Beth Schmid
Headquarters, Washington, DC               June 14, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-1760)

RELEASE:  99-70

LUEDTKE SELECTED AS ASSOCIATE 
ADMINISTRATOR FOR PROCUREMENT

     NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has selected Tom Luedtke, 
instrumental in many of NASA's new procurement initiatives, as the 
Associate Administrator for Procurement, effective immediately.  
Luedtke has been acting in this position since August.

     Luedtke will continue to guide and oversee some of NASA's 
most far-reaching procurement initiatives.  He will represent NASA 
procurement to the Congress, the White House, other government 
agencies, industry and international organizations. 

     "Tom Luedtke brings vast experience, considerable skills and 
boundless creativity to this position at a time when NASA 
procurement activities continue to undergo dynamic reform," Goldin 
said.

     In February 1994, Luedtke became the Deputy Associate 
Administrator for Procurement and devised several of the 
procurement initiatives that NASA uses today.  Before then, he was 
the Director, Contract Pricing and Finance Division at NASA 
Headquarters, responsible for NASA procurement policy in pricing, 
profit, contract finance, type-of-contract and contract audit 
support.

     Luedtke began his career as a contract specialist with the 
Naval Air Systems Command, then located in Arlington, VA, 
procuring avionics, research and development and services.  He was 
the procuring contracting officer for the Industrial Modernization 
Incentives Program there, as well as for the Penguin, Harpoon and 
SLAM missiles.  Before coming to NASA, he was the Chairman and 
Army member of the Cost Principles Committee of the Defense 
Acquisition Regulation Council, the Department of Defense council 
that oversees its procurement regulations.

     Luedtke received a bachelor's degree in political science and 
history from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.  He received a 
master's degree in business and a law degree from the University 
of Wisconsin-Madison.

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