Dan Driscoll is the soldiers’ CEO

When Dan Driscoll ’07 was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in early March, he became, at 38, the youngest person to ever hold the position. The Army secretary is the branch’s highest civilian official, essentially CEO for nearly 1 million active, guard and reserve soldiers and more than 265,000 Army civilians.

Driscoll grew up in western North Carolina. Both his father and grandfather were veterans. His father, who served in Vietnam, took Driscoll to West Point when he was in elementary school, and the visit left a strong impression. “I had these dog tags made there, which I kept,” he said.

When Driscoll entered Carolina, the University’s 2004 summer reading selection also impressed him. The book was David Lipsky’s “Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point,” which tells the story of four cadets who deployed to Iraq early in the war.

He enrolled in UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Even as an undergraduate, “Dan had a good sense of what he wanted to do with his life,” said Alison Fragale, associate professor emerita of organizational behavior and one of Driscoll’s teachers. “He wanted to serve in the military, go to law school and be in politics.”

Driscoll graduated in three years and immediately enlisted in the Army, about the time the surge in Iraq was happening. He attended basic training in South Carolina and soon after graduated from the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School in Georgia. In October 2009, he deployed to Iraq, where he saw combat and received the Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Action Badge.

He was still in Iraq when notified of his acceptance to Yale Law School. After arriving in New Haven, Driscoll met future Vice President J.D. Vance, then a Marine veteran leading the Yale Veterans Association. Vance told the group, “You’re going to feel like all these people are smarter than you. And it’s just not true. And so if you can just kind of make it through these first couple of months, you’ll settle in.”

Driscoll graduated from law school in 2014, joining BlackArch Partners, a Charlotte investment banking firm. He moved to Winston-Salem, working in venture capital and as a board member of a medical staffing agency, then later relocated with his family to Pasadena, California.

Through his connection to Vance, Driscoll joined the campaign as a senior adviser and then was tapped by the administration as Army secretary on Vance’s recommendation. The Senate confirmed Driscoll 66–28. He is the third UNC alumnus and eighth from Yale to be Army secretary. Other UNC alumni who have served as Army secretary are Kenneth Claiborne Royall (class of 1914) and Gordon Gray ’30.

“I think one of the reasons Dan’s hearing wasn’t as contentious as others is that he’s very relational,” said childhood friend and Carolina roommate Bert Ellison ’08. “He wants to reach out and meet as many people as he can and know them, and not just in terms of politics.”

Driscoll faces many challenges. In 2022 and 2023, the Army fell short of recruitment goals by 25%. Driscoll said he hopes to modernize warfighting capabilities and improve the quality of life for soldiers and their families.

Will he succeed?

“I’ll always bet on Dan Driscoll because Dan’s a really smart guy who’s also really kind and humble at heart,” said Fragale, who wrote his law-school recommendation and attended his wedding. “He doesn’t have a big ego. He can look at a situation and say that it doesn’t have to be this way and be creative about figuring it out.”