Bobby R. Inman is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral born on April 4, 1931, in Rhonesboro, Texas, to a father who owned a gas station. He graduated from Mineola High School in Mineola, Texas, at age 15 in 1946, attended Tyler Junior College as a member of Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society, and earned a B.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 1950, with minors in government, economics, and psychology. Inman joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1951, was commissioned ensign in 1952, and served aboard the USS Valley Forge during Korean War operations, as well as two cruisers and a destroyer. He spent 19 years in naval intelligence analysis, graduated from the National War College in 1972, and held key roles including executive assistant to the vice chief of naval operations, assistant chief of staff for intelligence of the Pacific Fleet (1973), director of naval intelligence (1974-1976), and vice director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until 1977. He served as Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As a Republican, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton as Secretary of Defense on December 16, 1993, to succeed Les Aspin but withdrew on January 18, 1994, amid media and senatorial criticism, including allegations of anti-Israel bias and speculated ties to the fraudulent International Signal and Control (ISC) company. He chaired the commission on embassy security following the 1983 Beirut bombings (Inman Report) and acted as chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board from April 5, 1991, to January 20, 1993. Inman has been involved in controversies, including rejecting Israel's claim of mistaken identity in the 1967 USS Liberty incident, warning against publicizing the Diffie-Hellman key exchange in 1977 as akin to exporting nuclear weapons, and criticizing the George W. Bush administration's NSA warrantless wiretaps in 2006. Post-government, he served as Chairman and CEO of Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas, for four years after 1982; Chairman, president, and CEO of Westmark Systems Inc. for three years; Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (1987-1990); and managing director of Gefinor Ventures, Limestone Ventures, and Limestone Capital Advisors since 1990, focusing on technology startups. He has held board positions including director at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) until 2003, Dell Computer, SBC Corporation (later AT&T), Massey Energy, Fluor Corp (ongoing), and head of the board at Xe Services (formerly Blackwater, now Academi) from 2011. Academically, he was an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987, tenured professor holding the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs (appointed 2001), and interim dean (2005; January 2009-March 2010). He is a trustee of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the American Assembly, and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Married to Carolyn Russo with two sons, Thomas and William, he resides in Austin, Texas. His awards include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, NSA Hall of Honor induction (2017), and the Republic of Korea Order of National Security Merit (Cheon-Su Medal), among others.