Officials select acquisition regional directors Published May 27, 2008 WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- The Air Force Installation Acquisition Transformation initiative to streamline installation-level purchasing across the continental United States continued to move forward May 21 as Air Force Materiel Command named provisional directors for the new Installation Acquisition Center and the five regional Installation Acquisition Groups. Gen. Bruce Carlson, AFMC commander, selected Col. Mark Hobson as the provisional director of the Installation Acquisition Center here at Wright-Patterson AFB. The IAC will provide strategic guidance and vision to the Installation Acquisition Groups, and the IAGs will be aligned under the IAC. The following people were selected as provisional commanders and directors at the following locations: Col. Steve Elliott, 788th IAG, St. Louis Lt. Col. Todd Pospisil, 787th IAG, Warner Robins, Ga. Col. Kurt Stonerock, 789th IAG, San Antonio Col. Harold Cunningham, 790th IAG, Colorado Springs, Colo. Col. Nannette Benitez, 786th IAG, Hampton Roads, Va. Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne approved the IAT concept in August 2007 and charged AFMC officials to lead the initiative. The IAT mission is to transform installation acquisition and contracting to strategically support the warfighter. The provisional directors will oversee strategic sourcing for goods and services purchased by Air Force base officials within their regions, leveraging scarce dollars and enhancing relationships with suppliers, including small businesses. Each IAG will be staffed mostly by contracting experts and other stakeholders in the sourcing process, with five full-time small-business experts assigned to each region. The IAGs will execute strategic sourcing activities to better leverage Air Force buying power. "Strategic sourcing is an overall strategy that will allow the Air Force to review where and how it spends money and then determine the most efficient way to acquire the right products and services to meet our customers' needs," said Marie McManus, IAT program manager at the AFMC contracting directorate. "With strategic sourcing we are going to simplify the purchasing of similar products and services while reducing the number of man hours used and the number of contracts needed." While each installation still will have a contracting office or installation contracting squadron, that office or squadron will have a reduced size and scope. Ms. McManus, the ICS will be responsible for performing limited contracting actions and providing advisory services to installation customers and local service providers. Squadrons at each base will continue to report to installation commanders. Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page