So, you need a new Bob Work?

The "Under," like the Deputy Director of the CIA, it is a job with a lot more heft and importance than you'd think just by the title.

Agree or disagree with the former Undersecretary of the Navy on a specific issue if you like, there are a few things that are not in dispute; Bob Work had spent decades thinking hard and deep about the requirements of the being the premier naval power. He had the "street cred," was not afraid to engage his opponents, and had a depth of knowledge and passion about issues he knew intimately and instinctively. When he spoke, you listened closely. He was creative friction in the best meaning of the phrase.

If you were going to disagree with Bob Work - which by the way he was fine with - then you better do your homework. You had to respect the man's knowledge of his craft. People understood that from day-1 he was in office. Indeed, that is why he was chosen.

What was Bob Work's back-o-the-napkin CV before he became The Under?
- NROTC type, commissioned as a 2LT in the USMC in 1974.
- 27 years active duty service in the Marines. Commanded an artillery battalion, then Camp Fuji.
- The first head of the Marine Corps' Strategic Initiatives Group.
- Military Assistant and Special Aide to United States Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig; retired as a Colonel in 2001.
- Spent the 2000s at CBSA and played around at Georgetown, ONA, and OSD - including work on the 2006 QDR.
- Worked with the Obama transition team and served four years with energy and verve as The Under.
- More of a paper trail than you have time to read.

Well, the job has been gapped for awhile. Amazing, but the SECNAV had his reasons.

We now know who will take the parking space;

Jo Ann Rooney, a former university president and Massachusetts financial attorney with two years’ experience (sic) in the Pentagon, has been nominated to become undersecretary of the Navy, the No. 2 position in the Navy Department.

OK, let's get her back-o--the-napkin CV treatment.

- OCT 12 - present; Huron Consulting Group as a managing directors in the Huron Healthcare practice out of, ahem, Chicago.
- JUN/OCT 11 to JUN 12; Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (acting): 8-months.
- JUL 10 to DEC 10; Mount Ida College, President. Student body 1,300.
- 2002 to 2010; Spalding University, President. Student body 2,000.
- 1996 to 2002; chief counsel, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and partner of The Lyons Companies in Waltham, Mass. That firm maintained a national practice specializing in estate planning, capital advising, charitable planning, executive compensation, business succession planning, and benefits planning and administration for corporations, individuals and nonprofit organizations.
- Prior to that she was a tax lawyer.

Do with this what you will; I'm done.

I've spent a fair bit of time to see where she is coming from intellectually, and what she has been working on that will serve the Navy well as The Under.

No joy.