William A. Owens
Trustee, Carnegie Corporation of New York

William A. Owens is chairman and CEO of AEA Holdings, the holding company for AEA Investors and Aetos Capital. Previously, he was president and chief executive officer of Nortel Networks, chief executive officer and chairman of Teledesic LLC and president, chief operating officer and vice chairman of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the nation's largest employee-owned high-technology company.

Previously, Admiral Owens, served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s second-ranking military officer. He was responsible for reorganizing and restructuring the armed forces in the post-Cold War era. Widely recognized for bringing commercial high technology into the U.S. Department of Defense, Owens was the architect of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), an advanced systems technology approach to military operations. RMA represents the most significant change in the system of requirements, budgets, and technology for the U.S armed forces since World War II.

From 1989 to 1991 he was the Commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in Europe and from 1991 to 1993, Owens was deputy chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Warfare Requirements and Assessments. In 1990 and 1991 he served as the senior military assistant to Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney. In 1988, Owens served as director of the Office of Program Appraisal for the Secretary of the Navy, and, in 1987, as commander of Submarine Group Six, the Navy’s largest submarine group. Earlier in his career, he commanded Submarine Squadron Four, and the submarines USS Sam Houston, and USS City of Corpus Christi.

Owens has authored more than 50 articles on national security. His latest book, Lifting the Fog of War, was published in April 2000. A 1962 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, he also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in politics, philosophy and mathematics from Oxford University. In addition, William Owens has a master’s degree in management from George Washington University. He is a member of the board of directors of several public companies, sits on the Defense Policy Board, and on several not for profit boards.