WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 22, 2015) -- In recognition of their exceptional contributions to the Army, eight senior-level civilians have been honored with presidential rank awards.
The selection process for the Distinguished Executive and Meritorious Executive and Senior Professional Awards is rigorous, said Undersecretary of the Army Brad R. Carson, speaking during a Pentagon ceremony, June 22.
The awardees are an elite group of professionals, who have demonstrated the highest level of strength and integrity, and provided exceptional service over an extended period, Carson said.
"To be recognized with a presidential rank award is to be acknowledged for relentless commitment to public service," he said. "Recipients must have demonstrated success in balancing the needs and perspectives of customers, stakeholders and employees in achieving unique organizational results."
The presidential rank status is the most prestigious recognition afforded to career executives and senior professionals in the federal government. The awardees were nominated by their agency, evaluated through boards of private citizens, and approved by the president of the United States.
The Army auditor general, Randall L. Exley, is credited with providing exceptional support to Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Department of the Army and Department of the Navy. He was honored with the distinguished executive rank award.
"If you have to spend most of your life at work, you want it to be doing something meaningful," he said. "There is no greater mission than serving Soldiers who fight for us and our freedoms as well as their Families, who sacrifice for them all the time."
During his 12-year tenure as a senior executive, Exley's Army and Navy audit teams have conducted more than 1,000 audits, which have identified $9.5 billion in funds available for other uses, and found more than $100 million in fraud. Army audit teams have found $8.4 billion in efficiencies in the Army.
"It's a great honor and of course no award comes from one person; it took a whole lot of people to make it possible for me to get the award," Exley said. "I'm very proud of my whole organization and the Navy, too, because the Naval Audit Service was a part of this too."
Meritorious senior professional rank recipient Joseph N. Mait, a senior research scientist, said his work is personal. He is with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland.
"It's an honor to be recognized for a body of work," Mait said.
His research focuses on the invention and development of optical and electromagnetic sensors to extend the Army's ability to "see first and see farther." His work has improved the performance of Army imagers, allowing Soldiers to see through fog and dust, and for the detection of weapons concealed under clothing.
Mait said while he was getting his degrees he would talk with his father, who served in Vietnam, about technology available to Soldiers in the field during Vietnam.
"Often in our work and certainly in the lab, we always talk about 'the Soldier' and it's sort of an anonymous Soldier, but for me, it's not - that Soldier always has a face, so it's very personal," he said.
The distinguished executives and distinguished senior professionals received a lump-sum payment of 35 percent of their base pay, a gold pin, and a framed certificate signed by President Barack Obama.
Meritorious executives and meritorious senior professionals received a lump-sum payment of 20 percent of their base pay, a silver pin, and a framed certificate signed by the president.
2015 PRESIDENTIAL RANK AWARD RECIPIENTS:
-- Randall L. Exley, Distinguished Senior Executive, auditor general, U.S. Army, Office of the Secretary of the Army, Office of the Auditor General, Washington, D.C.
-- James C. Dalton, Distinguished Senior Executive, chief, Engineering and Construction Division, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Directorate of Civil Works, South Atlantic Division, Washington, D.C.
-- Karen L. Durham-Aguilera, Distinguished Senior Executive, director, contingency operations/chief, Homeland Security Office, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Directorate of Civil Works, Homeland Security Office, Washington, D.C.
-- Jeffery P. Holland, Distinguished Senior Executive, director of research and development/director, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi
-- Steven J. Redmann, Meritorious Senior Executive, director of management/vice director of the Army Staff, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army, Director of the Army Staff, Washington, D.C.
-- James C. Dwyer, Meritorious Senior Executive, deputy chief of staff for logistics, G-4, Headquarters, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, G-4, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama
-- Joseph D. Wienand, Meritorious Senior Executive, (retired) director, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
-- Joseph N. Mait, Meritorious Senior Professional, senior research scientist (electromagnetics), U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland
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