Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is rejoining the General Dynamics board of directors, the contractor announced Wednesday, the latest in the retired Marine general's moves to re-enter the world he left when he became the head of the Pentagon more than two years ago.
The board voted to approve Mattis, who resigned as defense secretary in December, to join the board effective immediately.
Mattis first joined the GD board in August 2013 after retiring from the Marine Corps. He was required to resign from the board, divest his stock and recuse himself from all matters involving the company for one year when he became the Pentagon's top civilian in January 2017.
President Donald Trump required political appointees to sign a pledge promising not to lobby the agencies they worked for five years after leaving the federal government. This pledge is unlikely to affect Mattis, since board members infrequently lobby agencies directly and instead focus on oversight of the running of the company, approving dividends or compensation.
In addition to rejoining the board of General Dynamics, Mattis also returned to another of his pre-Pentagon jobs as a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in May. He previously worked at Hoover from 2013 until he became defense secretary in 2017.
General Dynamics, the fifth largest U.S. defense contractor, sells a variety of weaponry and services to the Pentagon, including ammunition, information technology services, communications equipment and ships. Its subsidiary, Electric Boat, is one of two companies building the new Columbia-class nuclear submarine. Another marine-focused subsidiary, Bath Iron Works, is building the Navy's new guided-missile destroyer.
Some other members of the General Dynamics board previously worked in the Pentagon as well, including Rudy deLeon, a former deputy Defense secretary, and retired Adm. Cecil Haney, the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command.
Mattis, while he was still at the Pentagon, faced questions about blurring lines between the Defense Department and defense industry over a much-fought-over $10 billion cloud computing contract known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI.
Oracle, which lost its bid for the contract, raised issues about two meetings Mattis had with high-ranking officials from Amazon, the company considered to be the front-runner for JEDI project.
The JEDI program has also prompted questions about the so-called revolving door between the Pentagon and defense industry. Oracle alleged that there was conflict of interest in the procurement process favoring Amazon after an Amazon employee joined the Pentagon, then left to return to a job at Amazon.
Both the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that the Pentagon had not acted improperly, but Defense Secretary Mark Esper has paused the program while reviews it after both the president and members of Congress voiced public concerns.
It's common for former defense officials to take positions in industry after leaving the Pentagon. Just last month, former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead was elected chairman of the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corp.'s board of directors. Retired Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, who most recently served as Mattis' chief of staff, also joined the shipbuilder's board.
Multiple members of the Obama-era Pentagon have also found employment on corporate boards.
Former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work joined Raytheon's board of directors just one month after leaving the Defense Department in 2017. Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the former chief of naval operations, sits on the board of BAE Systems. And former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James is on Textron's board of directors.
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