page_title: Jim Mattis
section_title: Civilian career
hierarchical_section_title: Jim Mattis / Civilian career
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of Defense
context_page_description: James Norman Mattis is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 26th US secretary of defense from January 2017 through January 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
  Mattis was commissioned in the Marine Corps through the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps after graduating from Central Washington University. A career Marine, he gained a reputation among his peers for "intellectualism", and eventually advanced to the rank of general. From 2007 to 2010 he commanded the United States Joint Forces Command and concurrently served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation. He was commander of United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013 with Admiral Bob Harward serving as his deputy commander. After retiring from the military, he served in several private sector roles, including as a board member of Theranos.
  Mattis was nominated as secretary of defense by president-elect Donald Trump, and confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2017.
context_section_description: After retiring from the military, Mattis worked for FWA Consultants and served as a member of the General Dynamics Board of Directors. Between 2013 and 2017, while on the board of General Dynamics, Mattis made more than $900,000 in compensation, including company stock. In August 2013, he was appointed an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and in 2016 he was named the Davies Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow.
  In December 2015, Mattis joined the advisory board of Spirit of America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides assistance to support the safety and success of American service personnel and the local people they seek to help.
  He is co-editor of the book Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military, published in August 2016.
  From 2013 to January 2017, Mattis was a board member of Theranos, a health technology company that claimed to have devised revolutionary blood tests using very small amounts of blood. Previously, in mid-2012, a Department of Defense official evaluating Theranos's blood-testing technology for the military initiated a formal inquiry with the Food and Drug Administration about the company's intent to distribute its tests without FDA clearance. In August 2012 Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes asked Mattis, who had expressed interest in testing Theranos's technology in combat areas, to help. Within hours, Mattis forwarded his email exchange with Holmes to military officials, asking "how do we overcome this new obstacle". In July 2013 the Department of Defense gave Mattis permission to join Theranos's board provided he did not represent Theranos with regard to the blood-testing device and its potential acquisition by the Departments of the Navy or Defense.
  In 2019, Mattis's book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead was published. It is an autobiography as well as an argument in favor of an internationalist foreign policy. On August 7, 2019, Mattis was re-elected to the board of General Dynamics.
caption: Mattis in 2016
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