Mark Esper Biography

Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and corporate executive who has served as the 23rd United States Secretary of the Army since 2017. Before his current position, he served as vice president of government relations at Raytheon.

On June 18, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump named Esper to become Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, succeeding Patrick Shanahan. Before Shanahan withdrew his name from consideration for the position, Esper had been considered a leading candidate for the nomination, if the Senate declined to confirm Shanahan.

Mark Esper Age

Mark Thomas Esper was born on April 26, 1964, in United States.

Mark Esper Wife

Mark Esper has been married to Leah Esper, for more than three decades now. Mark expressed his supreme gratitude to his wife, Leah Esper, for her support during his confirmation hearing to become the Secretary of the Army. During his opening statement before the Senate Armed Committee in November of 2017, he started by talking at length about Leah.

He explained that shortly after they tied the knot, about three decades ago, he was shipped off for a 7-month deployment with the 101st Airborne Division during the Gulf War. Esper Praised Leah For Taking on the Dominant Parenting Role During His Training & Deployments.

Mark Esper Education

Esper is a graduate of Laurel Highlands High School class of 1982. He received his Bachelor of Science in engineering in 1986 from the United States Military Academy. He was a Dean’s List student at West Point and recipient of the Douglas MacArthur Award for Leadership. Esper received a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1995 and a Doctor of Philosophy from George Washington University in 2008.

Mark Esper Career

Esper served as an Infantry Officer with the 101st Airborne Division and deployed with the “Screaming Eagles” for the 1990–1991 Gulf War. Esper’s battalion was part of the famous “left hook” that led to the defeat of the Iraqi Army. Due to his actions, he was awarded a Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and various service medals. Esper later led an Airborne Rifle Company in Europe and served as an Army Fellow at the Pentagon. He was on active duty for over ten years before transitioning to the District of Columbia Army National Guard and later the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

From 1996 to 1998, Esper was chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He served as a senior professional staffer for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1998 to 2002 and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Esper was also a senior policy advisor and legislative director for U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. From 2001 to 2002, he was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee.

Esper served in the George W. Bush administration from 2002 to 2004, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, where he was responsible for a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control and international security issues. From 2004 to 2006, he was Director for National Security Affairs for the U.S. Senate under Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Esper was executive vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association in 2006 and 2007. Esper served as national policy director to Senator Fred Thompson from September 2007 to February 2008, in his 2008 presidential campaign. He served as executive vice president of the Global Intellectual Property Center from 2008 to 2010 and vice president for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Esper was hired as vice president of government relations at defense contractor Raytheon in July 2010. Esper was recognized as a top corporate lobbyist by The Hill in 2015 and 2016.

On July 19, 2017, President Trump announced his intention to nominate Esper as United States Secretary of the Army. He was Trump’s third nominee for the position, following the withdrawals of Vincent Viola and Mark E. Green. Esper was confirmed to this post by an 89–6 vote of the U.S. Senate on November 15, 2017 and sworn in on November 20, 2017.

Mark Esper as the Acting United States Secretary of Defense

On June 18, 2019, President Trump announced his appointment of Esper as Acting United States Secretary of Defense, after Acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan decided to withdraw his nomination.

Mark Esper, Named as Acting Defense Secretary, Brings Military Background to the Job

Source : nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — Mark T. Esper is a 1986 graduate of West Point, where his classmates included Mike Pompeo, now the secretary of state. He was an Army infantryman who fought in the gulf war. He went on to work for a conservative think tank, then as a lobbyist for one of the nation’s largest military contractors. And on Tuesday he was abruptly elevated from his job as Army secretary to be acting defense secretary, becoming the third person to lead the Pentagon under President Trump.

Mr. Esper, 55, was catapulted into the role after Patrick Shanahan stepped down as acting secretary amid revelations about domestic abuse charges in his family and questions about whether he could be confirmed. Mr. Trump did not say whether he intended to nominate Mr. Esper to the role permanently, but in remarks to reporters on Monday, he seemed to give him strong backing.

“Mark Esper is going to be outstanding, and we look forward to working with him for a long period of time to come,” Mr. Trump said, calling him “a highly respected gentleman with a great career — West Point, Harvard, a tremendous talent.” He is taking over at a time of heightened tensions with Iran, questions about the role of the United States military on the southwestern border and debate over national security strategy.

After graduating from West Point, Mr. Esper served in the Army, the Army Reserve and National Guard in some capacity for more than two decades. He went on to the conservative Heritage Foundation and a series of jobs on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon. Mr. Esper ended up at Raytheon, a major military contractor, as the vice president for government relations in 2010.

Mr. Shanahan’s 30-year career at Boeing, the nation’s largest aerospace company, complicated his nomination, and Mr. Esper’s tenure as Raytheon’s top lobbyist could leave him facing a similar issue. In his 2017 confirmation hearing, Mr. Esper said he “spent an overwhelming majority of my time on the business-end of the company,” but he was personally involved on several Raytheon contracts, including the radar of the Patriot surface-to-air-missile system, a key piece of hardware used extensively by the American military and its allies, including Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

Despite the potential ethical issues, top Republican lawmakers quickly championed Mr. Esper’s appointment. Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Mr. Esper and said he believed that he was the most likely choice to be nominated. “I’ve known him for a long time. I think he’s good — in fact, I’ve been in the field with him to see how he does with troops,” Mr. Inhofe said. “He does an exceptionally good job.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, echoed Mr. Inhofe, saying he was a good choice, “knows him well” and could vote for him as a permanent secretary of defense “without equivocation.”Mr. Esper will take responsibility of one of the largest militaries in the world as the Trump administration navigates how it will confront Iran, end the war in Afghanistan and negotiate with Turkey as the longtime ally of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization moves to buy a controversial missile system from Russia.

And on Monday, the Pentagon said it was sending 1,000 more troops to the Middle East to bolster security for American forces in the region after the White House accused Iran of attacking two tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. According to a defense official, Mr. Esper’s office was caught off guard by Mr. Trump’s decision to pick him as acting defense secretary. He received a phone call from the White House only hours before Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Shanahan was resigning.

As Army secretary, Mr. Esper has pushed to modernize the Army with goals much in line with the National Defense Strategy announced last year under the defense secretary at the time, Jim Mattis. In the Army’s 2020 proposed budget, Mr. Esper moved to cut legacy programs such as the CH-47 Chinook helicopter and the M2 Bradley Fighting vehicle, two mainstays in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a move to better align the Army to fight in great power conflicts with countries like Russia and China.