Gregory Withee has been named Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As such, he heads the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), which operates the nation's geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites and maintains environmental data used by scientists throughout the world.

Withee had been deputy assistant administrator at the satellite service since 1994. He provided day-to-day oversight of the activities of the satellite operations, processing, product and service delivery, and research functions. He also had oversight responsibilities of the NESDIS budget planning and administration.

From 1991 until 1994, Withee served as deputy assistant administrator for environmental information services within NESDIS. In this role, he was responsible for the development and operation of a NOAA-wide environmental information management program.

Withee was first employed in the private sector with the Lockheed Ocean Laboratory. After serving for some years as the chief oceanographer for the NOAA Data Buoy Office, he served as the senior oceanographer for the World Meteorological
Organization. In 1983, he was appointed special assistant to the administrator of NOAA for ocean service centers. From 1986 to 1991, Withee was director of the National Oceanographic Data Center–-the world's largest archive of unclassified oceanographic data.

Withee has received numerous awards and has been cited for special recognition both in government and industry. In 1994, he received the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for extraordinary performance of the Senior Executive Service. Withee has authored more than 100 publications and reports and has lectured at a wide variety of conferences and symposiums. Withee received his undergraduate degree in physics from Pomona College and an M.S. in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Withee lives in Silver Spring, Md. with his wife, Diana. He has three grown sons.