Commission on Wartime Contracting

  • Full Screen
  • Wide Screen
  • Narrow Screen
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Robert J. Henke
Robert J. Henke

Robert J. Henke

Commissioner
Appointed 2008 by then Senate Minority Leader McConnell

Robert J. Henke was nominated and confirmed in 2005 to serve as Assistant Secretary for Management at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and served in that position until January 2009.

Mr. Henke was responsible for the Department's budget ($93.7 billon requested for fiscal year 2009); financial policy, systems, and operations; performance management; audit and internal controls; acquisition and logistics; and real property management. He served simultaneously as VA's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Acquisition Officer, two statutory positions.

Prior to that appointment, Mr. Henke served as the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) at the Department of Defense (DoD). In that capacity, he was the principal advisor to the DoD Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer. He was responsible for a broad range of financial-management issues including development, justification, and execution of DoD's budget, and the formulation of DoD-wide financial and accounting policy.

He served as a Professional Staff Member with the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense and as a Presidential Management Intern with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management & Comptroller). Previously, he was with General Electric Company, where he completed GE's Financial Management Program. As a U.S. Navy officer, Mr. Henke deployed overseas for Operation Enduring Freedom, and served in combat during Operation Desert Storm.

Mr. Henke is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts in Government & International Relations, and earned a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

You are here: About Commissioners Robert J. Henke