Captain, United States Navy (Retired)
Board of Managers, National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC
Captain William Ostendorff served as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration from 2007 to 2009 and as a commissioner of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2010 to 2016.
Captain Ostendorff is an advisory council member for the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations, a member of the Board of Directors for Information Systems Laboratories, Chairman of the Energy Solutions Decommissioning Nuclear Safety Review Board for Three Mile Island Unit 2, Independent Manager on the Board of Global Laser Enrichment LLC and Co-Chair of the Committee of Risk of Nuclear War and Nuclear Terrorism of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Captain Ostendorff graduated the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in systems engineering and was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1976 until his retirement in 2002. During his naval career, he served as Commanding Officer of the USS Norfolk, Director of the Submarine Force Commanding Officer School, Commander of Submarine Squardron Six and finally Director of the U.S. Naval Academy Math and Science Division. He returned to the Naval Academy as Distinguished Visiting Professor of National Security from 2016 to 2021.
As cousel for the House Armed Services Committee from 2003 to 2007, Captain Ostendoff was staff director of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, with oversight responsibilities for the Department of Energy’s Atomic Energy Defense Activities and the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense, Space and Intelligence Programs which totaled more than $50 billion in the annual defense authorization bill. He also worked as Director of the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy and Director of the Board on Global Science and Technology from 2009 to 2010 and research staff member for Institute for Defense Analyses from 2002 to 2003.
He earned his Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of Texas in 1984 and his Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law with distinction from Georgetown in 1992. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications.