Ken Arnold serves as the Associate Under Secretary for Management, with responsibility for direct management of the day-to-day operations of the Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA). On behalf of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, he exercises management oversight of personnel and financial resources for ESA and its line components – the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Mr. Arnold served 30 years with the U.S. Air Force in a wide range of assignments throughout the United States and abroad. He began his Air Force career as an occupational analyst, but was competitively selected to attend law school and transfer to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. As an attorney, Mr. Arnold served both as a criminal prosecutor and defense counsel, a special assistant U.S. attorney, an appellate counsel, and a civil litigator. Notably, he was selected as National Defense Legislative Fellow in 1999 and worked on the Senate Judiciary Committee for a year, devoting a significant portion of his time on oversight investigations involving the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, and Department of Energy. As Associate Deputy General Counsel with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Arnold was responsible for legal issues involving homeland security, military support to civil authorities, civilian personnel matters, and awards policies. He then served in a variety of senior leadership positions, in charge of three of the largest legal offices in the Air Force. Mr. Arnold has written extensively on military legal topics, co-authoring a book and as a contributing author and editor for several other publications.

Mr. Arnold earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Factors Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy, a Master of Science Degree in Systems Administration from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and a Juris Doctor degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law.