Secretary Gates announced this week that he has appointed Ms. Teri Takai to be the department’s new Chief Information Officer (CIO).  Ms. Takai has been serving as California’s CIO since 2007.  Prior to that post, she was the Director of the Department of Information Technology and CIO for the state of Michigan and worked 30 years for the Ford Motor Company.  Ms. Takai was nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD (NII)) in March, but her nomination was withdrawn as DoD reevaluated the CIO organization.  Secretary Gates disestablished NII and the need for an ASD (NII) position in his savings initiatives in August.  At that time he expressed frustration with the department’s proliferation of IT bureaucracies and the lack of economies of scale in operations.  Ms. Takai will serve as acting ASD (NII) while the Department transitions to a new CIO organization.  Former NII functions are expected to go to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) under a stronger CIO.  According to a press release, she “will help lead the effort to disestablish NII and define the successor CIO organization."  In other personnel moves in the new CIO office, Secretary Gates announced that Cheryl Roby, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (NII) has been assigned as chief of staff to the new CIO and Robert Casey, former director of strategy and policy for the 10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command, Fort Meade, MD, will be the new deputy CIO.