Former Defense Innovation Board chair Michael R. Bloomberg speaks at the board’s fall meeting, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2022. (DoD/ Lisa Ferdinando)
WASHINGTON — The new Pentagon leadership has not taken steps to dismiss members of the Defense Business Board and Defense Innovation Board, but there was a spate of resignations before President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term on Monday.
A Pentagon spokesman told Breaking Defense today that there was no announcement on a broader shakeup on those two boards “at this time.” However, he noted several recent resignations.
For the Defense Business Board — a collection of private sector executives appointed by the Secretary of Defense for business management advice — Chairwoman Deborah Lee James, the Obama-era Air Force Secretary, resigned effective Monday, along with Sally Donnelly, Oscar Munoz, Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah and former US Central Command Chief Joseph Votel.
“Board Vice Chair, Ms. Linnie Haynesworth, will serve as acting chair until a new board chair is appointed,” the spokesman wrote in a short statement. “No new members have been appointed at this time.”
Over on the Defense Innovation Board — an advisory group focused on emerging technology and innovation — Chairman Michael Bloomberg stepped aside effective Jan. 14. Other recent resignations also included LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry and retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen.
So far, Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses has not yet appointed new members to the DIB, the spokesman said, meaning six members remain.
While the Pentagon has not disbanded these two boards, the Department of Homeland Security terminated similar boards this week. Such boards have also acted as political volleyballs in the past.
In December 2020, with just over a month left in office, Trump’s Pentagon swapped out nine members of the Defense Business Board, which has traditionally been non-partisan, with loyalists; similar moves happened at other advisory committees around the department. By February 2021, then Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered hundreds of Pentagon advisory board members to resign, a move that essentially purged the Trump administration’s last-minute appointments.
