EMERSON N. GARDNER
Lieutenant General Emerson N. Gardner (USMC, Ret.) is one of the nation’s foremost experts on government budgeting processes and programmatic analysis, with particular expertise in the defense and aerospace markets. He currently serves on a Defense Business Board Task Force charged with reducing overhead and improving business operations in the Department of Defense .
Most recently, Lt.Gen. Gardner served as the Principal Deputy Director and acting Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In those positions he led independent evaluations of all major defense programs and was responsible for the development of the Pentagon’s $3 trillion, six-year Future Year Defense Plan. Previously, he was the Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Programs and Resources, where he was directly responsible for the integration and execution of all aspects of the Corps’ $33 billion annual budget.
Lt.Gen. Gardner completed 37 years of distinguished service as a Marine officer in 2010. His operational career highlights included tours as a Presidential Command Pilot in HMX-1 (Marine One), tours in Europe and Japan, and command at the squadron and Marine Expeditionary Unit levels in combat and expeditionary operations. As a flag officer, he managed military operations in Afghanistan and the Pacific theater.
Lt.Gen. Gardner is a cum laude graduate of Duke University. As an Olmsted Scholar he did two years of graduate work in Goettingen, Germany, and also attended the Norwegian Defense College and the National Security Seminar at the Maxwell School of International Relations.