William J. Perry 

Member of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC). 

Born on October 11, 1927, Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. 

Received B.S. (1949) and M.A. (1950) degrees from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1957. 

From 1954 to 1964 - Director of the Electronic Defense Laboratories of Sylvania/GTE in California. 

1964 to 1977 - President of ESL, Inc., an electronics firm that he helped found. 

1977 to 1981 - served as Under Secretary of Defense for research and engineering, responsible for weapon systems procurement and research and development. Among other achievements, he was instrumental in the development of stealth aircraft technology.  

1981 - 1985 - man-aging director of Hambrecht and Quist, San Francisco investment banking firm that. 

1986 - 1993 - held positions as chairman of Technology Strategies Alliances; professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University; co-director of Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control. 

1993 - returned to the Pentagon as Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1994 - 1997 - US Secretary of Defense.

Nowadays - Professor at Stanford University with joint appointment in the School of Engineering and the Institute for International Studies.