THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM J. PERRY

William J. Perry is a distinguished public servant with expertise in military policy and technology, who has been praised during his tenure as Deputy Secretary of Defense for strong management and leadership abilities. He has served as the Pentagon's second in command since his confirmation by the Senate on March 3, 1993.

Perry has long been regarded as one of the country's leading experts on military technology affairs. Before coming to the Pentagon, he served as Co- Director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control, as well as being a Professor at Stanford's School of Engineering. While at Stanford, Perry was also the chairman of Technology Strategies and Alliances, a California management consulting firm. During the 1980s, he was managing partner of Hambrecht & Quist, a San Francisco investment banking firm specializing in high technology companies.

During the Carter Administration, Perry served as Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Serving as the Secretary of Defense's principal advisor on technology, communications, intelligence, and atomic energy, Perry was responsible for acquisitions, and has been credited with making investments in many weapons systems that have proven successful in recent military actions.

Before his nomination to be Undersecretary, Perry spent 13 years as President of ESL, Incorporated, which he helped to found, and was a technical consultant to the Department of Defense. From 1954-64, he was director of the GTE-Sylvania Company's electronic defense labs.

Over the years, Perry's accomplishments have been recognized many times. He received the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in 1962, the Defense Intelligence Agency's Outstanding Service Medal in 1977, the Department of Defense's Distinguished Public Service award in 1980 and again in 1981, and NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 1981. The Federal Republic of Germany awarded him the Knight Commander's Cross in 1981, and the French government presented him with the Grande Officier de l'Ordre National du Merite in 1982.

A mathematician by training, Perry holds his bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. His years of public service have also included membership on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Technology Review Panel. He was also a Trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Perry is 66 years old. He and his wife Lee, a CPA, have three sons and two daughters.

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