Brad Berkson (born February 26, 1963) is an American businessman and former government official who served as the

Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation The Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) is a principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The postholder, as chartered under United States ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

. Berkson also served as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness, now termed

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, formerly known as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness, is one of three assistant secretaries reporting to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Su ...

. Berkson led

Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by president George W. Bush an ...

' Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance Task Force."Gates Forms Task Force to Promote Intelligence, Surveillance for Warfighters"
Berkson served in the Bush administration and remained in the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

until April, 2009.

Early life and education

Berkson was born in

Gallup, New Mexico Zuni: ''Kalabwaki'' , settlement_type = City , nickname = "Indian Capital of the World" , motto = , image_skyline = Gallup, New Mexico.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption ...

. He graduated from the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

in 1985 with a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in petroleum engineering and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1991.

Career

He was an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

for

Exxon Corporation ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30 ...

who worked on the

Prudhoe Bay Prudhoe Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 2,174 people, up from just five residents in the 2000 census; however, at any give ...

field on

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

's North Slope. After

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, Berkson joined

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

, where he became a partner in 1997. After starting a company in 2000 which sold to N E W Customer Service Companies Inc six months later, he was named president at NEW. In February 2003, Berkson joined the

Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out aut ...

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

. In 2004, he became the senior logistician for Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...

, a post now titled

. In May 2005, Berkson was chosen by Rumsfeld to serve as Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation, a position retitled

. He served in that post through the end of the Bush administration and assisted Secretary

throughout the transition to the

until April 2009. During his last year at the Pentagon Secretary

tapped Berkson to head his Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance Task Force. In April 2009, Berkson left

. He joined several boards including

Boeing Defense, Space & Security Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is a division (business unit) of The Boeing Company based in Arlington, Virginia. It is responsible for defense and aerospace products and services. It was formerly known as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems ...

, DryFire, SecureNet, and GEM Mobile Treatment Services. He chaired both the National Defense Business Institute and CEVA Government Services, a subsidiary of

CEVA Logistics CEVA Logistics is a global logistics and supply chain company in both freight management and contract logistics with US$12 billion in revenues. Its head office is in Marseille, France, and it was founded in 2007, as a merger of TNT Logistics and ...

. In 2014, he became CEO of N12 Technologies, the first industrial scale producer of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes for use in strengthening and high performance

carbon fiber reinforced plastic Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

materials. He left N12 in 2018 and became a senior advisor to various startups including Wheeli, a long-distance ride-sharing app, and SeatAssignMate.com, an interactive e-mail

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is cons ...

company. In June 2021, Berkson joined RocketStar, Inc. as its President, and in 2022 also joined one if its partner firms, Miles Space, Inc. as its COO, a position he continues to hold.

Honors and awards

Berkson was awarded the

Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service is the highest award that is presented by the Secretary of Defense, to a private citizen, politician, non-career federal employee, or foreign national. It is presented for exception ...

in 2009. That same year he was also named a Significant Sig by the

Sigma Chi Fraternity Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkson, Brad United States Department of Defense officials 1963 births Living people George W. Bush administration personnel New Mexico Republicans McKinsey & Company people Harvard Business School alumni University of Tulsa alumni