Kern joins Anteon's board

The former commanding general of the Army Materiel Command is now a member of the board of directors of Anteon International Corp. of Fairfax, Va.

Paul J. Kern retired from the command in November 2004, ending a 40-year Army career. In addition to sitting on Anteon's board, Kern also works as a senior counselor at the Cohen Group of Washington.

While at the Army Materiel Command, Kern saw information technology as a way to build a more rapidly deployable and efficient force. He led a drive to transform the command, which included placing a larger emphasis on Web-based systems and integrating logistics functions into the Defense Department's Global Information Grid (GIG).

The GIG is DOD's classified and unclassified network backbone.

"We have been talking about building a more rapidly deployable and more efficient force for the last 50 years. The only way we can do that is with IT," Kern once said in an interview with PostNewsweek Tech Media.

Kern, of West Orange, N.J., graduated from the U.S. Military Academy. He earned master's degrees in both civil and mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. He also was a senior security fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.