Col. Edward J. Mays

Colonel Edward J. Mays (retired) served a nearly 30-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps in Command, Acquisition Program Management, Logistics, Software Development, Information Technology, Acquisition Education, Planning, Programming, and Budget and Execution. He began his career with a BS from the University of Florida in 1984. He then worked in logistics billets while stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and then became the Program Objective Memorandum (POM) Officer at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Virginia. There he created the Asset Tracking for Logistics and Supply System – a major Marine Corps logistics system that has been used in the Marine Corps for over 25 years. In 1997, Col. Mays graduated from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School with a master’s in computer science. He moved on to serve as an Assistant Program Manager and Marine Corps Liaison Officer to several programs in the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Intelligence Electronics Warfare & Sensors (IEW&S) and the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Command, Control, and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).

Excelling in the area of program management, Col. Mays has held several positions including Quarter Master and Logistics Officer at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C. He used program management to facilitate historic structure modernization and led the planning and designing for the new Marine Barracks Annex and Band Support Facility. Subsequently in 2005, Col. Mays served as an Acquisition Professor in the Program Management and Leadership Department at the Defense Acquisition University. He was then sent to Kabul where he taught acquisition to the Afghan National Army Acquisition Agency. He was selected for Command in 2007 and was promoted in 2008 to Operations Assessment Officer for Multinational Forces – West (MNF-W), Al Anbar, Iraq, where he played a substantive role in the return of Anbar Province to the government of Iraq.

Later on, he became the Director for Product Group-10, executing almost $1 billion annually through procuring all enterprise software and hardware for the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN). Early in 2012, he accepted his most recent position as the Assistant Commander, Acquisition Logistics and Product Support, at Marine Corps Systems Command.