When former Ariba Inc. President David H. McCormick was approached to join the Bush administration, he seized the opportunity.

David McCormick

"It's one of those things you don't get to plan when it happens, and I decided to go for it," the new undersecretary of export administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce said on his first day on the job.

"This is an important time for the country, and I have an important role, one where I can hopefully make a difference," he said in a phone interview from his new Washington, D.C., office.

The Washington, Pa., native's first days, he said, will be spent feeling his way around the federal government, understanding the policy process and how his office interacts with Congress and other agencies. "The real challenge is for me to be engaged and become involved in all the things this bureau does."

Dr. McCormick, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers from 1987 to 1992 and is a veteran of the first Persian Gulf war, resigned as president of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ariba Inc., in June when he was nominated for the post.

As is typical with corporate executives entering government, Dr. McCormick disposed of more than half of his 71,171 shares of Ariba stock. He has 29,505 shares remaining in the company.

In the past few weeks, Dr. McCormick and his wife, Amy Richardson, have moved into a new home in McLean, Va., he said, to get their three children settled into school. Dr. McCormick succeeded Kenneth Juster, who served during the first Bush administration.

Dr. McCormick was confirmed for the job, in which he will lead Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, by the U.S. Senate on Friday.

As undersecretary, Dr. McCormick is charged with ensuring that U.S. export policy for what are known as "dual goods" -- hardware, software, chemicals and other sophisticated products that have both military and civilian uses -- doesn't undermine national security. The Bureau of Industry and Security, said Dr. McCormick, also provides research and analysis on the national security implications of foreign investments and acquisitions.

Dr. McCormick, who earned a doctorate in international affairs from Princeton in 1996, is a longtime supporter of the Republican party and the Bush administration. Most recently, he published a 2002 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times supporting President George W. Bush's efforts to depose former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

At the onset of Bush's second term, Dr. McCormick said administration officials approached him about the possibility of a political appointment.

Despite his new role in the public sector, he said he had no political aspirations, at least yet. "Where this goes is unclear. You don't go into something ... with the expectation that it's going to get you somewhere."

Prior to his yearlong stint as Ariba's president, Dr. McCormick had been chief executive officer of the locally grown technology firm FreeMarkets Inc. for two years when it was purchased by Ariba in 2004.

After the sale was complete in July 2004, Dr. McCormick, as president of the combined firm, focused his energies on melding the two companies: Ariba, a software firm helping companies with their procurement activities, and FreeMarkets, whose strength was in its fleet of consultants also assisting firms with the purchasing of supplies and services.

Since the buyout, Ariba has sputtered with less than stellar earnings and sales that analyst Peter Goldmacher of SG Cohen and Co. LLC said had been "unexciting for a while." But Ariba's performance, he added, shouldn't be a reflection on Dr. McCormick's leadership since blending two companies is an difficult process. "I think he did OK," Mr. Goldmacher said. "When you are the only company doing what they are ... you have to spend a lot of time educating your customers."

Despite the sluggish sales, Ariba customers and the stock market, Dr. McCormick said, will ultimately respond to the merger.

"I think history will bear this out," he said. "It was the right thing for shareholders and customers to sell [FreeMarkets] to Ariba."