Hon. Robert F. Hale

The Honorable Robert F. Hale is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton.  From 2009 until 2014 Mr. Hale served as Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Defense. During those years he managed $600 billion budgets in time of war and oversaw efforts by the Department to minimize the problems caused by the 2013 sequestration and government shutdown.  He also made significant financial improvements in defense financial management, making tangible progress toward auditable financial statements and establishing a course-based certification program for defense financial managers. From 1994 to 2001 Mr. Hale served as the head of Air Force financial management, managing that service’s budgets and spearheading efforts to create a test-based certification program.  Mr. Hale also spent 12 years as head of the defense group at the Congressional Budget Office, where he frequently testified as an expert witness before Congressional committees.  He was the Executive Director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers and held analytic and management positions at LMI government consulting and the Center for Naval Analyses.  Early in his career he served as a Navy officer. 

Mr. Hale served as a Commissioner on the recent National Commission on the Future of the Army and is a past member of the Defense Business Board.  Since 2001 he has been a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.  He is Level 3 certified in Defense Financial Management and is a Certified Defense Financial Manager (with acquisition specialty). 

Mr. Hale holds a B.S. with honors from Stanford University in statistics, an M.S. from Stanford in operations Research, and an MBA from the George Washington University.  He has received numerous awards from the Department of Defense and the federal government for distinguished public service including the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, the Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the GAO/OMB/Treasury award for distinguished lifetime accomplishments in federal financial management.