Heidi Grant, the senior leader of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), has announced her retirement from the federal government after 32 years of service in the State. She will be the first permanent DoD civilian to manage DSCA in its 50-year existence, and it is speculated that she will work for Boeing.
Ms Heidi H. Grant, a Senior Executive Service (SES) member, was named Director of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency in August 2020. She was in charge of the administration and implementation of all DoD security cooperation programmes and operations including the grant, loan, cash sale, or lease of defence goods, military training, and other defence-related services. Ms Grant is in charge of over 15,000 international military sales cases worth $620 billion with over 150 nations.
Ms Grant was the Director of the Defence Technology Security Administration prior to her present position. She was in charge of creating and enforcing DoD technology security rules for foreign transfers of defence-related products, services, and technologies. Concurrently, she was the Chairman of the National Military Information Sharing Policy Committee, which was in charge of developing and implementing the United States' National Disclosure Policy, which governs the disclosure of classified military information to other countries.
“While she has been considering the transition for some time, Director Grant felt the time was right now, having recently led DSCA to its full operational capability (FOC) phase of organizational transformation, 15 months after becoming the first DoD civilian to lead DSCA in its 50-year history,” Pentagon spokesman Michael Howard said.
Asked about Grant’s future employer, Howard said, “At an appropriate time, Director Grant may share her future career plans, but in the near term, she remains fully focused on carrying out her responsibilities and fulfilling official commitments up until the leadership transition.”
Effective November 7, DSCA Deputy Director Mr Jed Royal will assume duties as Acting DSCA Director.
