Mr. Everett E. "Skip" Hawthorne is the Deputy Director of Acquisition Policy in the Acquisition Approaches and Management organization. In that capacity, he is responsible for designing and implementing procedures for the development and oversight of defense acquisition programs and for reviewing new and modified DoD acquisition policy.

These duties were preceded by a military career spanning 28 years which included duties as a field artillery battalion commander and significant assignments managing acquisition programs and designing acquisition policy. In his last military position as Military Assistant to the Director, Strategic and Tactical Systems, OUSD(A&T) he was a key player in designing and implementing several of the department’s key acquisition reform initiatives and in the 1996 revision to the DoD acquisition regulations.

Mr. Hawthorne retired from the U.S. Army as a Colonel in August 1996 and joined the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization as a DOD Civilian immediately thereafter. He was assigned to the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Reform in 1998. He currently serves in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition as Deputy Director for Acquisition Policy and Chairman of the Defense Acquisition Policy Working Group. Mr. Hawthorne has been the principal architect of acquisition policy development in DoD since 2003.

Mr. Hawthorne holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Defense Systems Management College. He has completed the Harvard Senior Executive and National Security Studies Fellowship programs and is a Level III certified Acquisition Professional.