William L. Ball

William L. Ball III ( born June 10, 1948 in Belton, Anderson County, South Carolina) is an American businessman and former politician who served as Secretary of State of the United States Navy from 1988 to 1989.

Biography

Ball earned a bachelor's degree in 1969 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. After that, he served for six years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, before he worked in Washington on the staff of two U.S. Senators. From 1975 to 1977 he worked for Republican John Tower of Texas, from 1978 to 1980 for the Democrat Herman Talmadge of Georgia. In the meantime, he stood as an administrative assistant in the service of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; later he was again a member of the staff of John Tower.

From 1985, Ball was employed in the Reagan administration. First, he served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Assistant Secretary of State ) under George Shultz; the following year he became chief lobbyist of President Reagan. On March 28, 1988, he finally joined the succession of Jim Webb as Secretary of the Navy in the Defense Ministry. This office he held until 15 May 1989. Following President George HW Bush appointed him to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, a panel to control the financial resources in the U.S. armed forces.

After his retirement from government service in 1990 took over the post of president of the American Beverage Association, the pressure group the beverage manufacturers and bottlers. In 2006 he became director of the Loeffler Group, a consulting firm based in Washington. Moreover, it belongs since 2002 to the Board of Trustees of the Asia Foundation, a non -profit organization that advocates strengthening the interests of Asia.