Eric Chewning
Eric Chewning | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, military veteran, government official |
| Years active | 2000s–present |
| Known for | Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy |
Eric Chewning is a U.S. entrepreneur, military veteran, former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense, and currently serves as Executive Vice President of Strategy & Development at HII, the nation’s foremost shipbuilding company and a prominent partner in defense and technology sectors.
Military service
Following the events of September 11, Chewning transitioned from a career in Wall Street investment banking to join the U.S. Army. After completing Officer Candidate School and training as a military intelligence officer, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment and deployed to Iraq in 2004 as a tactical intelligence officer. During his deployment, he contributed to the development of counterinsurgency strategies tailored for conventional Army units.
Together with Douglas Ollivant, Chewning co-wrote pivotal articles in Military Review that urged U.S. forces to move away from large forward operating bases and instead integrate closely with local Iraqi populations. Their strategy highlighted that effective counterinsurgency demands concurrent efforts in security operations, local force training, economic growth, and political institution building. They maintained that conventional troops achieve the greatest impact when embedded alongside indigenous security personnel within communities.
Drawing on firsthand combat experience in Iraq, their writings played a significant role in shaping ground force tactics for both U.S. and Iraqi units during the 2007 “Surge.” A 2006 New York Times opinion piece recognized their work as “a good blueprint” for enhancing military outcomes in Iraq. In 2010, Ollivant and Chewning further detailed essential military, political, and economic measures required to sustain a successful partnership between the U.S. and Iraq after troop withdrawals.
Business experience
In 2008, Chewning re-entered the private sector by joining global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company as a partner. At McKinsey, he advised financial sponsors and corporate executives across aerospace, defense, government services, and space sectors. His expertise centered on corporate strategy development, mergers and acquisitions advisory, and integration following mergers. Chewning holds an MBA from The University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industrial Policy
In October 2017, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis appointed Chewning as Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy (currently titled Industrial Policy). His role concentrated on the nexus of technology innovation, industrial operations, and national security, advocating a geoeconomic framework to counteract global pressures jeopardizing the U.S. defense industrial base.
Chewning directed the comprehensive government-wide evaluation of the manufacturing and defense industrial base as mandated by President Trump’s Executive Order 13806. The resulting unclassified report identified five principal challenges:
- Budget uncertainty due to sequestration impacting DoD
- The erosion of U.S. manufacturing capabilities and capacity
- Ineffective business practices within the U.S. government
- Competitive industrial policies from foreign nations, notably China
- Declining STEM education and trade skills within the U.S. workforce
This assessment detailed over 300 specific vulnerabilities in the industrial base, including risks associated with sole-source suppliers critical to military hardware. Chewning provided congressional testimony advocating for reforms to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) aimed at strengthening controls over technology transfers to China. These efforts contributed to enactment of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act within the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
In November 2018 at an Atlantic Council event, Chewning presented five key mechanisms for executing defense industrial policy: acquisition reforms, procurement strategies, direct DoD investments, regulatory examination of mergers through CFIUS and antitrust authorities, along with export control measures.
Chief of Staff to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense
In January 2019, Patrick Shanahan, then acting Secretary of Defense, named Chewning as chief of staff to both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense. An external commentator described him as "arguably the most intelligent individual in that environment." Throughout the summer of 2019, Chewning was instrumental in maintaining stability at the Pentagon during a period when three different individuals served as DoD Secretary within a single month.
Return to McKinsey
The Pentagon disclosed in January 2020 that Chewning would be leaving his position to rejoin McKinsey, the firm where he had been employed prior to his tenure at the Department of Defense.
Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense
Tenure: January 2019 – April 2020 Predecessor: Kevin Sweeney Successor: Jen Stewart
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Industrial Policy)
Tenure: October 2017 – January 2019 Predecessor: Jerry McGinn (acting) Successor: Jennifer Santos