Aspen Strategy Group

Richard Danzig

Chairman of the Board, Center for a New American Security


Program:
Aspen Strategy Group

Biography

Richard Danzig is Chairman of the Center for a New American Security’s Board of Directors and a director of Human Genome Sciences Corporation, National Semiconductor Corporation, and Saffron Hill Ventures, a European venture capital fund. Concurrently, Secretary Danzig is a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and the Defense Policy Board and a consultant to the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security on terrorism. He is also a Trustee of The RAND Corporation.  From the spring of 2007 through the Presidential election of 2008, he was a senior advisor to then-Senator Barack Obama on national security issues. Secretary Danzig served as the 71st  Secretary of the Navy from 1998 to 2001, and as Undersecretary of the Navy between 1993 and 1997. From 1977 to 1981, Secretary Danzig served in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, first as a Deputy Assistant Secretary and then as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Logistics. In 1981, he was awarded the Defense Distinguished Public Service Award. He received that same honor, the highest Department of Defense civilian award, twice more in 1997 and 2001 for his work with the Navy and Marine Corps. Between 1981 and 1993, he was a partner in the law firm of Latham and Watkins. Secretary Danzig was also a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White. He received a B.A. degree from Reed College, a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, and both a Bachelor and Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.