Danet appointed DeCA’s acting deputy director
FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. – Dr. Theon Danet has been appointed acting deputy director and chief operating officer (COO) of the Defense Commissary Agency by Grier Martin, acting director and CEO, effective April 28.
Danet, a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), assumes this new position as a result of the April 30 retirement of former Deputy Director and COO, Michael Dowling, who leaves the federal government after more than 44 years of service. The process to select the next deputy director is ongoing. There is no information available on when that process will be completed.
As DeCA’s acting deputy director and COO, Danet will have directive authority for administering information technology, resource management, human resources, engineering, contracting and legislative affairs, and will assume all supervisory authorities of the deputy director position.
Jim Flannery, DeCA’s chief transformation officer and special assistant to the acting director, with directive authority, will integrate the efforts of store operations, sales & marketing, pricing, eCommerce and logistics, and will integrate transformative efforts across the agency.
This succession process will ensure the worldwide chain of nearly 240 commissaries, across 45 states and 13 countries with 14,000 employees and $4.4 billion in annual sales, continues to meet the needs of patrons across the enterprise.
Danet has served as DeCA’s Information Technology Group executive director and chief information officer (CIO) since Oct. 25, 2020. While Danet is acting deputy director and COO, her IT deputy, Michelyne LeBlanc, will serve as acting CIO effective May 1. The CIO is responsible for planning and execution of information technology investments and manages the agency’s information assurance architecture for the worldwide commissary system.
Before coming to DeCA, Danet was the deputy chief information officer (DCIO) in the Information Technology Directorate with the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) at Fort Lee, (now known as Fort Gregg-Adams) Virginia, from 2018 to 2020. She was the principal advisor to the executive director, Information Technology and CIO.
At DCMA, Danet oversaw the operation of mission critical business systems for over 12,000 employees at over 900 locations in support of DOD’s contract administration mission. She led more than 300 government and contractor personnel across six directorates in 800 locations worldwide. She spearheaded DCMA’s business model from a lines of business approach to a capability model that provided transparency in the agency’s business processes.
In addition, Danet transformed DCMA’s information technology business model from a “service provider” to a “consumer of services.” She achieved this by establishing attainable goals that included stakeholder ownership, modernizing legacy systems and driving efficient workforce shaping.
In addition to her work with the federal government, Danet has been a subject matter expert and directed high-level enterprise architecture analysis in the commercial sector. Prior to joining DCMA, she held federal government assignments including chief enterprise architect with Army G-1; chief enterprise architect with the NASA Langley Research Center; and IT webmaster for the Military Traffic Management Command.
Danet earned her Ph.D. in Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2006. She also holds an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology (2000), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Studies from University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland (1997).
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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.