Michael E. White was the Principal Director for Hypersonics (PD,H) in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Modernization) within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)). In that capacity, Mr. White was responsible for leading the Nation's vision and strategy for developing offensive and defensive warfighting capability enabled by hypersonic systems. This included establishing the roadmap for the DoD-wide developments being pursued to field transformational warfighting capability enabled by hypersonic systems. The roadmap includes air, land and sea based hypersonic strike capabilities as well as the systems required to enable comprehensive layered defeat of adversary hypersonic capability. The efforts also include future developments based on reusable hypersonic systems. The portfolio of activity he is responsible for is in excess of $3B annually across the Services, OSD, MDA, DARPA, and SCO. SDA also has a key role in developing space as an enabler.

Before his current position, Mr. White was Head of the Air and Missile Defense Sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where he led over 1,100 staff members developing advanced concepts to enhance the Nation's air and missile defense capability. Prior to this 2016 appointment as Sector Head, and starting in 2005, Mr. White served as the APL Mission Area Executive for Air and Missile Defense where he was responsible for a program portfolio that included AEGIS, STANDARD Missile, Ship Self Defense System, Cooperative Engagement Capability, the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program, and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, along with numerous other Navy and Missile Defense Agency programs.

Mr. White earned both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland.