William J . Lynn III William J . Lynn III ( born January 1 , 1954 ) is a former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense . Before that he was Under Secretary of Defense ( Comptroller ) and a lobbyist for Raytheon . Biography . Lynn graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976 , and later studied at Cornell Law School to receive his law degree in 1980 and graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1982 with an M . A . in public affairs . After this he was employed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies , where he was the executive director of the Defense Organization Project from 1982 to 1985 . That last year he published the book " Toward a More Effective Defense " . At some point in time he was a senior fellow studying strategic nuclear forces and arms control at the National Defense University ' s Strategic Concepts Development Center , and went on to be the legislative counsel for defense and arms control matters for Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy between 1987 and 1993 . During this time he also worked as Kennedy ' s staff representative on the Committee on Armed Services . Lynn later worked as an assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Budget , and in April 1993 joined the office of the Secretary of Defense ( then Les Aspin ) to be director for program analysis and evaluation . On October 21 , 1997 , President Bill Clinton nominated Lynn to be Under Secretary of Defense ( Comptroller ) , and after a Senate confirmation on November 13 , he was sworn in on November 19 . After leaving at the end of the Clinton Presidency , Lynn became the executive vice president of the management consulting firm DFI International in 2001 , but left in August 2002 when he was hired by the Raytheon Company , where he held the title senior vice president of Government Operations and Strategy . Deputy Secretary of Defense . On January 8 , 2009 , President - elect Barack Obama nominated Lynn as his Deputy Secretary of Defense . This was complicated by the fact that new ethic rules promulgated by Obama for members of his administration created a waiting period of two years between lobbying activities and working for the administration on the same issues , which Lynn ' s work with Raytheon violated . President Obama waived the new rules for Lynn , which received criticism from John McCain as well as outside groups such as the Project on Government Oversight , Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington , Government Accountability Project , and Public Citizen . McCain later said that the nomination should probably move forward . As nominee , Lynn agreed to sell his holdings of Raytheon stock . Lynn ' s appointment was approved by the U . S . Senate Armed Services Committee on February 5 , 2009 by unanimous consent . On February 11 , 2009 , Lynn was confirmed in the full Senate by a vote of 93 – 4 . He took the oath of office on February 12 . Lynn cautioned in May 2009 that Congress and the Obama administration should be careful not to make things worse in overhauling the Pentagon ’ s weapons - buying practices . “ " We need to keep in mind the importance of not making the system worse in our efforts to achieve reform , " ” Lynn said in testimony prepared for the House Armed Services Committee . “ " This has happened in the past . " ” Lynn told lawmakers the Pentagon will hire 20 , 000 new personnel to manage weapons acquisition as part of sweeping reforms that President Obama and Congress have been pushing for . The proposal to hire 20 , 000 new employees is “ aggressive , ” Lynn said , but the Pentagon needs program managers , cost estimators , software engineers and systems engineers . He said Pentagon leadership will start bringing the new people in at the beginning of fiscal 2010 . “ " We are mindful it is going to be an organizational challenge , " ” he said . The Pentagon leadership has started a sweeping effort to free up about $ 100 billion over the next five years to maintain current fighting forces and to modernize weapons systems . Lynn in June 2010 said the goal is to find more savings within the defense budget without cutting the top - line number . Pentagon leaders are eying 2 to 3 percent real growth in the Pentagon ’ s budget for the areas that need it most : force structure and modernization . Two - thirds of the $ 100 billion cost savings spread out over the next five years will come from trimming overhead on a department - wide basis . That money will be directly transferred into the force structure and modernization accounts , Lynn explained . The rest of the cost savings would come from “ " developing efficiencies within those force structure and modernization accounts , " ” he added . “ " If we ' re able to reduce overhead accounts where we don ' t need those increases , shift it to the force structure and modernization accounts , we can get that 2 to 3 percent [ real growth ] and we can do what we think we need to do in technology refresh , modernization , protecting quality of life and all those critical factors . " ” Lynn warned that in order to get to the $ 100 billion in savings the Pentagon leadership and the military services will have to identify “ " lower priority programs " ” that are not going to be part of future budgets . On January 6 , 2011 , Secretary of Defense Robert Gates outlined the $ 100 bn worth of savings planned over the next 5 fiscal years ( FY2012 - FY2016 ) designed to be reinvested in military capabilities , plus additional 5 year savings worth $ 78 bn designed to contribute to deficit reduction . These include , among other things , the consolidation of numbered air force staff , the disestablishment of JFCOM and the Second Fleet , Air Mobility Command fuel savings , multi - year procurement policies , and cancellations of hundreds of report requirements ( many of them dating back to the 1950s ) . In May 2011 Lynn indicated that the department is moving to balance how much it invests in counterinsurgency versus more traditional military capabilities . " I think you can decide which of those two you want to emphasize , " said William Lynn . " I don ' t think you can eliminate either . I don ' t think that ' s possible . " Lynn said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been more difficult than had been expected , but the U . S . military must have enough troops and the right kind of training , equipment and family support for future long conflicts , which he said are still " plausible . " In July Lynn announced that he would leave DoD . " Bill Lynn has provided outstanding advice and counsel to this department and to the nation over the course of his long career , " Leon Panetta said in a statement released on 7 July . " I will rely on his experience and expertise during this transition period . His service will be greatly missed . " He left his office on October 5 , 2011 . On January 26 , 2012 DRS Technologies announced Lynn ' s selection to lead Finmeccanica ’ s efforts in the U . S . and as such has been elected Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of DRS Technologies .