Mark T. Esper is Executive Vice President, Defense and International Affairs. At the Aerospace Industries Association of America. In this capacity he is responsible for all national security, defense, and international affairs issues, including export control reform, defense budget, industrial base/workforce, and trade matters. Mr. Esper also serves as co-chair of AIA’s National Security, International, Defense Policy, and Technical Operations councils with his corporate counterparts, and has been appointed to several federal advisory groups.

Before assuming his present position in May 2006, Mr. Esper was the Director of National Security Affairs for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). His portfolio in that position included all defense, foreign policy, and intelligence matters for the United States Senate, as well as trade and homeland security issues. In this capacity, Mr. Esper was also responsible for managing the national security committees of the Senate, and all national security issues with the Executive Branch, the House of Representatives, and foreign governments.

From 2002 through 2004, Mr. Esper was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. His responsibilities as a senior official in the Department of Defense included nonproliferation policy, multilateral and bilateral arms control policy, law of armed conflict, and other international agreements. Prior to that, Mr. Esper served in a variety of positions in the United States Senate, including as a Senior Professional Staff Member responsible for national security affairs on the House Armed Services Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and in the personal offices of Senators Fred Thompson and Chuck Hagel.

Mr. Esper is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is currently working on his Ph.D. in Public Policy at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He served for ten years in the U.S. Army as an Infantry Officer in a variety of assignments around the world before leaving active duty to become Chief of Staff at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

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