Other Administration Appointees: A-E

Stephen Alexander Vaden
Former General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture

During Trump’s first term, Vaden was the general counsel of the Department of Agriculture, and a member of the Board of the Commodity Credit Corporation. After his time at the USDA, Vaden was appointed to serve as a justice on the Court of International Trade. Vaden operates his family farm in Union City, Tennessee.

Richard Fordyce
Former Administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency | Former Missouri Director of Agriculture

Fordyce, the owner of Fordyce Farms, spent three years as the director for the Missouri Department of Agriculture before working as the administrator of the Farm Service Agency at USDA during the first Trump administration. After his time at the Trump administration, he served as the business growth director for Agriculture at Osborn Barr Paramore.

Luke Lindberg
President and CEO of South Dakota Trade | Former Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at the Export-Import Bank

Lindberg, the president and CEO of South Dakota Trade, worked for the Export-Import Bank during Trump’s First administration. He earned the Distinguished Service Award for his time as chief of staff and chief strategy officer at the Export-Import Bank. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of District Export Councils. Lindberg is the son-in-law of Senate majority leader John Thune.

Michael Boren
Founder of Clearwater Analytics

Boren, the founder of Clearwater Analytics, is an Idaho investment consultant and republican campaign donor. He has founded six different companies and served as a volunteer fireman for Sawtooth Valley Rural Fire Department. He was also a board member of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

Dudley Hoskins
Counsel on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry | Former USDA Chief of Staff for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and Senior Advisor to the Secretary

Hoskins served as counsel on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and as the USDA’s chief of staff for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and senior advisor to the secretary under Trump. Before his time working for the Trump administration, he was public policy counsel for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Michael Ellis
Former Legal Advisor to the National Security Council under Trump

Ellis was general counsel of Rumble. He was on the National Security Council during the first Trump administration. He is also the general counsel of the House Intelligence Committee under Devin Nunes and was selected to be general counsel of the National Security Agency.

Paul Dabbar
Former Undersecretary for Science, Department of Energy

The Honorable Paul M. Dabbar served as the fourth undersecretary for Science at the Department of Energy. Prior to this role, he was a member of the department’s Environmental Management Advisory Board and a managing director at J.P. Morgan. Dabbar holds a BS from the US Naval Academy and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Pierre Gentin
Former Chief Legal Officer at McKinsey

Gentin was a chief legal officer at McKinsey, where he also served as a member of McKinsey’s leadership team. He was a partner in private law practice, a senior legal and risk officer at a global financial services firm and a lawyer with the US Department of Justice.

Stephen Feinberg
Former Chairman of the Intelligence Advisory Board Under Trump

Feinberg founded his company Cerberus Capital Management, where he serves as the CEO, in 1992. He served as the chairman of the Intelligence Advisory Board during Trump’s first administration from 2018 to 2021. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

Earl Matthews
Former Deputy Assistant to the President | Former Senior Director for Defense Policy and Strategy

Matthews served as deputy assistant to the President and senior director for Defense Policy and Strategy on the National Security Council staff during the first Trump administration. Before that, Matthews was the acting general counsel and later principal deputy general counsel of the US Army. Matthews is a military veteran and serves as a colonel in the Army Reserve.

Justin Overbaugh
Former Colonel in the US Army

Overbaugh, a retired Colonel in the US Army, culminated his service at the US Special Operations Command as a director of intelligence for a Joint Special Operations Command Task Force. He is also the recipient of the National Counterintelligence Executive’s 2014 Counterintelligence Operations award.

Emil Michael  
Former Chief Business Officer of Uber

Michael was the chief business officer of Uber. He served as a special assistant to the secretary of Defense when he was a White House fellow from 2009 to 2011. In addition to his time at Uber, he has worked as the COO of Klout, and as an advisor to various tech companies.

Elbridge “Bridge” Colby
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development

Colby is the co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative. From 2017 to 2018, he was the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development. Afterwards, Colby was director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Anthony J. Tata
Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy

During the first Trump administration, Tata served as the undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He also served for 28 years in the United States Army, as the chief operating officer of Washington, DC Public Schools, superintendent of Wake County (Raleigh, NC) Public School System and secretary of Transportation of North Carolina.

Bradley D. Hansell
Former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

After serving as special assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and on the National Security Council during the first Trump administration, he spent three years as a principal at Boston Consulting Group. He then went on to work as a venture partner at Outlander VC and an operating partner at Windage Partners.

Dale Marks
Former ED of the 96th Test Wing at Englin Air Force Base

Marks was the executive director of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base. Before that assignment, he was the deputy director of Strategy, Plans, Programming and Analysis for National Guard Bureau (NGB) Space Operations.

Keith Bass
Former Navy Commander

Bass, a retired navy commander, is the medical center director for West Texas VA Health Care System, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 17. He has led medical departments in the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House Medical Unit.

Sean Parnell
Former Combat Veteran and US Senate Candidate

Parnell is a Combat Veteran who served from 2004 to 2010 and earned two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart for his time in Afghanistan. Parnell ran for the US House in 2020 and the US Senate in 2021 in Pennsylvania.

Michael Jensen
Former Air Force Commander

Jensen, an Air Force Academy graduate, served in the military for more than 20 years before becoming a business executive in 2021. During his time in the Air Force, he was a 26th Special Tactics Squadron commander and a deputy commander of the 724th Special Tactics Group. He also served as a strategy lead in the Air Force’s Checkmate office at the Pentagon.

Robert P. Kadlec
Former Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)

Kadlec served as the assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) during the first Trump administration. He was an officer and physician in the US Air Force for more than 20 years. Recently, he served as the deputy staff director to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Daniel P. Driscoll
Senior Advisor to Vice President JD Vance

An army veteran serving as an armor officer from 2007 to 2011, Driscoll was deployed to Iraq and left the army ranking as a First Lieutenant. After his service, Driscoll worked in venture capital and private equity. Currently, Driscoll is a senior advisor to vice president JD Vance.

John Phelan
Private Investor

A major donor to the Trump campaign, Phelan founded Rugger Management LLC, a private investment firm. Phelan also co-founded MSD Capital, the private investment firm for Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. Phelan held an advisory position on the Spirit of America, a nonprofit that supports Ukraine and Taiwan defense.

Hung Cao
Navy Veteran, Politician

Cao, a refugee from Vietnam who immigrated to the US as a child, served 25 years in the Navy, with deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. After retiring as a captain, he entered politics, running unsuccessfully for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District in 2022 and later losing a challenge to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in 2024.

Dr. Troy Meink
Principal Deputy Director of the National Reconnaissance Office | Former Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space

Meink, the principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, served as the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space during the Obama administration. He joined the Air Force in 1988 and has served in several notable positions as a test engineer for missile defense systems and a KC-135 Tanker navigator.

Colonel Matthew Lohmeier
Former Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force and Space Force

Lohmeier was a fighter pilot and lieutenant colonel in the Air Force before he transferred to be a squadron commander in the Space Force. He wrote the 2021 book, Irresistible Revolution, and went on to host the Matt Lohmeier Show. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy and has a master’s degrees from the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.

David Fotouhi
Former Acting General Counsel for the EPA

Fotouhi is a partner in the DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher after serving as the acting general counsel and principle deputy counsel at the EPA during Trump’s first term. Before his time at the EPA, Fotouhi was part of Gibson Dunn’s Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort practice group.

Sean Donahue
Former Special Advisor in the Office of Land and Energy Management

Donahue was a special advisor in the Office of Land and Energy Management and an associate counsel at a solar energy company. He was part of President Trump’s transition team, serving as principal deputy general counsel.

John Jovanovic
Chief Strategy Officer at Asplundh

Before his nomination, Jovanovic served as chief strategy officer at Asplundh Tree Experts, LLC. He has been a senior advisor to Concordia since 2019 and was the CEO of Nova Fleet from 2021 to 2024. Additionally, he served as managing director for the Western Balkans and Aegean at the US International Development Finance Corporation. He is the son-in-law of Dr. Oz and a graduate of Princeton University and the Wharton School of Business.

Penny Schwinn
Former Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education

Schwinn served as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education. She was the deputy commissioner of Standards and Engagement, deputy commissioner of Special Populations and Monitoring and chief deputy commissioner of Academics at the Texas Education Agency. Schwinn was also the assistant secretary of Education of Delaware.