.
Additionally, during her tenure at the MDIT, Takai led the state to being ranked number one four years in a row in digital government by the Center for Digital Government. Before serving in state government, Takai worked for the Ford Motor Company for 30 years, where she led the development of the company’s information technology strategic plan. She has also held positions in technology at EDS and Federal-Mogul Corporation.
In 2005, Takai was named “Public Official of the Year” by Governing magazine. She is Past-President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and currently serves as Practitioner Chair of the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government.
Takai earned a Master of Arts degree in management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan.
Takai’s appointment comes with the intention to nominated S. Leslie Ireland as Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of the Treasury; and Felicity Hannay as U.S. Commissioner on the Upper Colorado River Commission.
Ireland has been a career intelligence officer for nearly 25 years, and has held a variety of positions in the analytical, collection, interagency and policy communities, giving her a corporate perspective in addition to substantive expertise. Most recently she was intelligence briefer to President Barack Obama. Prior to that she served as the DNI Iran Mission Manager, where she was responsible for integrating collection and analysis on Iran across the Intelligence Community, identifying and filling gaps in intelligence, and planning and ensuring the implementation of strategies, among other duties.
Hannay was Deputy Attorney General for Natural Resources and Environment under then-Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar from 1999 to 2004. She previously was a partner at the Denver law firm of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP and practiced water and natural resources law throughout her entire 30-year career as an attorney.
Hannay serves on the Board of Directors of two nonprofit organizations: Friendship Bridge, which provides microcredit and educational programs to Guatemalan women; and AfricAid, which supports girls’ education in Tanzania. She received her BA from Vassar College and holds a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, where she was Editor in Chief of the Ecology Law Quarterly.
“It gives me great confidence that such talented individuals have chosen to join my administration as we confront the challenges facing our nation,” said President Obama. “I look forward to working with them for years to come.”
