The Aerospace Corporation Announces Two Board Retirements

El Segundo, Calif. (Dec. 22, 2014) – The Honorable John E. McLaughlin and Honorable Robert S. Walker have retired from The Aerospace Corporation’s Board of Trustees, effective Dec. 12, 2014. 

The Honorable John E. McLaughlin was elected to Aerospace’s Board of Trustees on June 8, 2006. He is a distinguished practitioner in residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. McLaughlin was previously deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, confirmed by the United States Senate in October 2000, and he served as acting director following the resignation of George J. Tenet in 2004. He retired from the agency in 2005 after more than three decades of service. 

Early in his career, McLaughlin focused on European, Russian, and Eurasian issues in the Directorate of Intelligence. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he served as director of the Office of European Analysis and director of the Office of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis. McLaughlin rose to the positions of vice chairman for estimates, acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy director for intelligence prior to becoming deputy director of the agency. 

The Honorable Robert S. Walker was reelected to Aerospace’s Board of Trustees on March 9, 2007. He previously served on the board from 1997 to 2005. Walker is executive chairman of Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, a government-relations firm based in Washington, D.C. He represented Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District for 20 years before retiring in 1996 from the House of Representatives. Positions he held included chairman of the Science Committee, chief deputy Republican whip, chairman of the Republican leadership, and speaker pro tempore. In 1996, Mr. Walker became the first sitting member of the House to be awarded NASA’s highest honor—the Distinguished Service Medal. In 2004, he received NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal. 

In addition to leadership positions in Congress, Mr. Walker has served as chairman of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry, as a member of the President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service, and as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy. He also served on the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council.

The Aerospace Corporation (www.aerospace.org) is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has almost 3,500 employees. It provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers to assure space mission success. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.