HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – David King, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has named Byron W. Butler director of the center’s Office of Procurement.
Butler will supervise all stages of the Marshall Center’s contracting process, including solicitation, evaluation, negotiations, awarding and contract management, both at Marshall and at associated contractor facilities. In his new role, he will oversee more than 150 civil service and contract employees and supervise more than 900 active contracts, grants and cooperative agreements valued at more than $31 billion.
The Marshall Center is a key leader in business development for North Alabama and the Tennessee Valley region. Butler will play an integral role in the continued support of this effort through the procurement and supervision of multiple contracts. This includes contracts for Constellation Program work assigned to Marshall, including the first stage and upper stage of the Ares I rocket which will open up avenues of human exploration to the moon and destinations beyond.
From 1997 to 2008, Butler served as deputy director of the Office of Procurement and had a significant role in all stages of the Marshall Center’s contracting process and employee management for the office. During that period, he also served, from April 2004 to May 2005, in a temporary assignment at NASA Headquarters in Washington. There, Butler was project manager of the Contract Management Module Project in NASA’s Integrated Financial Management Program. He helped lead efforts to select, configure, integrate and implement software to enhance contract administration and reporting.
Butler previously served as contracting officer and chief of the Research and Development Support Division in Marshall’s Office of Procurement from 1994 to 1997. He managed contracts for Marshall’s Engineering Directorate and was responsible for procurement planning; solicitation development; proposal evaluation; contract creation negotiation and awarding; and resulting contract administration and management.
In 1989, Butler was appointed contracting officer and division chief for the Space Projects Division at Marshall. He was responsible for several major systems contracts; provided advice on procurement policies, procedures, methods and techniques; and negotiated and advised in awarding multimillion dollar contracts.
From 1984 to 1989, Butler served as contracting officer and branch chief of the Special Projects Branch of the Space Projects Division within the Marshall Center’s Office of Procurement. He began his NASA career in 1979 at Marshall as a contract specialist.
A native of Anderson, Ala., Butler has received numerous special service and group achievement awards. In 2006, he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service – the personnel system covering top managerial positions in approximately 75 federal agencies. He was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2002, for his work on the NASA Consolidated Business Study Team in Washington. He has served as an essential advisor to major contract selection boards at the Marshall Center and has provided leadership in the administration of contracts for the Space Shuttle Program, International Space Station and NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
Butler earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1978 from the University of North Alabama in Florence and a master’s of business administration in 1984 from the Florida Institute of Technology in Huntsville. In 2001, he earned a Certificate of Professional Contract Management accreditation from the National Contract Management Association and received a Level III Certification, the highest level possible from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.
Butler and his wife, the former Lydia Zeleznok of Fairbanks, Alaska, reside in Madison, Ala. and have four children and three grandchildren.
