Senior Vice President, Leidos
Lieutenant General William Bender (USAF, Ret.) serves as the Senior Vice President for Strategic Accounts and Government Relations at Leidos, Inc. He strengthens and advances relationships with customers and advances strategic initiatives to foster enterprise growth.
Previously, he was the Chief, Information Dominance and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Lieutenant General Bender led three directorates and supported 54,000 cyber operations and support personnel across the globe with a portfolio valued at $17 billion. He had overall responsibility of the Air Force’s Information Technology portfolio as the senior authority for Information Technology investment strategy, networks and network-centric policies, communications, information resources management, information assurance, and related matters for the Department of the Air Force.
As Chief Information Officer (CIO), Lieutenant General Bender provided oversight of portfolio management, delivers enterprise architecture, and enforces freedom of information act and privacy act laws. He integrated Air Force warfighting and mission support capabilities by networking air, space, and terrestrial assets. Additionally, he shaped doctrine, strategy, and policy for all cyberspace operations and support activities.
Lieutenant General Bender was commissioned in 1983 after earning a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Manhattan College. He also holds an MA in National Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and an MBA in Business and Aviation Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
He has held staff assignments at Air Mobility Command, Headquarters U.S. European Command and Headquarters U.S. Air Force. His commands included an airlift squadron, an operations group, an air refueling wing, an airlift wing, and the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center. He has also served as Vice Commander of the 21st Expeditionary Mobility Task Force. He was also the second highest-ranking military officer at the United States Embassy in Iraq, serving as the Deputy Chief, Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq.
Lieutenant General Bender is a command pilot with more than 4,000 hours in the T-37, T-38, C/KC-135A/E/R, EC-18B, E/KE-3A/B, C-141B, C-17A, C-130E, C-130J and KC-10.