The Honorable Michael B. Donley has been elected as vice chair of The Aerospace Corporation’s board of trustees. He succeeds former vice chair Lt. Gen. George K. Muellner (USAF, Ret.), who has retired from the board. Jeffrey H. Smith, Esq. has also retired from Aerospace’s board of trustees. All board changes are effective as of Dec. 11, 2015.
Donley has served on the board since September 2013. He has 35 years of Washington experience in the national security community including service in the Senate, White House, and Pentagon. Donley served as the 22nd secretary of the Air Force from June 2008 to June 2013. He was responsible for all affairs of the Department of the Air Force, including the recruiting, training and equipping of more than 600,000 military and civilian personnel and an annual budget of approximately $110 billion. As secretary, he concurrently served as the Defense Department’s executive agent for space, chairing the DOD Space Council and coordinating the department’s space policies, plans and programs with other government agencies. Donley’s previously held positions to include director of Administration and Management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; defense consultant; and assistant secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller).
Muellner joined the board in September 2011, and was elected its vice chairman in December 2013. He retired from the Air Force in 1998 after 31 years of distinguished service, after which he joined The Boeing Company. Muellner held multiple positions at Boeing, including: vice president-general manager in 1998; president of Phantom Works, Boeing’s advanced research and development unit in June 2001; senior vice president-general manager of Boeing’s Air Force Systems in July 2002; and president of Advanced Systems for the Integrated Defense Systems business units until his retirement in 2008.
Smith was reelected to Aerospace’s board of trustees in December 2006. He previously served on the board from 1990 to 1995 and from 1996 to 2005. Smith is a senior partner with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter, where he leads the firm’s national security practice. In May 1995, Smith became general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served until Oct. 1996, when he returned to Arnold & Porter. He previously held positions to include heading the new administration’s transition team at the Department of Defense in 1992; minority counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee becoming general counsel of the committee in 1986; and multiple positions in the legal adviser’s office in the Department of State 1975 –1984.
The Aerospace Corporation is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has approximately 3,600 employees. It provides guidance and advice to military, civil and commercial customers to ensure the success of complex, technology-based programs. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.
