Rudy de Leon (center) is surrounded by his wife Anne (right) and their daughters Libby (with Bible) and Kerry as Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen (left) administers the oath of office to de Leon as the twenty-seventh deputy secretary of Defense in a Pentagon ceremony on March 31, 2000. In his most recent position, de Leon served as the under secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), assuming those duties in August 1997. In this capacity he was the secretary of Defense's senior policy advisor on recruitment, career development and pay and benefits for 1.4 million active duty military personnel, 1.3 million Guard and Reserve personnel and 680,000 DoD civilians. He also oversaw the Defense Health Program, Defense Commissaries and Exchanges, a Defense Education Activity and the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. De Leon began his career in federal government 25 years ago and has served as Under Secretary of the Air Force, special assistant to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and staff director for the committee on armed services of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a bachelor's of arts degree in history from Loyola University at Los Angeles.