DLA program executive officer inducted into Senior Executive Service

Photo By Teodora Mocanu | DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek administers the oath of office to William Tinston, program executive officer in DLA Information Operations, as Tinston’s wife, Marci, looks on at Tinston’s induction into the Senior Executive Service June 15 at the McNamara Headquarters Complex.  

FORT BELVOIR, VA, UNITED STATES

06.18.2012

Story by Sara Moore 

Defense Logistics Agency   

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — The Defense Logistics Agency welcomed a new member into the Senior Executive Service as William Tinston, the program executive officer in DLA Information Operations, was inducted, June 15.

Tinston was appointed as the program executive officer in April after serving as the agency’s chief technical officer. He previously served as the deputy executive director of Enterprise Solutions, a global team of 3,000 DLA personnel responsible for sustaining and enhancing DLA’s information systems. In 2011, Tinston was named one of the top 100 government and industry leaders by Federal Computer Week for his work implementing eProcurement, the agency’s automated contract writing tool, and helping the agency adopt social media networks and provide secure computer access for DLA personnel in remote locations.

At the ceremony, DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek praised Tinston for his years of service to DLA, which began in 1990 when as a GS-4 he ran copy machines and duplicating equipment at the Navy Publishing and Printing Services at Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego. Since then, Tinston has held a variety of positions within the agency. In the late 1990s, he worked for the Office of the Secretary of Defense on early efforts to eliminate paper from the contracting process. Later, as the technical director and then deputy program manager of DLA’s Business Systems Modernization program, Tinston helped deliver the Defense Department’s first large-scale enterprise resource planning system.

“He was not afraid to take hard jobs, not afraid to take different jobs, and not afraid to challenge himself,” Harnitchek said of Tinston.

In addition to the billions of dollars’ worth of supplies and equipment that DLA deals in every year, another major commodity of the agency is the flow of information, Harnitchek noted, and that information is essential to ensuring warfighters get what they need, when they need it. He likened the flow of information within the logistics system to oxygen: when people have it, they rarely think about it, but as soon as it’s gone, it’s all people can think about it and it’s essential for survival.

“On the information side, you have to be perfect,” Harnitchek said. “On the fuel side, on the food side, roughly right is generally good enough, but on the information side, the flow of the information and the machines that make the information run, you have to be almost 100 percent right. Bill oversees all of the programs that have to do with the movement of our information, and, frankly, he does it superbly.”

Harnitchek noted that Tinston is living the civil servant version of the Navy’s “Seaman to admiral” program, in that he started as a GS-4 and has gone through nearly every rank on his rise to become a member of the SES.

“You are a consummate professional, a rock-solid leader, and I’m confident you will perform your new duties with the same drive, ambition and desire to do good as when you were running copy machines at Point Loma,” the admiral said to Tinston.

As the PEO, Tinston is responsible for the management and oversight of DLA’s major automated information system and special interest programs. He is the corporate provider of acquisition management services and provides overall direction and guidance for the development, acquisition, testing systems integration, product improvement and fielding for assigned DLA programs. Upon being inducted into the SES, Tinston thanked his family and many mentors and coworkers from throughout his career who helped him achieve this milestone.

• Date Taken: 06.18.2012
• Date Posted: 06.26.2012 10:08
• Story ID: 90593
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US