Col. Speaks About State of the BES

In December, the chapter hosted a luncheon featuring guest speaker Col. Ronald Jobo, USAF, at Wynlakes Country Club in Montgomery, Alabama. Col. Jobo, deputy program executive officer (PEO), Business and Enterprise Systems (BES), spoke to a full house of military, industry and government personnel on the topic "State of the BES." Col. Jobo emphasized the crucial role of the BES in sustaining and managing more than 165 U.S. Air Force applications and centered his discussion around the potential new mantra for the PEO BES: "Without the PEO BES, the USAF will grind to a halt." He also briefly discussed BES priorities for 2015, dividing them into three subgroups: programmatic, strategic and technical. Col. Jobo mentioned that Robert Shofner, USAF, PEO BES, is heavily involved in the Secretary of the Air Force's "Bending the Cost Curve" initiative regarding Air Force spending on information technology. He mentioned a strong push for one information technology infrastructure across the Defense Department, a road map for this infrastructure and migration details to include how BES-managed applications function within this infrastructure. Col. Jobo also mentioned the importance of understanding potential challenges as well as effects of the Air Force acquisition reorganization effort, which should help customers gain deeper insight as opposed to program oversight. Finally, he discussed the critical need for BES personnel to demonstrate programmatic efficiencies that save money, which can then be filtered back into other Air Force systems. The audience then engaged in a brief question-and-answer session with Col. Jobo. The chapter also conducted annual board nominations and voting for the upcoming year. All nominations were approved by the group, and the following individuals will represent the Montgomery Chapter as of January 1: Eric Sloan, chapter president; Master Sgt. Neil Stewart, USAF, chapter vice president; Kameke Mitchell, Young AFCEA Advisory Council chapter president; Charisse Stokes, director, Education Foundation; Candace Akerson, chapter secretary; and Cheryl Brown, chapter treasurer. The chapter is proud to welcome all new and returning officers and extends thanks to Col. Jobo for donating his time to speak at the final luncheon of 2014.

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