Before he retired Terry Little was the Department of Defense’s
most seasoned manager of major acquisition programs with over 25 years experience leading major weapons acquisitions. He is
also noted as one of the Department’s most forceful advocates for, and practitioners of, acquisition innovation. Many
cite him as the best program manager in recent DoD history. He has managed seven major programs during his career; he led
three of those through the entire development phase and into production.
When he left federal
service in 2008 Terry was the Acquisition Advisor to the Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). He was a re-employed
annuitant acting as the Director’s primary advisor and representative on acquisition matters. He left that position
in 2008 and is currently a consultant with the Spectrum Group in Alexandria VA.
At his retirement
from federal service in January 2006 Mr. Little was the Executive Director of the Missile Defense Agency—an organization
of approximately 8000 employees. This was the senior civilian position in the Agency and one Mr. Little held for more than
two years while concurrently acting as the Director of Kinetic Energy Interceptor Program—a new $14B program to develop
a mobile boost phase ballistic missile interceptor. He assumed the latter position when he came to the Agency in September
2002 after being the first Director of the Air Force Acquisition Center of Excellence.
Before moving to Washington in 2002 he concurrently directed both the Joint Air-to-Surface
Standoff Missile (JASSM) and the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) programs. Both are models for acquisition innovation in the DoD.
Mr. Little also headed the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) for the first five years of the program; JDAM was a pilot program
for using commercial practices to buy military-unique systems and was one of the most successful major defense acquisition
programs in the past 25 years. His experience before JDAM was in leading classified programs.
Mr. Little served 8 years active duty in the Air Force after graduating from Officer
Training School as a Distinguished Graduate in 1967. He continued serving this nation when he became a civilian Air Force
operations research analyst at Eglin Air Force Base Florida in 1975. He moved to the weapon acquisition field in 1980 as the
Director of a major classified program. He was selected for the Senior Executive Service in January 1997. He
is an Honorary Professor at the Defense Systems Management College and has presented case studies to every program manager
class at the College for the past 15 years. He is currently a member of the Board of Advisors at Columbia University’s
School for Project Leadership and was formerly a member of the Board of Governors of NASA’s of Project Management Academy.
Among his many awards for public service are:
2006 &
1996 Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award
2003 Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award for exceptional long-term Weapon System Acquisition accomplishments
William J. Perry Award for Program Management
David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award
Air Force Stewart Award for Excellence in Program Management
Mr. Little received a Bachelor of Science degree
from the University of Texas (1966) in mathematics; a Master of Science degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology
School of Engineering (1972) in systems analysis; and a master degree from the University of West Florida (1979) in business
administration. He is a distinguished graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces National Security Management
course as well as a graduate of both the Defense Systems Management College’s program manager and senior program manager
courses.
Mr. Little resides with his wife, Elaine, in Fairfax Station VA.
January
2009
.