Deborah Lee James

Deborah Lee James, former secretary of the US Air Force, is a board director at the Atlantic Council and a distinguished fellow at the Councils Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. As a Secretary James has thirty years of senior national security experience in the federal government and the private sector. As the twenty-third secretary of the air force, Secretary James was responsible for the affairs of the Department of the Air Force, including the organizing, training, equipping, and providing for the welfare of its nearly 660,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian Airmen and their families. She also oversaw the Air Force’s annual budget of more than $139 billion. Prior to serving as Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary James was President of Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Technical and Engineering Sector, where she was responsible for 8,700 employees and more than $2 billion in revenue. For nearly a decade, Ms. James held a variety of positions with SAIC to include senior vice president and director of homeland security. From 2000 to 2001, she was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Business Executives for National Security, and from 1998 to 2000 she was vice president of international operations and marketing at United Technologies.

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