Former Pentagon official selected to oversee export control at Commerce Dept.

President Biden has tapped a former Pentagon official from the Obama administration, Alan Estevez, to be Commerce Department undersecretary overseeing export control.

Estevez would run Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which is in charge of dealing with the tensions between the U.S. and China over advanced technology. The bureau overseas which companies are on the Commerce Department’s blacklist, as well as which technologies are exported or blocked to China. 

Estevez currently works in national security and logistics at Deloitte Consulting, a role he has held since June 2017. The White House called him “a recognized leader in the defense and aerospace community,” in announcing his nomination on Tuesday.

He previously served as principal deputy undersecretary at the Defense Department in charge of acquisition, technology and logistics from 2013 to the end of the Obama administration. Before that, Estevez spent two years as assistant secretary of defense for logistics and material readiness. 

“Mr. Estevez developed, implemented and managed acquisition, contracting, installation, and logistics programs and policies that increased combat effectiveness as well as the department’s efficiency and buying power,” the White House said in a statement.

Other top candidates for the bureau role were Kevin Wolf, a former Obama official and export-control lawyer, and James Mulvenon, a defense contractor and expert on the Chinese military, according to the Journal.

Updated: 4:46 p.m.