Dr. Herbert Lee Buchanan was nominated by President of the United States Bill Clinton as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisitions) on September 9, 1998. Dr. Buchanan subsequently held this office from October 2, 1998 until January 20, 2001. Early in his career, Dr. Buchanan joined the United States Navy in 1971, where he served as a naval flight officer from 1971 to 1978. He left the Navy in 1978, but remained a Captain in the United States Navy Reserve until 2001. In 1979, he became senior physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He left the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1982, joining Titan Corp. as Division Manager for Applied Science. He joined DARPA in 1985, culminating in his appointment as its Deputy Director in March 1996. As the Chief Operating Officer for the central Research and Development Organization for the Department of Defense, he directed a multibillion-dollar program of basic and applied research conducted by industry, universities, and national and military laboratories. Upon leaving office, Dr. Buchanan joined Paladin Capital Group. He was also a board member of crowd sourcing company OmniCompete from 2011 until its acquisition by Innocentive in January 2012. He is now the President and CEO of Arete Associates, a defense contractor specializing in advanced sensing, signal processing and analysis.