Public, private sectors name high-level execs

The sign must have said: "Only the hard-driving, logistically inspired and tech-savvy need apply," because that's who caught the brass ring this month.

Greg Garcia was named assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications at the Homeland Security Department. He is vice president for information security programs at the Information Technology Association of America trade group in Arlington, Va., and will be the first to serve at DHS at the assistant secretary level.

Earlier appointees, most recently Amit Yoran, who lasted just a year as director of the DHS National Cyber Security Division, were much lower in the giant agency's organization.

Since DHS' beginning in early 2003, industry groups have lobbied for the role to be at the assistant secretary level.

Alion Science and Technology Corp. picked one of its own, Stacy Mendler, to be the company's first chief operating officer. Mendler, who had been Alion's executive vice president and chief administrative officer, will oversee day-to-day operations.

The Bush administration said it plans to nominate Jovita Carranza as the new deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. Carranza will join SBA after working several years at the United Parcel Service, where she most recently was a vice president of air operations.