Senior Advisor, CNQ Global Advisors
Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; former President and CEO, Textron Systems.
Read the bio →Ellen Lord is a Senior Advisor to CNQ Global Advisors, a global geopolitical and strategic advisory firm chaired by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Ellen operates at the intersection of national security and industrial technology. She served as a Senate-confirmed political appointee as Under Secretary of Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics in the Department of Defense from August 2017 until February 2018, during which time she oversaw the congressionally mandated bifurcation of the office into Acquisition and Sustainment and Research and Engineering. From February 2018 until January 2021 she served as the Under Secretary of Acquisition and Sustainment, responsible for all matters pertaining to acquisition; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; nuclear deterrence, chemical and biological defense; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base.
Ellen spent over 30 years at Textron, a global multi-industry corporation, focused on technology driven businesses ranging from automotive development, engineering and manufacturing and then aerospace and defense for, finishing at President and CEO of Textron Systems. After completing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Connecticut College, she earned a Masters degree in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire.
Currently, Ellen serves on multiple public and private company boards; acts as a Sr. Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and an Advisor at M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory; and works with multiple non-profit organizations including the U.S. Naval Institute as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors.