Dr. Ashton B. Carter was sworn in as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics on April 27, 2009. Before assuming this position, Dr. Carter was chair of the International and Global Affairs faculty at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford Universities. Dr. Carter was also Senior Partner at Global Technology Partners and a member of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation and the Advisory Boards of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories and the Draper Laboratory.

He was a consultant to Goldman, Sachs on international affairs and technology matters. He was a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Advisory Board of the Yale Journal of International Law, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Dr. Carter was also Co-Chair of the Review Panel on Future Directions for DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) Missions and Capabilities to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, Chair of the National Security Strategy and Policies Expert Working Group of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, a member of the National Missile Defense White Team, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control.