Former University Chancellor Sean O’Keefe is becoming the chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association, the country’s leading defense industry that promotes national security, according to an EADS news release.
“Our national defense industry is a major engine for economic growth and job creation, and I’m pleased to be elected chairman of an association that is advancing the interests of our nation and all members of the defense industry in an increasingly competitive global marketplace,” O’Keefe said Tuesday in the release.
O’Keefe was the University’s chancellor from 2005 to 2008. When O’Keefe resigned, former LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Stewart Slack speculated O’Keefe was pressured into resignation once current LSU System President John Lombardi was appointed.
O’Keefe was succeeded by current Chancellor Michael Martin.
After leaving the University, O’Keefe was the vice president of the General Electric Company’s Technology Infrastructure sector and then became the CEO of EADS North America, the second-largest aerospace and defense company in the world.
Before coming to the University, O’Keefe served as NASA’s tenth administrator and served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush’s administration.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]