{"id":325788,"date":"2026-07-01T10:27:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325788\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T10:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:27:26","slug":"tampa-businessperson-ken-jones-appointed-to-federal-defense-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325788\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa businessperson Ken Jones appointed to federal defense commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appointed Ken Jones, a Tampa investment firm and commercial development leader, to the U.S. Defense Policy Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agencyon Monday announced<\/a> Jones\u2019 appointment to the board, a federal advisory committee that provides independent advice and recommendations to senior Pentagon leadership.<\/p>\n

Jones is a Florida native and has held a series of influential roles<\/a> across Tampa Bay and statewide. He sits on the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system. His term there runs until January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to serve the administration in this capacity and to be offered the opportunity to serve alongside such a talented and distinguished group of American patriots,\u201d Jones said in a writtenstatement.<\/p>\n

He also served on thehost committee of the 2021 Super Bowl, which was held in Tampa, and served as the CEO of the host committee that brought the 2012 Republican National Convention to Tampa.<\/p>\n

Jones is the founder of several global investment firms based in Tampa and also co-founded a national commercial and residential real estate company.<\/p>\n

He spent the early part of his career in Washington in a variety of legal, government and management positions, including as chief of staff to former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Defense Policy Board was established in 1985 with members appointed by the secretary of defense for terms ranging from one to four years, according to its charter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hegseth dismissed all of the committee\u2019s past members in April 2025 after a 45-day review, which found that the Defense Department needed \u201cfresh thinking to drive bold changes,\u201d he said in amemo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new bench of advisers will now be led by Robert Lighthizer, who served as U.S. trade representative in President Donald Trump\u2019s first term, and former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appointed Ken Jones, a Tampa investment firm and commercial development leader, to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134739,29606,134738,134737,25812,45180,38981,135,1526,137,136],"class_list":["post-325788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-2012-republican-national-convention","tag-commercial-development","tag-defense-policy-board","tag-federal-advisory-committee","tag-florida-board-of-governors","tag-ken-jones","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}