Ashton Carter

Who is Ashton Carter?

Ashton Baldwin Carter is a United States national security professional who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, he served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics for President Barack Obama. He is currently on leave from his post as Co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford universities. He is also on leave from the International Relations, Security, and Science faculty at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a member of the guiding coalition of the Project on National Security Reform. On August 2, 2011, President Obama nominated Carter to be the new Deputy Secretary of Defense, and on September 23, 2011 the United States Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent. He assumed his office as Deputy Secretary of Defense on October 6, 2011, and his term in that office ended on Wednesday, December 3, 2013, when he stepped down. President Obama appointed Christine Fox, a former director of Pentagon cost controls who left for the academic world in summer 2013 as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense to replace Carter until his permanent replacement can be nominated and then confirmed. She was the inspiration for Kelly McGillis' character in "Top Gun", and with her appointment as the second-highest civilian Defense Department official becomes the highest-ranking woman ever at the Pentagon.