New Navy secretary sworn in

Richard Spencer, the president’s civilian nominee to lead the Navy and Marine Corps, faced the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

By Jeanette Steele

Aug. 3, 2017 8:30 AM PT

After a six-month gap, the Navy and Marine Corps again have a permanent civilian leader in the secretary’s chair.

Former Marine helicopter pilot and finance executive Richard Spencer was sworn in Thursday morning as the 76th Navy secretary.

The event took place in the office of the Secretary of the Navy in Washington, with a Navy administrative assistant conducting the small ceremony.

Spencer issued a statement later in the day, telling sailors and Marines that they must use their resources in “the most impactful manner” going forward.

“Due to your consistent ability to successfully deliver on all demands put before you, there is a commensurate level of expectation for more of the same going forward. Therein lies the challenge we face and prudency says we should expect that challenge to grow as the threats around the world continue to increase,” the new SecNav wrote.

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A Connecticut native, Spencer graduated from Rollins College in 1976 with an economics degree. Afterward, he got his commission in the Marine Corps and flew H-46 helicopters until 1981.

Some observers in social media like that part of his resume.

Spencer worked on Wall Street for 16 years. He did investment banking, including three years as president of Crossroads Investment Management LLC, a venture capital and private equity investment firm.

Then he jumped to Intercontinental Exchange, an electronic commodity futures exchange, as chief financial officer in charge of taking the company public.

For the past decade, Spencer was managing director of Fall Creek Management, a small consulting firm in his home state of Wyoming.

Over the years, the former Marine officer kept his contacts in Washington, where he served on the Defense Business Board and the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. He was also a board member of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

On the Defense Business Board, his tenure was marked by a failed bid to end taxpayer subsidies to military commissaries.

Spencer’s nomination appeared to sail smoothly through the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, with very little jousting from senators.

One of the issues he will face is how to build the Navy’s fleet, now at 276 ships, to the desired 355 vessels.

Spencer told the Senate committee last month that he supports unconventional thinking and a higher head count.

“We should be thinking of possibly bringing things out of the ready reserve. We should be looking at ways to construct better, faster, cheaper. We’ll be looking at a frigate down the road,” Spencer told the senators. “All of this capacity increase will require manning. So there will be some numbers that have to be adjusted going forward for end strength.”

Spencer’s nomination was the second for Navy secretary under the Trump administration.

The first, financier Philip Bilden, bowed out because his financial investments proved too tricky to untangle in order to meet government ethics requirements.

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