Obama to nominate Ash Carter for Defense Secretary Friday morning

WASHINGTON– President Barack Obama makes it official on Friday morning and nominates Ash Carter to be the next Defense Secretary, to replace current Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is being eased out of the job. A White House official confirmed Obama will name Carter at 9 a.m. Chicago time from the White House.

Ash Carter Bio, from the White House…

Ash Carter is a distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also a Senior Executive at the Markle Foundation, helping the Markle Economic Future Initiative advance transformative strategies that use technology to enable all Americans to flourish in the economy of a networked world.

Ash was Deputy Secretary of Defense from October 2011 to December 2013, serving as DOD’s chief operating officer overseeing more than $600 billion per year and 2.4 million civilian and military personnel, and managing global 24/7 operations. From April 2009 to October 2011, he was Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics with responsibility for procurement of all technology, systems, services, and supplies, bases and infrastructure, energy and environment, and more than $50 billion annually in R&D.

Previously, Ash was Professor and Chair of the International Relations, Science, and Security faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Ash has also been a member of the Defense Policy Board, the Defense Science Board, and Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group.

From 1993-1996, Ash served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, responsible for policy regarding the former Soviet states, strategic affairs, and nuclear weapons policy. He previously was a physics instructor at Oxford, a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University and M.I.T., and an experimental research associate at Brookhaven and Fermilab National Laboratories. Ash earned his bachelor’s degrees in physics and in medieval history from Yale University in 1976, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University in 1979, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

For his service to national security, Ash has on several occasions been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Department’s highest recognition. He received the Defense Intelligence Medal for his contributions to intelligence and the Joint Distinguished Service Medal from the Chairman and Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate for both the Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary positions.

Ash is author or co-author of 11 books and more than 100 articles on physics, technology, national security, and management.

A native of Philadelphia, Ash is married to Stephanie Carter and has two children, Will and Ava.

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