The Honorable Robert H. McMahon is the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment. He served as the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Defense on sustainment in the Department of Defense, and was the principal logistics official within the senior management. Mr. McMahon provided oversight of logistics policies, practices, and efficiencies to enable readiness across the Department of Defense and managed over $170 billion in logistics operations. Mr. McMahon also provided budgetary, policy and management oversight of the Department of Defense’s real property portfolio that consisted of 28 million acres, over 500 installations, and more than 500,000 buildings and structures valued at $1 trillion dollars. He was responsible for the Department’s planning, programs, and capacity to provide mission assurance through military construction, facilities investment, environmental restoration and compliance, installation and operational energy resilience, and occupational safety programs. Mr. McMahon previously served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness from November 2017 to August 2018.
From 2015 to 2017, Mr. McMahon served as President of Fickling Management Services in Macon, Georgia. He led a team of commercial real estate professionals whose portfolio spanned eight states. Previously, he served as the Director of Field Operations and Site Lead (Warner Robins Air Force Base, Georgia) of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Integrated Sustainment Program (GISP), and as the CEO of the 21st Century Partnership in Warner Robins, Georgia.
Mr. McMahon retired from the Air Force as a Major General in 2012, after more than 34 years of service. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he entered active duty in the United States Air Force after graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978.
His command experience includes a maintenance wing, a logistics group and two maintenance squadrons. He has served as the Director of Maintenance for the Ogden Air Logistics Center, and as the Director of Propulsion for the San Antonio ALC. General McMahon was also the military assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. He has also served as the Director of Logistics, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. Immediately prior to retirement, General McMahon served as Commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. He was responsible for worldwide logistics support for C-130 and C-5 transport aircraft, F-15 fighter aircraft, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft as well as support for remotely piloted vehicles, Air Force helicopters, air-to-air missiles, surface motor vehicles and high- technology airborne electronics, avionics and electronic warfare requirements. The center was one of three Air Force air logistics centers and the largest single site industrial complex in the state of Georgia. Mr. McMahon holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Air Force Academy and a Master of Science degree in maintenance management from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Currently, Mr. McMahon serves as an Operating Advisor to Liberty Hall Capital Partners, a private equity firm focus on the aerospace and defense sector; serves as a senior advisor to Systecon North America, the nation’s premier modeling and simulation firm; and serves as a consultant for the Institute for Defense Analysis.