Honorable John E. Whitley was confirmed on September 18, 2018 and sworn-in on September 26, 2018 as the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management and Comptroller). Prior to this appointment, Mr. Whitley served as a senior fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Mr. Whitley was born in Florida and grew up in Western Maryland. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), and Ph.D in Economics Degree at the University of Chicago.

He previously served as a healthcare analyst at the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, and an adjunct professor at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Additionally, Mr. Whitley served as Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation at the Department of Homeland Security, and an Operations Research Analyst within the Office of the Secretary of Defense in what is now the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation. Mr. Whitley has also worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide in Australia. He served in the Army in the Second Ranger Battalion.