President Donald Trump plans to nominate Michael Griffin, former NASA administrator, as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, Defense Systems reported Monday.
The Defense Department created Griffin’s potential new position, along with the role of undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, as a result of the reorganization of the department’s acquisition, technology and logistics organization.
If confirmed, Griffin would serve as CTO as well as oversee the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Griffin led NASA from 2005 to 2009 under the administration of George W. Bush.
He also served as associate administrator for exploration and as chief engineer at the space agency earlier in his career.
Griffin previously served as space department head at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and as president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm funded by the CIA.
He also worked at Orbital Sciences Corp., now called Orbital ATK, in various roles such as CEO of the Magellan Systems division and general manager of the space systems group.
