The Hon. David L. Norquist is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). He joined NDIA on May 1, 2022 bringing with him more than 30 years of public and private sector experience in national security and federal financial management.
Mr. Norquist previously served as the 34th Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2019 to 2021 and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Department of Defense (DoD), including managing the Pentagon’s budget and personnel. He led reforms in DoD business processes and realigned investments toward the challenges of multi-domain warfare. At the request of the Biden Administration, Mr. Norquist served as Acting Secretary of Defense and continued as Deputy Secretary until the Senate confirmed Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
From 2017 until 2019 as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer, he supported the National Defense Strategy (NDS) through the development and execution of the DoD’s annual budget of more than $680 billion. Mr. Norquist strengthened accountability to the taxpayer by implementing DoD’s first department-wide financial statement audit.
Mr. Norquist began his career in 1989 as a Presidential Management Fellow supporting Army intelligence as a program and budget analyst with assignments on the Army staff, a major command, a defense agency, and at an overseas field site.
Following his time with the Army, Mr. Norquist served for six years with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense as a professional staff member, where he focused on Air Force aircraft, munitions, ballistic missile defense and information assurance.
From 2002 to 2006, he served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the Office of the Comptroller. In 2006, President George W. Bush selected him as the first Senate-confirmed Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Homeland Security.
Between his stints in government service, Mr. Norquist was a partner with Kearney and Company, a certified public accounting firm.
Mr. Norquist was born in Concord, MA. He is a 1989 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he received a BA in Political Science and a Master’s in Public Policy. He also holds an MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.