Dr. Dov S. Zakheim
Dr. Dov S. Zakheim is a Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton where he is a leader in the firm’s global defense business, working with U.S. Combatant Commanders and allied and coalition ministries of defense worldwide.
From 2001 to April 2004 he served as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense, acting as the Secretary of Defense’s principal advisor on financial and budgetary matters, developing and managing the world’s largest budgets, overseeing all aspects of the Department’s accounting and auditing systems, and negotiating five major international defense agreements. From 2002-2004 Dr. Zakheim was DOD’s coordinator of civilian programs in Afghanistan. He also helped organize both the June 2003 UN donors’ conference on Iraq reconstruction and the October 2003 Madrid Donors’ Conference.
From 1987 to 2001, he was both corporate vice president of System Planning Corporation, a technology, and analysis firm based in Arlington, VA, and chief executive officer of its subsidiary, SPC International Corp. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-Governor Bush.
From 1985 to March 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), playing an active role in the Department's system acquisition, strategic planning, programming and budget processes. Dr. Zakheim held several other DOD posts from 1981 to 1985. Earlier, he was a principal analyst in the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office.
Dr. Zakheim serves on numerous government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. His government service includes two terms on the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (1991-93), the Task Force on Defense Reform (1997), the Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools (1998), and the Defense Science Board task force on "The Impact of DOD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry" (2000). He currently chairs the National Intelligence Council’s International Business Practices Advisory Panel, and is a member of the Defense Business Board, which he helped establish; the Commission on Wartime Contracting; the Defense Science Board’s Urgent Operational Needs task force; the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Board; and the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel.
A 1970 graduate of Columbia University with a B.A., summa cum laude, Dr. Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He holds a doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, where he held three fellowships. Dr. Zakheim is a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and was an adjunct Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct Scholar of the Heritage Foundation. He has been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was a Presidential Scholar.
The author of a dozen books or monographs, and of numerous articles, Dr. Zakheim has lectured and provided print, radio and television commentary on national defense and foreign policy issues domestically and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his government, professional and civic work, including the Defense Department’s highest civilian award in 1986, 1987, and 2004.
profile updated March 2009
