William Perry is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at
Stanford University, with a joint appointment at the Freeman Spogli
Institute for International Studies and the School of Engineering. He
is a senior fellow at FSI and serves as co-director of the Preventive
Defense Project, a research collaboration of Stanford and Harvard
universities.
Perry was the 19th Secretary of Defense of the United States, serving
from February 1994 to January 1997. He previously served as Deputy
Secretary of Defense (1993-94) and as Under Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering (1977-81). He is on the board of directors of
several emerging high-tech companies and is Chairman of Global
Technology Partners.
His previous business experience includes serving as a laboratory
director for General Telephone and Electronics (1954-64) and as
founder and president of ESL Inc. (1964-77), executive vice president
of Hambrecht & Quist Inc. (1981-85), and founder and chairman of
Technology Strategies & Alliances (1985-93). He is a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
From 1946 to 1947, Perry was an enlisted man in the Army Corps of
Engineers, and served in the Army of Occupation in Japan. He joined
the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1948 and was a second lieutenant
in the Army Reserves from 1950 to 1955. He has received a number of
awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1997), the
Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1980 and 1981), and
Outstanding Civilian Service Medals from the Army (1962 and 1997), the
Air Force (1997), the Navy (1997), the Defense Intelligence Agency
(1977 and 1997), NASA (1981), and the Coast Guard (1997). He received
the American Electronic Association's Medal of Achievement (1980), the
Eisenhower Award (1996), the Marshall Award (1997), the Forrestal
Medal (1994), and the Henry Stimson Medal (1994). The National Academy
of Engineering selected him for the Arthur Bueche Medal in 1996. He
has received awards from the enlisted personnel of the Army, Navy, and
the Air Force.
He has received decorations from the governments of Albania, Bahrain,
France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine, and
the United Kingdom. He received a B.S. and M.S. from Stanford
University and a Ph.D. from Penn State, all in mathematics.