Thomas Perdue was the former Principal Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Advanced Technology), where he led an initiative to reduce the timeline for development and fielding of new weapon systems. He was also responsible for formalizing the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) Program. The ACTD Program enabled the development and fielding of significant new military capabilities such as the Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, in less than half of the normal timeline. Previously, Mr. Perdue served as the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Ballistic Missile Defense) with oversight of BMD advanced technology and weapons concepts development activities.

Before serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense he was Senior Vice President and System Engineering Group Manager for SPARTA Inc., a principal architect and system engineer for the global strategic defense systems developed under the Strategic Defense Initiative. Mr. Perdue has also held a variety of positions within the government involving weapon system development and testing, including as the Chief Engineer for the Line-of-Sight Antitank (LOSAT) System and as the Project Manager for the Low-Altitude Defense (LoAD) System, a nuclear armed defense system designed to protect designated ICBM launch sites against nuclear attack.

Mr. Perdue has been a participant on several Defense Science Boards, and a committee member with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves a consultant within the defense industry on technology and system development strategies and management processes.

Mr. Perdue has a BSEE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, performed graduate studies in operations research at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and holds a masters degree in management from MIT where he was a Sloan Fellow. Mr. Perdue and his wife, Linda, reside in Alexandria, VA.