Jennifer Hesch serves as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration. In this role, she oversees the financial, budgetary, management, and administrative matters for the Department. Ms. Hesch was previously the Assistant General Counsel for Transactions and Program Management at the Department where she led attorneys in the provision of legal advice relating to grants, cooperative agreements, procurement and non-procurement transactions, fiscal matters, real property interests, environmental law, and other matters. 

Prior to coming to the Department of Commerce, Ms. Hesch served as the Principal Deputy General Counsel at the Defense Health Agency in the Department of War overseeing an office of over 300 personnel worldwide providing legal advice and support in the areas of contract law, administrative law, health law, medical research and development law, labor and employment law, litigation, and ethics. She also previously served as lead counsel for the DoD Healthcare Management System Modernization Program Management Office where she oversaw the legal aspects of the acquisition and deployment of a state of the art, modernized, and interoperable Electronic Health Record. She began her civil service career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Department of Veterans Affairs and has an array of experience in high levels of the Federal Government including in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Federal Procurement Policy, where she advanced the President’s Management Agenda by leading the strategic development of the TechFAR, a handbook that highlights the flexibilities in the Federal Acquisition Regulation to encourage agencies to implement IT best practices.

Ms. Hesch earned her J.D. in 2008 from Indiana University-Bloomington and her B.S. in 2005 from the University of Dayton.