Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer, Department of Defense
David L. Norquist was sworn in as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer on June 2, 2017 and serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on all budgetary and financial matters, including the development and execution of the Department’s annual budget of more than $600 billion. Mr. Norquist has over 28 years of experience in federal financial management and is a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM).
Prior to his current role in the Department of Defense he was a Partner with Kearney and Company, a CPA firm that provides audit, accounting and consulting services to the Federal government. His career as a federal employee included providing financial management leadership at virtually every level at which the Federal government spends or oversees the expenditure of money. This includes eight years with the Department of the Army working at Army Headquarters, at a Major Command and at a field site; five years as professional staff on the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Defense; and four years as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense in the office of the Comptroller.
From 2006 to the end of 2008, Mr. Norquist served as the first Senate confirmed Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Homeland Security. As CFO, he established a formal process to eliminate pervasive weaknesses in DHS’s financial statement and put DHS on its path to a clean audit opinion. From FY 2006 to FY 2008, DHS reduced the number of material weaknesses by 40% and the number of department-wide audit disclaimer conditions by 70%.
Mr. Norquist holds both a BA in Political Science and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and an MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. He co-authored DHS: The Road to a ‘Clean’ Opinion, Journal of Government Financial Management (Summer 2014) and is author of The Defense Budget: Is it Transformational? Joint Force Quarterly (Summer 2002).
He and his wife Stephanie reside in Virginia with their three children.