Dan Walsh

Dan Walsh is the chief of staff and executive vice president of strategy and government relations for CACI International Inc, a Fortune 500™ company with more than 25,000 employees committed to expanding the limits of national security.

As chief of staff, Walsh facilitates decision-making, strategic planning, coordination, and the prioritization of business focus areas across CACI’s executive leadership team. In his role as executive vice president of strategy and government relations, he leads the company’s efforts to educate and build support for CACI programs and capabilities on Capitol Hill and oversees CACI’s industry associations and client executives.

Walsh joined CACI in 2020 as senior vice president and corporate strategic advisor after more than three decades of service in the executive branch and the U.S. military. Before joining CACI, he served at the White House as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for operations, where he managed the overall administrative, technology, security, and military support structure for the president of the United States. He also oversaw the day-to-day management of the White House, the Executive Office of the President, presidential facilities, and the president’s schedule and travel operations.

His previous White House positions include deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Military Office, deputy director of the White House Military Office, and military aide to both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. As director of the White House Military Office, Walsh oversaw all White House military support. As military aide to the president, he carried the presidential emergency satchel, which the president can use to authorize the use of nuclear weapons from anywhere in the world. He also coordinated national command authority decisions across the Department of Defense and other government agencies.

Walsh retired from the U.S. Coast Guard as a captain in 2017 after a distinguished 24-year career. His operational assignments included serving on the leadership cadre of a Department of Homeland Security and Coast Guard air facility, department head on a Coast Guard cutter, officer in charge of a counter-narcotics team, and instructor pilot and aircraft commander on six military fixed-wing aircraft. Walsh’s military staff assignments included serving as a senior staffer for a 750-million-dollar Department of Homeland Security aircraft acquisition project and as U.S. Senate liaison, where his advocacy on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard contributed to a record increase of more than 10 billion dollars in annual appropriations.

Walsh also served as a Harvard National Security Fellow for the 2011 to 2012 academic year. In 2020, the president appointed Walsh to serve on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Board of Visitors.

Walsh holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a master’s degree in quality systems management from the National Graduate School, and a master’s degree in aviation safety from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.