Commissioner Bio
Peter Levine
Appointed by the Honorable Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense
Hon. Peter Levine is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses, where he works on issues related to defense management, organizational reform, human resources management and acquisition policy. Levine is the author of Defense Management Reform: How to Make the Pentagon Work Better and Cost Less (Stanford University Press, 2020).
Recently, Levine served as a panel member for the National Academy for Public Administration Report on the Office of Personnel Management, a panel member for a National Academy of Sciences study on the acquisition workforce and a co-chair of the Independent Panel to Assess EMS Organizational Alternatives.
From April 2016 to January 2017, Levine served as Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. In this capacity, he was the principal assistant and advisor to the Secretary on military and civilian personnel policy and management. Levine also served as the Deputy Chief Management Officer (DCMO) of the Department of Defense, acting as the senior advisor to the Secretary on business transformation. He led the Secretary’s review of the Goldwater- Nichols Act and the Department’s efforts to achieve greater efficiency in management, headquarters and overhead functions.
Prior to his appointment as DCMO, Levine served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee from August 1996 to February 2015, including two years as Staff Director, eight years as General Counsel, and eight years as minority counsel, where he was responsible for providing legal advice on legislation and nominations, and advised on acquisition policy, civilian personnel policy and defense management issues affecting the Department of Defense. Levine also served as counsel to Senator Carl Levin of Michigan and as counsel to the Subcommittee on Oversight of Governmental Management of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.
Levine holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.