Federal 100: Ellen Lord
Name:
Ellen Lord
Title:
Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment
Organization:
Defense Department
Reimagining acquisition. Since leaving her post as CEO of Textron Systems to enter government service, Lord has been working tirelessly to reform DOD's acquisition system. She regularly engages with representatives of companies, trade associations and the media and holds technology-focused industry days to garner ideas on how to diversify the contractor base in areas such as drone technology. In 2019, Lord spearheaded major changes in defense acquisition, including revamping how the department evaluates and buys software through the Defense Innovation Board's Software and Acquisition Practices Study, the Adaptive Acquisition Framework and the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification standard for defense contracts.