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Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

HENRY A. OBERING III, Chair, is a Booz Allen Hamilton executive vice president. An expert in acquisition and program management, he works with aerospace clients in the Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Prior to joining Booz Allen Hamilton, he led a comprehensive review of the National Reconnaissance Office for the Director of National Intelligence that provided a new charter for that organization. Mr. Obering retired from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as a lieutenant general with more than 35 years of experience in space and defense systems development, integration, and operations. He served as director of the 8,500-person Missile Defense Agency (MDA). He was the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition executive for the nation’s $10 billion per year missile defense portfolio. In addition, he served as the program manager for the Ballistic Missile Defense System. Prior to his assignment at MDA, he planned and programmed 68 joint Air Force and international programs with a $28 billion budget as mission area director for information dominance on the Air Staff. Mr. Obering entered the Air Force in 1973 after completing the University of Notre Dame’s ROTC program as a distinguished graduate. He received his pilot wings in 1975 and flew operational assignments in the F-4E. Later, he was assigned to the Space Shuttle Program and participated in 15 space shuttle launches as a NASA orbiter project engineer and was responsible for integrating firing room launch operations. Other assignments include tours with the Air Force Inspector General, the Defense Mapping Agency, and the Electronic Systems Center. Mr. Obering has twice earned DoD’s highest noncombat award, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal for leadership. He was honored by the National Defense Industrial Association’s

Missile Defense Division with the 2011 Kadish Award for Acquisition Excellence. He received an M.S. in astronautical engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

LAWRENCE J. DELANEY, Vice Chair, retired as chairman of the board of trustees of Clarkson University in October 2015. He has been the acting Secretary and acting Under Secretary of the Air Force. Dr. Delaney also served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, as well as the Air Force’s service acquisition executive, responsible for all Air Force research, development, and acquisition programs and activities and chief information officer of the Air Force. He provided direction, guidance, and supervision of all matters pertaining to the formulation, review, approval, and execution of acquisition plans, policies, and programs. He has more than 40 years of international experience in high technology program acquisition, management, and engineering, focusing on space and missile systems, information systems, propulsion systems, and environmental technology. He retired as the executive vice president of operations and president of the advanced systems development sector of Titan Corporation. Previously, he held distinguished positions with Arete Associates, Inc.; Delaney Group, Inc.; BDM Europe, Berlin; and the environmental and management systems group at IABG, Ottobrunn, Germany. Dr. Delaney earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. For the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, he served as vice chair of the Board on Army Science and Technology, chair of the Air Force Studies Board, and vice chair of the Army Science Board.

DONALD R. ERBSCHLOE is a technical consultant working with diverse customers such as NATO, NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and government/ industry partnerships in Silicon Valley. He recently retired as the chief scientist of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. AMC provides global reach for the U.S. Air Force, with a fleet of nearly 1,200 aircraft and 130,000 personnel worldwide. He was the 2014 recipient of the Harold Brown Award, the Air Force’s top science and technology recognition. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Erbschloe was the chief operating officer of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which manages 10 world-class laboratories and is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. Previously, Dr. Erbschloe had a 28-year military career in the Air Force. His career was balanced among flight operations, academia, and scientific and technical management. He was a command pilot with 4,000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft. He served three tours on the faculty at the Air Force Academy in the Department of Physics and as the director of faculty research. He was the military assistant to three Air Force chief scientists at the Pentagon. His final active duty assignment was as the commander and deputy director of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in

Arlington, Virginia. He earned his doctorate in physical electronics from Oxford University.

MILLARD S. FIREBAUGH is a Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Practice at the University of Maryland, having retired with the rank of rear admiral after more than 33 years of service with the U.S. Navy as an engineering duty officer. He became vice president of innovation at General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division, from which he retired in 2005. His area of technical interest is naval engineering, principally the design, systems engineering, naval architecture, and integration of weapons and combat systems of warships, with particular emphasis on nuclear-powered submarines. His focus is on the translation of naval requirements into detailed engineering, design, and construction methodology for complex warships, with specific interest in the hydrodynamics and hydroacoustics of submarines relating to powering and propulsion, quieting, sensor system performance, weapon launch, and integration of features. Admiral Firebaugh is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and he served on the National Academies’ Committee on Materials Research for Defense-After-Next, its Panel on Structural and Multifunctional Materials, and the Naval Studies Board study that authored Mainstreaming Unmanned Undersea Vehicles into Future U.S. Naval Operations. He received a B.S. in physics, an M.S. in electrical engineering, a naval engineering degree, and a D.Sc. in ocean engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

MICHAEL D. GRIFFIN is the chairman and chief executive officer of Schafer Corporation, a leading provider of scientific, engineering, and technical services and products in the national security sector. He was previously a King-McDonald Eminent Scholar and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, was the Administrator of NASA from 2005 to 2009, and prior to that was the Space Department head at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). He has also held numerous executive positions in industry, including president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, CEO of Magellan Systems, general manager of Orbital Science Corporation’s Space Systems Group, and executive vice president and chief technical officer at Orbital. Dr. Griffin’s earlier career includes service as both chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration at NASA and as the deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO). Prior to joining SDIO in an executive capacity, he played a key role in conceiving and directing several first-of-a-kind space tests in support of strategic defense research, development, and flight testing. These included the first space-to-space intercept of a ballistic missile in powered flight, the first broad-spectrum spaceborne reconnaissance of targets and decoys in midcourse flight, and the first space-to-ground reconnaissance of ballistic missiles during the boost phase. He also played a leading role in other

space missions in earlier work at the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Computer Science Corporation. Dr. Griffin was an adjunct professor for 13 years at the University of Maryland, JHU, and George Washington University, offering courses in spacecraft design, applied mathematics, guidance and navigation, compressible flow, computational fluid dynamics, spacecraft attitude control, astrodynamics, and introductory aerospace engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in Maryland and California, and is the lead author of more than two dozen technical papers and the textbook Space Vehicle Design. Dr. Griffin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics, an honorary fellow and the current president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a fellow of the American Astronautical Society, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the AIAA Space Systems Medal and Goddard Astronautics Award, the National Space Club’s Goddard Trophy, the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, the Missile Defense Agency’s Ronald Reagan Award, and the DoD Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award that can be conferred on a nongovernment employee. He received his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland and has been recognized with honorary doctoral degrees from Florida Southern College and the University of Notre Dame.

GARY A. KYLE is president and CEO of Persistent Agility, Inc. (PAI), a veteran-owned small business providing unique, innovative, and proven business and mission solutions. He leads high-level teams that independently advise C-level executives and U.S. government senior leaders on complex acquisition, contracting, business, and strategy matters. Mr. Kyle served as chairman of an ad hoc committee that assessed and made strategic business, political, and technical recommendations for a $10 billion national security space system. He was the lead consultant on a $13.7 billion space system proposal development for a critical national asset, ensuring the client understood key customer requirements. Prior to his present position, Mr. Kyle served as a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led a team of 52 geographically dispersed business analytics consultants. His team provided acquisition, contracting, cost, and financial expertise for Air Force clients at the Pentagon (HQ Air Force Financial Management), AMC, and Air Force Space Command. Mr. Kyle was hand selected by the Air Force Space Command Commander and the National Reconnaissance Office Director as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Tiger Team business lead. In this role, he collaborated with a cross-functional team of technical, operational, financial, and contracting executives to define the future acquisition tenets for the $72 billion space launch vehicle program. Mr. Kyle orchestrated a 60-person team that analyzed the Air Force chief

information officer’s enterprise-wide information technology efficiency initiatives and recommended savings valued at $800 million. Mr. Kyle holds an M.A. in telecommunications from the George Washington University; an M.S. in national resource strategy from National Defense University; and an M.S. in procurement and acquisition management from Northrop University. He is a graduate of both the Defense Systems Management College Program Management Course and Senior Acquisition Course and holds the highest DoD acquisition certifications in both program management and contracting.

THOMAS L. MAXWELL is an independent aerospace consultant and has a B.S. from Purdue University, an M.S. from the University of Cincinnati, and an M.B.A from Xavier University. He joined GE in 1969 and has held positions in engine test, commercial turbine design, product support, sales, product management, and engineering leadership. He has spent the last 30 years working for U.S. and international military programs. His most recent assignments were as director of the F110 Program, director of the F136 Program, and general manager of Military Propulsion Engineering. In this assignment he had engineering responsibility for 25,000 installed engines and GE propulsion development programs for ship, industrial gas turbine derivatives, and both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Mr. Maxwell was recognized in 2012 as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of Purdue University. He has served on the Engine Independent Review Team chartered by the USAF propulsion Program Executive Office, on Purdue engineering advisory committees, and on the boards of trustees of charitable organizations.

SUE C. PAYTON is president of SCI Aerospace, Inc. She is a former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. Ms. Payton served as a presidential appointee in two presidential administrations with responsibility for acquisition, procurement, and technology transition. In the Air Force, she directed an annual budget in excess of $30 billion that included major weapon systems such as unmanned aircraft, fighter aircraft and munitions, information technology, alternative energy, advanced manufacturing, and intelligence programs. Prior to her government service in 2001, she worked in senior leadership capacities at Lockheed Martin/Martin Marietta with responsibility for leading DoD initiatives in areas such as information technology, complex space systems, intelligence, and operations. Her program achievements have been noted on numerous television shows and dozens of media publications, and she is the inaugural recipient of the DoD 2011 Manufacturing Technology Champion Award. In her role as the president of SCI Aerospace, she serves on industry and research laboratory advisory boards. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University (EIU), she earned an M.S. in systems acquisition management and computer information systems from the University of Southern California and Nova Southeastern

University and received an honorary Ph.D. in public service from Eastern Illinois University. She is a member of many government/industry/educational/nonprofit organizations, including the EOD Warrior Foundation, U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, the EIU Foundation board of directors, the Air Force Academy Systems Engineering Program advisory council, Purdue University’s President’s Council, Southern Methodist University’s Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, and the Doolittle Institute.

RICHARD T. ROCA is director emeritus at JHU APL. He became director at JHU APL in January 2000 and stepped down from that position in June 2010. While director, he led a not-for-profit University Affiliated Research Center that performs research and development work on behalf of the DoD, primarily the U.S. Navy, and for NASA and other federal agencies. Currently, Dr. Roca is a member of the board of directors of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., and a member of the board of trustees of Olin College of Engineering. Dr. Roca spent the first years of his professional career with the AT&T Corporation. He joined Bell Laboratories to design communications equipment and networks and rose over three decades to major corporate leadership roles there. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a past vice president of its Board on Engineering Education. He is a visitor for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, which accredits U.S. engineering schools. Dr. Roca received a Sc.D. from MIT in mechanical engineering. In 1977, he was awarded a congressional fellowship and worked on the National Energy Act in the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power. In 2011, he received the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service.

WILLIAM J. STRICKLAND is president and CEO of the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) in Alexandria, Virginia. Before his appointment as CEO, he spent more than 10 years as a HumRRO vice president, directing its Workforce Analysis and Training Systems Division. Before joining HumRRO, he served in the USAF and retired with the rank of colonel; in his last assignment, he was the director for Air Force human resources research. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), past president of its Division of Military Psychology, and served for 6 years as that division’s representative on the APA Council of Representatives. Dr. Strickland currently serves as a member-at-large on the APA board of directors, and has represented APA on the Board of the Consortium of Social Science Organizations and on the Council of the Federation for Brain and Behavioral Sciences. He has been a member of five previous National Academies committees. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from Ohio State University.

DEBORAH L. WESTPHAL is managing director of the strategy advisory firm Toffler Associates. Recognized globally for her expertise in strategy, innovation, and organizational transformation, Ms. Westphal helps organizations understand the forces that drive change in their industries and the world and identifies the best courses of action to create enduring success. Ms. Westphal came to Toffler Associates in 1999 after 13 years as a senior government official in the USAF. Her work in the area of technology and advanced concepts for air vehicles, missiles, and space systems has been recognized with numerous awards, including from the California Air Force Association (AFA), a USAF Meritorious Civilian Award, an AFA Los Angeles chapter Civilian of the Year award, and an AFA Medal of Merit. Ms. Westphal has also served on the U.S. Army Science Board, the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association and the board of directors of the Schriever Chapter 147 of the AFA. Currently, Ms. Westphal serves on the Air Force Studies Board of the National Academies. As managing director of Toffler Associates since 2007, she is an acknowledged expert in the aerospace industry and brings a wealth of experience in a wide range of other sectors, including materials, transportation, security, space, hospitality, and telecommunications, as well as U.S. defense, intelligence, and civilian government. Ms. Westphal’s success can be traced to her unique combination of education and experience. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.B.A. from Webster University and has completed executive education at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of Business.

REBECCA WINSTON is president of Winston Strategic Management Consultants. She is a former chair of the board of the Project Management Institute (PMI). An experienced and recognized expert, she was a fellow in PMI and was named one of the 100 most influential experts globally on the subject of project and program management (PM) in the fields of research and development (R&D), energy, environmental restoration, and national security, and is well known throughout the United States and globally as a leader in the PM professional world. Ms.Winston has more than 25 years of experience in program and project management, primarily on programs funded by the U.S. government. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska’s College of Law, Juris Doctorate (1980), in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has a B.S. in education from Nebraska Wesleyan University and an M.S. in biology from Idaho State University. She is a licensed attorney in Iowa and Nebraska. Active in PMI since 1993, Ms. Winston helped pioneer PMI’s specific interest groups (SIGs) in the 1990s, including the Project Earth and Government SIGs, and was a founder and first co-chair of the Women in Project Management SIG. She served two terms on the PMI board of directors as director-at-large, secretary treasurer, vice chair (for 2 years), and chair (2002). She was elected a PMI fellow in 2005. She is also a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of Female Executives

in the United States. Ms. Winston currently serves as a consultant to organizations such as the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as many private enterprises, on topics ranging from program and project management to project reviews, risk management, and vulnerability assessments. She has extensive recent PM experience in the areas of national defense and security and has worked closely with local, regional, and national officials, including Congress and the Pentagon.