Sean O’Keefe has served as a presidential appointee on four occasions and service in two Administrations. He was NASA Administrator, Secretary of the Navy, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer at the Defense Department at various stages of his professional career in public service.
Between these public leadership roles, he’s been a member of the academic faculty at Syracuse University, Louisiana State University, and Pennsylvania State University. He served as Chancellor at LSU and later as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. subsidiary of the Airbus Group following service as a company officer at General Electric’s aviation subsidiary. He concluded his tenure as endowed chair in Leadership at the Syracuse Maxwell School, and retired as a University Professor in 2025, the most senior faculty appointment bestowed by the University and now a member of the emeritus faculty ranks.
O’Keefe began his public service as a Presidential Management Intern in the inaugural class of the program in 1978 and became a budget analyst at the Navy’s shipbuilding command. He went on serve on the staff of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and later as the staff director before his first nomination, Senate confirmation, and Presidential appointment at the Pentagon.
O’Keefe now occupies his time as a director on company boards and non-profit institutions, and grandparent on call with his wife of five decades as they attend to two very active grandsons.