William L. Ball

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William L. Ball (1987)

William Lockhart Ball III (born June 10, 1948 in Belton , Anderson County , South Carolina ) is an American businessman and former politician who served as Secretary of State for the United States from 1988 to 1989 .

biography

Ball earned a bachelor's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1969 . He then served as an officer in the United States Navy for six years before serving on the staff of two US Senators in Washington, DC . From 1975 to 1977 he worked for the Republican John Tower from Texas , from 1978 to 1980 for the Democrat Herman Talmadge from Georgia . In the meantime he was an administrative assistant in the service of the Senate Committee on Armed Services ; later he was once again a member of the staff of John Tower.

From 1985 Ball was employed in the Reagan administration . First he served as Secretary of State in the State Department ( Assistant Secretary of State ) under George Shultz ; he became President Reagan's chief lobbyist the following year . On March 28, 1988, he finally succeeded Jim Webb as Secretary of the Navy in the Department of Defense . He held this office until May 15, 1989. Afterwards, President George Bush appointed him to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission , a body that controls the financial resources of the US armed forces .

After retiring from government service, Ball assumed the post of President of the American Beverage Association in 1990 , the association for beverage manufacturers and bottlers. In 2006 he became a director of the Loeffler Group , a consulting firm based in Washington. In addition, since 2002 he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Asia Foundation , a non-profit organization that advocates strengthening the interests of Asia.

Web links