City native begins service in export post
David McCormick, the Pittsburgh native soldier, scholar and CEO, began his new life in public service as undersecretary of commerce for export administration Tuesday -- in charge of protecting U.S. technology.
The Jefferson Hills-born McCormick, who until recently had served as president of Ariba Inc. in Pittsburgh, was confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate Friday.
McCormick said he plans to bring a fresh approach to a job that balances sometimes competing interests of various government departments, private industry and foreign firms.
"I've had the great luxury of being able to prepare for my new role over the past six to eight weeks (while awaiting confirmation)," he said. "Now, the real work begins."
His office is within the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, where he will lead a staff of about 400 in offices in Washington, D.C., and around the world.
McCormick says he will work to advance the nation's free trade economic policy under President Bush while recognizing counterbalancing national security priorities.
One of the most important tasks McCormick will face involves the export of so-called dual-use goods and services, such as computer encryption technologies and chemicals that can have commercial and -- with or without some modifications -- military or intelligence applications.
"The old paradigm is that these things work against each other, in that if you're going to promote national security, it's going to come at the expense of trade," he said. "I don't see these priorities as heading in opposite directions. I see them as being part of the same objective."
McCormick declined to offer an opinion on two items that could soon be crossing his desk with local implications: the possible acquisition of Marconi Corp., the British networking equipment company whose local Data Networks division is based in Marshall, and the planned sale of Westinghouse Electric Co.'s nuclear engineering business.
The local Marconi division sells sensitive networking gear to the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. One of the companies rumored to be interested in Marconi is Huawei Technologies, a Chinese firm founded by a former general in the Chinese Army.
Meanwhile, the Independent of London reported this week that U.S. officials are urging British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to sell Westinghouse Electric to a U.S. company.
He said he couldn't comment on any cases that might come before him.
McCormick said his experience as a corporate CEO helping companies to move work offshore, and as a platoon leader in the Army during the first Gulf War, will serve him well in his new post.
He also brings academic credentials. He received a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University in 1996 and authored "The Downsized Warrior: America's Army in Transition," a book published by the New York University Press in 1998.
"As a CEO of a public company, you do a fair amount of consensus building. I think that's really what's required to promote good policies," he said.
