Key DOD nominees slated for Senate confirmation hearing

Several nominees for senior Pentagon posts are scheduled to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee next week.

On Tuesday, the committee will hear from Robert Behler, nominated to be director of operational test and evaluation; Dean Winslow, picked to be assistant secretary of defense for health affairs; Thomas Modly, nominated to be under secretary of the Navy; and James Geurts, tapped to be assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition.

Behler most recently served as chief operating officer of Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, the White House said. The retired Air Force two-star previously was president of SRC and an executive at MITRE Corp.

Winslow most recently served as professor and vice chair of medicine at Stanford University.

Modly is a managing director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' global government and public services sector and is the firm's global government defense network leader, according to the White House. He was previously deputy under secretary of defense for financial management and the first executive director of the Defense Business Board.

Geurts, a retired Air Force colonel, is currently the acquisition executive for U.S. Special Operations Command.