General assumes a new command

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Retired Maj. Gen. Rob Bongiovi has been named president of Alexandria-based Robbins-Gioia LLC's defense division.

Robbins-Gioia provides management consulting services to government and corporate clients.

Gen. Bongiovi joined the company in 2003 after serving 32 years in the U.S. Air Force. He previously was the company's senior vice president for Air Force programs, during which he was responsible for overseeing the delivery of services to its Air Force customers.

In his new role, Gen. Bongiovi is in charge of Robbins-Gioia's defense business.

"The business development activities that were separate from me have all been brought under me for the entire defense division," he said.

Searching for growth opportunities in the various joint commands of the Department of Defense is one of Gen. Bongiovi's goals, he said.

Gen. Bongiovi's new role also consolidates management of all the Pentagon's depots where military equipment is modified and refurbished. He said the Army depots are being "saturated with equipment coming back" because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and he wants to help them "deal with that surge of activity."

Another challenge of his new job is helping the Air Force as it deals with a budget shortfall in excess of $3 billion, while "slowly moving into the activity of joint commands of defense agencies," he said.

Gen. Bongiovi will be managing a team of approximately 300 as president of the defense division. He described his management style as being team-oriented.

"I'm very focused on teamwork," he said.

Gen. Bongiovi's military experience will make him an asset to Robbins-Gioia's defense division, according to Jim Leto, president and chief executive officer.

"He has a fundamental operating knowledge of all the commands" of the Department of Defense, Mr. Leto said.

The majority of Gen. Bongiovi's military experience was in project management. His roles have included serving on the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Task Force, serving as vice commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and as deputy director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in Fort Belvoir, Va.

Gen. Bongiovi said he has managed groups with staffs of 500 to 2,000 people and budgets ranging from $100 million to $2 billion.

He and his wife, Betty, live in Centerville, Ohio. They have a son, a daughter and three grandchildren.

-- Andrew Johnson