Assistant Secretary

The state Department of Business and Economic Development has tapped a longtime Baltimore area development official to serve as its assistant secretary for regional development. Robert Hannon will be responsible for business development and retention throughout the state. He will also be in charge of strengthening the state's relationship with local jurisdictions. Hannon will oversee 55 employees who work in five regional offices and the department's Baltimore headquarters. DBED officials said Hannon, who was most recently executive director of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development, brings a wide range of development experience to his new position.

Preston W. Wenzing, 53, window installer, veteran Preston Warren Wenzing, a former window installer and Air Force veteran, died Tuesday of emphysema at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore. He was 53. Mr. Wenzing had worked for more than 20 years as a window installer for Banner Glass Inc. before retiring several years ago. Born in Edmondson Village, he attended Edmondson High School before enlisting in the Air Force in 1967. He served as a mechanic in Vietnam until he was discharged in 1970.

JAMES P. Rubin -- flamboyant, articulate and telegenic -- put a personal, permanent stamp on the role of State Department spokesman. The position will never be the same again. That is not necessarily a good thing. Traditionally, the department spokesman was just that -- someone who read aloud what had been written by the people who actually made the policy. That practice had already been disappearing when Mr. Rubin appeared on the scene nearly four years ago. In the tenure of James A. Baker as secretary of state, his spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler, pioneered the advent of politico-diplomats who enunciated foreign policy but also acted as political flack for the boss.

A one-time business adviser to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell has been named as the assistant secretary of business development for Maryland. The Board of Public Works approved yesterday the hiring of Daniel C. Gundersen, who will oversee efforts to market Maryland as a location for businesses from other states and countries. He will head one of five divisions of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and oversee a staff of 60. Gundersen, who has been working for the department without a contract for a month, will be paid a salary of $98,500.

WASHINGTON -- When Susan Rice left the White House last year to become one of the youngest-ever assistant secretaries of state, she got a gag gift of a Zulu warrior's shield and club for the turf battles ahead.Rice was already armed with plenty of brass."Sometimes I'm a little too upfront and straightforward for some people's liking," she admits, brandishing the confidence that comes with an extraordinary academic record, a lifelong friendship with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and the star quality that clings to a stylish African-American woman unafraid to be the smartest person in the room.

Office technology - voice mail, the Internet, Powerpoint and Excel - is making the secretary obsolete.In white-walled suites throughout America, computer programs such as Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite have put more power to manage and organize into the hands of workers who once were hired chiefly to take shorthand and answer phones.Today, they say, they have become office professionals.For example, Roxanne Rehak, an executive assistant at Sylvan Learning Systems, prepares Powerpoint audiovisual presentations for two company presidents and organizes arrangements for hundreds of vendors at the company's annual convention.

Mary Burkholder, Annapolis' former economic development director, yesterday was appointed assistant secretary for marketing in the state's economic development agency.Burkholder, 36, has been with Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development since last year and takes over from Victor Hoskins, who earlier this week was named deputy commissioner of Baltimore's Department of Housing and Community Development."Mary has demonstrated a real aggressiveness in pursuing opportunities," said James Brady, DBED's secretary.

ASHKELON, Israel -- The Israeli soldiers at the firing range of Training Camp 4 waited for a woman in green army fatigues to rap them on the back. When she did, Cpl. Efrat Sarfaty also barked an order.An anxious recruit responded by jamming an ammunition magazine into his rifle, swinging into position and firing -- as if at a terrorist. When he hesitated an instant too long, Sarfaty shouted: "Go on! Go on!""They are afraid of me," the 20-year-old said matter-of-factly, her eyes scanning the line of soldiers.

Stephen Lynch, a seasoned banker who became assistant secretary for finance of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development a little more than a year ago, has told state officials that he will resign in the spring.Lynch "will be leaving following the legislative session to pursue other interests," said Charles Porcari, spokesman for the economic development department.One of several assistant secretaries who run major pieces of DBED's programs, Lynch could not be reached for comment.

William Manning Rountree, 78, a veteran diplomat who served under six presidents and was an ambassador to Pakistan, Sudan, South Africa and Brazil, died Friday in Gainesville, Fla. He also was assistant secretary of state for Near East, South Asia and African affairs in his 38 years of government service. He was a top aide to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and was awarded the State Department Superior Service Award for helping negotiate the admission of Greece and Turkey into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.