William J. Lynn III | |
---|---|
29th Deputy Secretary of Defense | |
In office February 12, 2009 – October 5, 2011 |
|
President | Barack Obama |
Secretary |
Robert Gates Leon Panetta |
Preceded by | Gordon R. England |
Succeeded by | Ashton Carter |
Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) | |
In office November 19, 1997 – January 20, 2001 |
|
President | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | John Hamre |
Succeeded by | Dov S. Zakheim |
Personal details | |
Born |
Key West, Florida |
January 1, 1954
Spouse(s) | Mary Murphy |
Alma mater |
Dartmouth College Cornell Law School Princeton University |
William J. Lynn III (born January 1, 1954) is a former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. Before that he was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and a lobbyist for Raytheon.
Lynn graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976, and later studied at Cornell Law School to receive his law degree in 1980 and graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1982 with an M.A. in public affairs. After this he was employed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he was the executive director of the Defense Organization Project from 1982 to 1985. That last year he published the book Toward a More Effective Defense. At some point in time he was a senior fellow studying strategic nuclear forces and arms control at the National Defense University's Strategic Concepts Development Center, and went on to be the legislative counsel for defense and arms control matters for Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy between 1987 and 1993. During this time he also worked as Kennedy's staff representative on the Committee on Armed Services.
Lynn later worked as an assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Budget, and in April 1993 joined the office of the Secretary of Defense (then Les Aspin) to be director for program analysis and evaluation. On October 21, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Lynn to be Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), and after a Senate confirmation on November 13, he was sworn in on November 19.