Sean O'Keefe

Sean Charles O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956) is a university professor at Syracuse University Maxwell School, former chairman of Airbus Group, Inc., former Secretary of the Navy, former Administrator of NASA, and former chancellor of Louisiana State University (LSU).

He is a former member of the board of directors of DuPont.

He came to NASA without formal training in science or engineering (as was the case with James E. Webb who was NASA administrator from 1961 to 1968).

O'Keefe's tenure at NASA can be divided into roughly three equal periods, each marked by a single problem or event of overriding importance.

In 1973, he graduated from Wheeler High School in North Stonington, Connecticut.

He attended Loyola University in New Orleans, graduating in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

He subsequently acquired his Master of Public Administration degree in 1978 from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

After receiving his master's degree, he began his career as Presidential Management Intern and later was a budget analyst for the Department of Defense.

He served on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations staff for eight years, and was Staff Director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

In 1989, O'Keefe became Comptroller for the Department of Defense.

Dubbed by some "the Grim Reaper," he led efforts to cut defense programs the Pentagon's senior leadership saw as unnecessary or wasteful.

He was lauded for his handling of the financial aspects of the Gulf War, managing to collect large payments from U.S. allies which significantly offset the cost of the war.

On July 7, 1992 President George H. W. Bush named him Acting Secretary of the Navy.

He subsequently became permanent Secretary of the Navy and held that position until Bush left office on January 20, 1993.

Although his time in office was less than seven months, it was eventful.

Originally appointed to help clean up the "Tailhook" sexual harassment scandal, he also dealt with the draw down of Navy- and Marine Corps forces in the wake of the end of the Cold War, and he issued a new strategy policy statement for the sea services called "...From the Sea".

After Bush left office, O'Keefe was Professor of Business Administration, Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University.

He next became the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, an endowed chair at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

From January to December 2001, O'Keefe served as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush administration, a job that strengthened his reputation as a "bean counter".

O'Keefe became NASA administrator on December 21, 2001 after the United States Senate confirmed his nomination.

In the period December 2001 through January 2003, O'Keefe eliminated a $5 billion cost overrun in the construction of the International Space Station.

In 2003, he dealt with the Space Shuttle Columbia accident and its aftermath.

In 2003, it was claimed, O'Keefe warned Hansen not to discuss humanity's role in global warming.

"The administrator [Mr. O'Keefe] interrupted me," Dr. Hansen said in the New York Times, "he told me that I should not talk about dangerous anthropogenic interference, because we do not know enough or have enough evidence for what would constitute dangerous anthropogenic interference."

O'Keefe's spokesperson said O'Keefe had not meant to admonish Hansen or suggest that research efforts should be cut.

The New York Times reported that "Dr. Franco Einaudi, director of the NASA Earth Sciences Directorate at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Dr. Hansen's supervisor, said he was at the meeting between Dr. Hansen and Mr. O'Keefe. Dr. Einaudi confirmed that Mr. O'Keefe had interrupted the presentation to say that these were "delicate issues" and there was a lot of uncertainty about them. But, he added: "Whether it is obvious to take that as an order or not is a question of judgment.

Personally, I did not take it as an order."

O'Keefe responded to President Bush's 'Vision for Exploration' by hiring retired Navy Admiral Craig E. Steidle who had previously led development of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as an associate administrator in charge of NASA's new Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD).

He developed a mission architecture for lunar exploration based on four launches of medium-lift vehicles and four space rendezvous per mission, which was immediately scrapped by Michael Griffin upon his arrival at NASA.

NASA started over with the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), sixteen months after Bush's Vision for Space Exploration announcement.

From January 2004 through February 2005, O'Keefe re-organized NASA to start working on President George W. Bush's newly announced Vision for Space Exploration to send humans to the Moon and Mars.

In this capacity, and he issued a new strategy policy statement for the agency called "Back to the Moon and Beyond”.

One of O'Keefe's most controversial decisions occurred in January 2004, when he cancelled an upcoming Space Shuttle mission to service the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

O'Keefe claimed that, in light of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the mission would be too risky, since any potential shuttle damage while visiting the Hubble, would mean insufficient fuel to dock with the space station as a "safe haven".

While members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) supported this decision numerous astronomers felt that the Hubble telescope was valuable enough to merit the risk.

This resulted in strained relations between astronomers and the astronaut community.

In the buildup to the 2004 presidential election, a dispute in the press occurred between O'Keefe and NASA climatologist James Hansen.

O'Keefe was born in Monterey, California, to Patricia (née Carlin; died 2010) and Patrick Gordon O'Keefe (born c. 1927), both natives of New Orleans.

Patrick O'Keefe became a United States Navy engineer and over the years worked on nuclear submarines.

The family lived on several naval bases during O'Keefe's childhood.