Our special guest at today’s meeting was Michael Lawrence, who was President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Public Interest Declassification Board. The event was sponsored by Planewave Instruments of Adrian. As Michael began his presentation he told audience members that he would be sharing no classified information as he took an oath many years ago to adhere to that.

Michael said he attended Cooley Law School and then Western Michigan School of Law and met Mark Siljander in Lansing. At that time he was able to engage with Senator Debbie Stabenow during his job searches early in his carrer.

He took a position in Congressman’s David Stockman’s office in Washington before moving onto a position within the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO). It was a position in the Department of Commerce where he worked for Secretary Malcolm Baldridge. After a year and a half, Malcom died which put Michael out of work. He then called a PPO representative who put him in touch with Elizabeth Dole’s representative at the Department of Labor. He spent a year and a half there as well before moving on.

A new president from the opposite party then wins election in DC that year which, Michael thought, would mean he has to find other employment but, to his surprise, the Administration wanted him to stay on! He was then asked to speak with the new Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich. While there, Michael said he got a call from a representative from the PPO again with another job offer! This time it was a Congressional Affairs Director position for which he was hired– yet still an appointee for the Clinton Administration!

By this time, however, he said that he really didn’t want to wait for a new party to win election which meant it might be time to take another position so he pondered getting out of government altogether or get a job in the private sector. He started investigating positions within the OPM or Office of Personnel Management where he wouldn’t have to worry who was in office at the time. He found a position with the title of Deputy Director of Drug Control within the Executive Office of the President was open. He sent his resume in and was interviewed and eventually hired. That’s when he was to become associated with General Barry McCaffrey who not the most fun to work for, he said.

Sometime later, Michael, was out looking again and found a position in Washington DC working with parolees and probationers. After helping it become a federal agency, he said, he saw a posting in The Wall Street Journal for a Strategic Communications Director in Grand Junction, Maryland. He mailed his resume and received a phone call from the National Security Agency asking to interview him for this position. He was assigned to the National Recognizance Organization involved in satellite operations.

He was then sent to the National Defense University to teach leadership to junior officers. Michael’s last stint was with the Office of the National Director of Intelligence where he worked for General Clapper and Dan Coates where he worked on foreign intelligence issues. He was tasked with briefing the directors once a week on operations. He then got another call from the PPO about a position former President Trump wanted to appoint him to serve on the Public Interest Declassification Board which was his final job.