President-Elect Donald J Trump announced today that he has nominated the owner of the Florida Panthers NHL Franchise Vincent Viola to be the Secretary of the Army. Viola, a graduate of West Point (1977) is very involved with the army from his service with the 101 Airborne Division to funding and founding the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point after the 9/11 terror attacks. He is known to operate a military style business employee strategy basically move up or get out at Virtu Financial and with the Florida Panthers. He transformed the Panthers into a winning organization, and created a military type locker room culture. The new Panthers logo is based off an army crest and he also orchestrated the first professional hockey game at West Point on October 8, 2016 in a preseason game between Viola’s Florida Panthers and the New Jersey Devils.

My Statement on his nomination is right down here:

Viola’s nomination must be approved by the Senate. The Secretary of the Army is in charge of presenting and justifying Army policies, plans, proposals and budgets to superior cabinet officials. The Secretary of Army is in the Department of Defense. This is a huge honor for Viola because he is now in charge of the largest and most powerful military force this planet has ever known.

Vice Chairman Doug Cifu will take over Viola’s role as governor and chairman of the Florida Panthers. The ownership will stay in the Viola family. Viola’s son John was responsible for designing the new logo and Travis Viola was Vice President of Hockey Ops and the team’s representative at the 2014 NHL Draft Lottery.