Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel served as the U.S. secretary of defense from February 2013 to February 2015. During his tenure, he directed significant steps to modernize the United States’ partnerships and alliances, advance the rebalance in the Asia-Pacific region, bolster support for European allies, and enhance defense cooperation in the Middle East while overseeing the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan. Hagel launched the Defense Innovation Initiative to better prepare the Pentagon for future threats and enacted comprehensive reforms to the Nuclear Enterprise and Military Health system. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as secretary of defense.

Hagel served two terms in the U.S. Senate (1997-2009) representing the state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence committees. He chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export, and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities subcommittees. Hagel also served as the chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.

Previously, Hagel was a distinguished professor at Georgetown University, co-chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, chair of the Atlantic Council, chair of the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration Advisory Committee, and co-chair of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Corporate Council. Prior to his election to the Senate, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company, an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska. In the mid-1980s, Hagel co-founded VANGUARD Cellular Systems, Inc., a publicly traded corporation. He was president and chief executive officer of the World USO, Private Sector Council, and chief operating officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit). Hagel also served as deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and deputy commissioner general of the 1982 World’s Fair. He is the author of the book America: Our Next Chapter and was the subject of the 2006 book by Charlyne Berens Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward.