Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) was appointed Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator on December 19, 2001, and resigned effective October 31, 2008. Lautenbacher graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964 and is now a retired Vice Admiral, having served 40 years in the navy. He received an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in applied mathematics. Lautenbacher started his own consulting business and primarily worked with Technology, Strategies & Alliances Inc., which services government defense and security agencies. He was also president and CEO of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education. As NOAA Administrator, Lautenbacher has headed many international government summits and conferences, such as the U.N. Framework for Climate Change, World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa (2002), World Meteorological Organization, Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ocean Ministerial Meetings (2002, 2005), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and he led the first Earth Observation Summit (2003), culminating in an agreement on the implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.