Mark Esper

Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician serving as the 23rd and current United States Secretary of the Army. Prior to his current position, he served as vice president of government relations at Raytheon.

Education
Esper graduated from Laurel Highlands High School in 1982. He received his BS in engineering from the United States Military Academy in 1986. Esper was a Dean's List student at West Point and recipient of the Douglas MacArthur Award for Leadership. He received a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1995 and a PhD from George Washington University in 2008.

Career
Esper served as an Infantry Officer with the 101st Airborne Division and deployed with the "Screaming Eagles" for the 1990-91 Gulf War. His battalion was part of the famous "left hook" that led to the defeat of the Iraqi Army. For his actions, Esper was awarded a Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, and various service medals. He later led an Airborne Rifle Company in Europe and served as an Army Fellow at the Pentagon. Esper was on active duty for over ten years before transitioning to the National Guard and Army Reserve, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Esper was chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, from 1996-1998. From 1998 to 2002, Esper served as a senior professional staffer for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. He was also a senior policy advisor and legislative director for U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. He was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004, Esper served in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, where he was responsible for a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control, and international security issues. He was Director for National Security Affairs for the U.S. Senate under Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from 2004 to 2006.

Esper was executive vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association in 2006 and 2007. From September 2007 to February 2008, Esper served as national policy director to Senator Fred Thompson in his 2008 presidential campaign. From 2008 to 2010, Esper served as executive vice president of the Global Intellectual Property Center and vice president for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He was hired as vice president of government relations at defense contractor Raytheon in July 2010. Esper was recognized as a top corporate lobbyist by The Hill in 2015 and 2016.

President Trump announced his intention to nominate Esper as United States Secretary of the Army on July 19, 2017. He was Trump's third nominee for the position, following the withdrawals of Vincent Viola and Mark E. Green. He was confirmed to this post by an 89-6 vote of the U.S. Senate on November 15, 2017 and sworn in on November 20, 2017.