The Hon. John F. Lehman Jr.

Dr. Lehman is a founding partner of the J.F. Lehman & Company firm and has been involved in all aspects of the firm’s private equity investment and management activities since JFLCO’s inception. As Chairman, Dr. Lehman provides strategic and oversight expertise and approves all capital commitments made by JFLCO. Immediately prior to forming JFLCO, he spent three years as a Managing Director in Corporate Finance at PaineWebber, Inc. where he led the firm’s Aerospace and Defense Group.

From 1981 to 1987, Dr. Lehman served as Secretary of the U.S. Navy. As the chief executive of the Navy, he was responsible for the management of 1.2 million people, an annual budget of $95 billion and total assets equivalent to those of the seven largest Fortune 500 corporations combined. Prior to serving as Secretary of the Navy, Dr. Lehman was President of the aerospace consulting firm Abington Corporation, served as a delegate to the Mutual Balanced Force Reductions negotiations, was the Deputy Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and served as a senior staff member to Dr. Henry Kissinger at the White House.

He has served on the boards of Ball Corporation, TI Group plc, Westland Helicopter plc, Sedgwick plc and many of JFLCO’s realized investments. He currently is a director of Doss Aviation, National Response Corporation, Trident Maritime Systems, Verisk Inc. and EnerSys. He is also Chairman of the Princess Grace Foundation and an Overseer of the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lehman was also a member of the 9/11 Commission and the National Defense Commission.

A Pennsylvania native, Dr. Lehman holds a B.S. degree from St. Joseph’s University, B.A. and M.A. degrees from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. For more than two decades, he flew various tactical aircraft for the Naval Reserve.