Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that Vayl Oxford has been selected as the new director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, succeeding Shari Durand, who retired on May 12.
Oxford most recently was a national security executive policy advisor at the Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. During the Bush administration, Oxford led the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and prior to that he was director for counterproliferation at the White House. He also had a brief stint at Northrop Grumman directing the company’s nuclear detection efforts.