Charles F. Bolden

Major General Charles Bolden, Jr. was NASA administrator from 2009 to 2017. He is now president and CEO of the Bolden Consulting Group LLC. His 34-year career with the Marine Corps included 14 years working in NASA’s Astronaut Office. He traveled into orbit four times aboard the Space Shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions and piloting two others. His flights included deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew. He also served as chief of NASA’s Safety Division in the wake of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. As NASA administrator, Maj. Gen. Bolden oversaw the shift toward commercial space initiatives handling ISS resupply and created the Space Technology Mission Directorate, responsible for developing the technology to make future exploration missions successful. His tenure included the Mars Curiosity Rover landing, the Juno mission that is enhancing knowledge of Jupiter, and an increase in the number of Earth-observation satellites. He was a U.S. Department of State Science Envoy for Space (2018–19) and is an independent director of the LORD Corporation, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.