President Announces Picks for Senior Pentagon Posts
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2017 — Patrick M. Shanahan of Boeing Co. is President Donald J. Trump’s choice to succeed
Bob Work as deputy defense secretary, White House officials announced today.
The
announcement also lists the president’s intention to nominate five other people for senior civilian positions at the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement that all are “highly qualified individuals” who were personally recommended by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Mattis is grateful to Work for agreeing to continue serving until Shanahan is confirmed by the Senate, Davis said. Work’s steady leadership, he added, “is critical during this time of transition, and Secretary Mattis continues to have full confidence in him as he carries out crucial work in managing in the department."
Shanahan, from Washington state, is Boeing’s senior vice president for supply chain and operations, responsible for oversight of the company's manufacturing operations and supplier management functions. He came to that position from Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where he served as senior vice president of airplane programs and oversaw the management of profit and loss for the 737, 747, 767, 777 and 787 programs.
Previously, Shanahan was vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems and vice president and general manager for Rotorcraft Systems in Philadelphia, where he was responsible for all U.S. Army Aviation, including the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, and the CH-47 Chinook and the AH-64D Apache helicopters.
Shanahan is a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow, Society of Manufacturing Engineers Fellow, and an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate Fellow. He serves as a Regent at the University of Washington and participates in numerous professional and charitable organizations, including the Washington Roundtable. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington and two advanced degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Other Selections
Selectees for other senior Pentagon posts include:
-- Robert Daigle, of Virginia, selected to serve as DoD’s director of cost assessment and program evaluation. Daigle previously served in CAPE during the Bush administration as director of program resources and information systems management. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and mathematics from the University of Vermont. He was granted an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School and a Master of Science degree in international security studies from Georgetown University. Daigle is a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee and was the executive director of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. He previously served in the Army.
-- Elaine McCusker of Virginia, selected to serve as principal deputy undersecretary of defense, comptroller. McCusker is the director of resources and analysis for Headquarters
U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. Previously, she served as a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, with the Navy Department and with the DoD comptroller’s office. McCusker previously worked in the private sector and the academic community, including with Argonne National Laboratory/Department of Energy and the University of Washington.
-- David L. Norquist of Virginia, selected to serve as undersecretary of defense, comptroller. Norquist is a partner with Kearney and Company, a certified public accounting firm. He has 27 years of experience in federal financial management, beginning as a federal employee in 1989 with the Army Department. He also has served on the professional staff of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee and as deputy undersecretary of defense in the DoD comptroller’s office. He was the first Senate-confirmed chief financial officer for the
Department of Homeland Security, where he established a formal process to eliminate pervasive weaknesses in DHS's financial statement and put the department on its path to a clean audit opinion. Norquist attended the University of Michigan, where he received both a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Master of Public Policy degree in 1989. He also received a Master of Arts degree in national security studies from Georgetown University in 1995. He is a certified government financial manager.
-- Kenneth P. Rapuano of Virginia, selected to serve as an assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security. Rapuano has a long career in national security and homeland security affairs in the private, public and academic sectors. He currently serves as senior vice president and director of the Studies and Analysis Group at the ANSER Corp., and previously led the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute. Rapuano served as White House deputy homeland security advisor from 2004 to 2006, has served in numerous roles with the departments of Energy and Defense, and has deployed numerous times on active and reserve duty with the Marine Corps and as a civilian with the Defense Department.
-- David Joel Trachtenberg of Virginia, selected to serve as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy. Trachtenberg is the president and CEO of Shortwaver Consulting LLC, a national security consultancy. Prior to this role, he was vice president and head of the strategic analysis division at CACI-National Security Research. Trachtenberg previously served in several roles at the Defense Department, most recently as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, where he was responsible for issues relating to NATO, Europe, Russia and Eurasia; technology security; counterproliferation; missile defense; nuclear forces; and arms control. Trachtenberg also was a professional staff member with the House Armed Services Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.
