Five new members of President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense Department transition team were announced Tuesday, including an expert on space and a former assistant secretary of the Air Force.
Mark Albrecht is a long time space insider who has served in a variety of positions ranging from industry to the White House and Capitol Hill. He is currently chairman of the board for U.S. Space LLC, which is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Orbital ATK [OA] over in-space satellite servicing. He was president of Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] International Launch Services (ILS) from 1999 to 2006. He also spent time as vice president of business development for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, where he was responsible for domestic and international marketing and business development for the Space Systems operating companies.
He joins the transition team along with Craig Duehring, who served as the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs from 2007 to 2009 and national security consultant David Trachtenberg. Kenneth Braithwaite, listed as working for Vizient Inc., also was added to the team. Braithwaite is a former naval aviator who rose to the rank of rear admiral. His final assignment in the Navy was as vice chief of information, the principal reserve liaison and advisor to the Navy’s chief information officer, according to his official Navy biography. He concurrently served as the head of the Navy Reserve (NR) Public Affairs program and as an adjunct adviser to the Commander, Navy Reserve Force.
Also joining the team is Dakota Wood, a former Marine colonel who currently works as senior research fellow for defense programs at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
Wood graduated in 1985 from the U.S. Naval Academy and joined the Marine Corps where he served for 20 years, according to his Heritage biography.
As a Marine, Dakota participated in the planning and execution of operations around the world to include Operation Enduring Freedom following the attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom to depose Saddam Hussein. Dakota culminated his career conducting studies on military, technology, economic and political matters for senior officials at the highest levels of the Marine Corps and the Defense Department.
Before Joining Lockheed Martin, Albrecht was senior vice president of SAIC [SAIC] where he coordinated all space business activities, including business development, strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. He joined SAIC in 1992 as its first director of Washington operations.
Albrecht was appointed in 1989 by President George H.W. Bush as the executive secretary of the National Space Council, serving in that capacity until June 1992. During that period, Albrecht was the president’s principal advisor on the U.S. space program, including all national security, civil and commercial government space activities. National Space Council has been an on-again, off-again effort in the White House to integrate space policy and eliminate space stovepipes among the federal government. A space industry source told Defense Daily he believes Albrecht’s national space council experience could be a good thing for the industry as it would bring more attention to the industry at the White House, but what the White House ultimately does with that attention on industry is to be determined as there will be winners and losers.
Prior to his stint in the White House, Albrecht served six years as the legislative assistant for national security affairs to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.). He also held positions as a senior research analyst for the intelligence community staff in Washington and the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif. He is an associate member of the Defense Science Board.