Deputy Associate Administrator, Commercial Space Transportation

Dr. Minh Nguyen currently serves as an acting Deputy Associate Administrator for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST).  In this capacity, he oversees two directorates.  The Operational Safety directorate focuses on safety analysis, safety authorization, and safety assurance for commercial space launch and re-entry operations.  The Strategic Management directorate focusses on commercial space policy, regulations, standards, research & development, budget & finance, human capital planning, learning & development, strategic planning, international engagement, and spaceports.  He previously served as an Executive Director for AST’s Office of Strategic Management. AST’s mission is to enable safe space transportation.

Previously, he has served in various capacities including FAA’s Deputy Director of the FAA’s Office of Policy and Plans, where he oversaw the FAA’s planning and implementation of the FAA’s Reauthorization of 2018 and agency’s corporate goals and business plan development and implementation.  As acting Deputy Regional Administrator for the Northwest Region, he was in charge of consolidating FAA offices in 4 buildings into the new regional office building, and oversaw aviation matters in 7 states.  As a member of the Administrator’s Strategic Initiatives Group (SIG), he contributed to formulating strategic priorities for the FAA.  

He served in various capacities in the Nextgen organization, including program manager for the Office of Advanced Technology Development, division manager for the Office of Business Case Integration and Modeling, and chief of staff for the Senior Vice President of NextGen and Operations Planning.

Prior to joining the FAA, he worked at the MITRE Corporation, Veracity Engineering, Argon ST, and Naval Research Laboratory, leading advanced research programs. 

He obtained his undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).