The National Security Roundtable

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
After a military career spanning 35 years, Lt. General Henry A. "Trey" Obering, one of the foremost experts and leading voices on missile defense, retired in 2009 as Director of the Missile Defense Agency. The MDA is a presidentially-chartered agency that is mandated by Congress to acquire and deploy, when directed, highly effective ballistic missile defense systems to protect the United States as well as forward-deployed and expeditionary elements of the U.S. armed forces and allies.

General Obering entered the Air Force in 1973 after completing the University of Notre Dame's ROTC program as a distinguished graduate. He received his pilot wings in 1975, received the Top Gun, Air-to-Air award during his F-4E training and flew operational assignments in the F-4E. Later assigned to the Space Shuttle program, General Obering participated in 15 space shuttle launches as a NASA orbiter project engineer, and was responsible for integrating firing room launch operations. Other assignments include tours with the Air Force Inspector General, the Defense Mapping Agency and Electronic Systems Center.

Prior to his assignment at MDA, General Obering planned and programmed 68 joint, Air Force and international programs with a $28 billion budget as Mission Area Director for Information Dominance on the Air Staff.

General Obering received his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering (cum laude) from University of Notre Dame and his Master of Science in astronautical engineering from Stanford University. He is a distinguished graduate from both the Squadron Officer School and the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama as well as a distinguished graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C. General Obering is currently, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading strategy and technology consulting firm.