H. Lee Buchanan III

H. Lee Buchanan III was raised in Nashville, TN, and educated at Vanderbilt University (B.S. in Electrical Engineering, 1971; M.S. in Electrical Engineering, 1972) and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. in Applied Physics, 1985).

Buchanan joined the United States Navy in 1971, and served as a naval flight officer from 1971 to 1978. He left the Navy in 1978, but remained a Captain in the United States Navy Reserve until 2001. In 1979, he became senior physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He left the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1982, joining Titan Corp. as Division Manager for Applied Science. He joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency (later renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1985, culminating in his appointment as its Deputy Director in March 1996.

On September 9, 1998, President of the United States Bill Clinton nominated Buchanan as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisitions) and Buchanan subsequently held this office from October 2, 1998 until January 20, 2001.

Upon leaving office, Buchanan joined Paladin Capital Group. He was a Board member of crowdsourcing company OmniCompete from 2011 until its acquisition by Innocentive in January 2012.