DOD selects Hall as next DeCA director, CEO
FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. – The Department of Defense (DOD) announced that John E. Hall has been selected to be the new director and chief executive officer of the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). His selection is effective June 4.
Hall comes from the Pentagon where he had served as the Army assistant deputy chief of staff, G4, since 2021. He was selected for the Senior Executive Service (SES) in April 2008.
Hall takes the reins at DeCA from Grier Martin, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA), who has served as acting director since the March 31 retirement of former Director and CEO Bill Moore.
“As a career logistician, I appreciate the commissary benefit’s impact on the quality of life of our service members and their families,” Hall said. “Commissaries help sustain our military communities by providing food security through significant savings, healthy food options, clean and safe stores, convenience and premier customer service.”
As DeCA’s director and CEO, Hall will oversee the operations of a global agency, with annual sales over $4.4 billion and employing more than 14,000 people at nearly 240 commissaries across 45 states and 13 countries.
In his previous position as the Army assistant deputy chief of staff, G4, Hall served as the Army’s leading civilian authority on logistics, managing a budget of over $10 billion annually.
From 2015 to 2021, Hall was the deputy to the commanding general, U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command. In this position, he was responsible for developing and integrating Army and joint sustainment capabilities, concepts and doctrine to enable large-scale ground combat operations in a multi-domain environment.
From June through December 2021, Hall was detailed as the director of the Defense Element of the Health and Human Services (HHS)/Department of Defense COVID-19 Countermeasures Acceleration Group (CAG) where he coordinated the delivery of over 200 million vaccines and therapeutics to the American public and over 140 other nations. He also successfully transitioned the lead for this mission from DOD to HHS.
From 2011 to 2015, Hall served as the president of the Army Logistics University (ALU). There, he developed and conducted logistics military education for all Army military logistics leaders. He also trained and educated over 100,000 logistics and acquisition leaders from all services.
Hall has also served with the Defense Logistics Agency, first as executive director for Operations and Sustainment (2008-2010) and later as deputy director, Logistics Operations.
Hall has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Arkansas State University (1989), and a Masters of Arts in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, California (1991). In addition, he is a 1999 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
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About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. A core military family support element, and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.