The Honorable Alex Wagner

The Honorable Alex Wagner served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs from 2022 to 2025. Nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he was responsible for the entire human capital enterprise of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, including recruiting and retention, talent management, quality of life, health care and dependent care, discipline, oversight of the U.S. Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC detachments, and reserve component affairs impacting nearly 700,000 Airmen, Guardians, and civilians across the Department of the Air Force.

Previously, as Vice President at the Aerospace Industries Association, Alex led policy efforts on behalf of America’s most prominent aerospace and defense companies, including helping lead Vision 2050, AIA’s long-horizon forecast on autonomy, manufacturing, and workforce convergence across the industry.

During the Obama administration, he served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Army, spearheading creation of the Army Rapid Capabilities Office and the Army Digital Service, and worked alongside tech industry leaders to launch “Hack the Army”—at the time, the most aggressive federal government bug bounty in history. Over the course of several prior appointments in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he shaped the development and implementation of DoD policies on nuclear and conventional weapons, including emerging autonomy in weapons systems.

Alex is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Senior Advisor at Hiring Our Heroes. He teaches “Law, Policy, and National Security” at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and was a Fall 2025 Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. He earned a J.D. from Georgetown Law and an A.B. from Brown University.