On Acquisition: Featuring Dr. Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

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Description:
Dr. Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment ((USD(A&S)), will discuss his perspectives on global events, the Department's goals for acquisition, and developing a culture of self-directed learning. The session will include an opportunity for audience questions.

Dr. William A. LaPlante serves as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)). In this role, he is responsible to the Secretary of Defense for all matters pertaining to acquisition; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; nuclear, chemical, and biological defense; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. LaPlante served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Draper Laboratory, a research and development company specializing in advanced technology solutions in national security, space exploration, health care, and energy. Previously, he was senior vice president and general manager at MITRE National Security, where he oversaw the operation of two federally funded research and development centers and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Jim Woolsey, serves as the President of Defense Acquisition University (DAU), a position he has held since January 2014. In this role, Woolsey leads one of the largest corporate universities in the world—responsible for the training and talent development of roughly 186,000 Department of Defense (DoD) employees. DAU’s students represent a cross-section of the Department’s Acquisition functions, including contracting, business, engineering, logistics, and program management. For the past several years, Woolsey has led DAU’s transformation to a modern learning platform that employs the full range of training modes and that empowers the workforce to tailor learning to their current job needs and future career goals. Woolsey has a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a master’s in business administration from George Mason University and was a Fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI on International Relations.