WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rep. Michael J. Rogers (R-MI) received AFCEA International's highest honor, the David Sarnoff Award, at the association's Honors night held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on November 18. The award recognizes individuals who have made lasting and significant contributions to global peace and security. Previous Sarnoff Award winners include Gen. Keith B. Alexander, USA, commander, U.S. Cyber Command; director, NSA; and chief, Central Security Service; and James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence.
Rep. Michael J. Rogers (R-MI) (c), receives the 2014 AFCEA David Sarnoff Award from Lt. Gen. Robert M. Shea, USMC (Ret.) (r), president and chief executive officer, AFCEA International, and Linda Gooden, chair of the board, AFCEA International.
Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, USA (Ret.) (c), receives the 2014 Admiral Jon L. Boyes Medal for Distinguished Service to AFCEA from Lt. Gen. Robert M. Shea, USMC (Ret.) (l), president and chief executive officer, AFCEA International, and Linda Gooden, chair of the board, AFCEA International.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (c), former secretary general, NATO, receives the 2014 Admiral Jon L. Boyes Medal for Distinguished Service to AFCEA from Lt. Gen. Robert M. Shea, USMC (Ret.) (l), president and chief executive officer, AFCEA International, and Linda Gooden, chair of the board, AFCEA International.
Rear Adm. Robert Day, USCG (Ret.) (c), receives the 2014 AFCEA James M. Rockwell International AFCEAN of the Year Award from Lt. Gen. Robert M. Shea, USMC (Ret.) (l), president and chief executive officer, AFCEA International, and Linda Gooden, chair of the board, AFCEA International.
Maj. Gen. Koen Gijsbers, Royal Netherlands Army (Ret.) (c), receives the 2014 AFCEA James M. Rockwell International AFCEAN of the Year Award from Lt. Gen. Robert M. Shea, USMC (Ret.) (l), president and chief executive officer, AFCEA International, and Linda Gooden, chair of the board, AFCEA International.
In addition to the Sarnoff Award, AFCEA also presented the Adm. Jon L. Boyes Medal for Distinguished Service to AFCEA to Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, USA (Ret.), senior vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton, and former U.S. Army CIO/G-6; and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO secretary general. The medal recognizes individuals who have provided exceptional service to the association during their careers.
AFCEA also recognized two individuals with the 2014 James M. Rockwell International AFCEAN of the Year awards during the event. Rear Adm. Robert Day Jr., USCG (Ret.), former assistant commandant for C4IT, and former commander, Coast Guard Cyber Command; and Maj. Gen. Koen Gijsbers, Royal Netherlands Army (Ret.), general manager, NATO Communications and Information Agency. The Rockwell awards are presented for exemplary service to AFCEA over the past year.
The AFCEA International awards nominating committee comprising government and industry senior leaders in the defense and security communities chose the winners.
ABOUT THE WINNERS Rogers, who was appointed as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2011, is a leader on national security policy. In the 112th Congress, he wrote the cybersecurity bill to protect American innovation and the jobs that come with it. In addition, Rogers has been a leader in efforts to adopt an "all of the above" energy policy to end the United States' dependence on foreign oil. He has written several bipartisan measures that were signed into law, including legislation to make education savings accounts tax-free at the federal level.
While in the military, Gen. Lawrence served as the Army's chief information officer/G-6. She also served as the commanding general for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), where she had end-to-end responsibility for Army C4 and Army Enterprise IT. She held many command and staff positions during her Army career, assignments that included leading network, C4 and IT functions during recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rasmussen held numerous positions in government throughout his political career. In 1998, he became chairman of the Liberal Party's national organization and vice chairman of the Danish Parliament's Foreign Policy Board. After the parliamentary elections in 2001, he formed his first government, a coalition consisting of the Liberal Party and the Conservative People's Party. His government was re-elected in 2005 and 2007, and he held the position of prime minister until he was elected as NATO secretary general in April 2009.
Adm. Day recently retired from the U.S. Coast Guard where he was the assistant commandant for command, control, communications, computers and information technology, and commander, Coast Guard Cyber Command. The admiral was in charge of the Coast Guard's largest Electronic Systems Support Unit, ESU Boston, which provided electronics and communications support to the John F. Kennedy Jr. aircraft crash search, the Egypt Air 900 air disaster recovery and the response to the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack.
On July 1, 2012, Gen. Gijsbers became the first general manager of the newly established NATO Communications and Information Agency. Prior to this position, he spent time in the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, where he coordinated a major reorganization to implement a 15 percent budget cut, totaling 1 billion euros. During his military career, Gen. Gijsbers also was responsible for IT and business management policy at the Ministry of Defence as well as serving as chief information officer. As a member of the national CIO Board, he was responsible for information security policy for the national government and was a member of the national cyber board.
AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a non-profit membership association serving the military, government, industry and academia. The association provides ethical forums for advancing professional knowledge and relationships in the fields of communications, IT, intelligence and global security. Additional information about joining AFCEA is available online.
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