Appointed as the first NNSA Administrator in 2000, Gen. Gordon led the semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy upon its creation. He was at the helm of the NNSA until June 2002. After leaving NNSA, his final federal leadership position was as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor, where he helped design the government's response to terrorism.

Gen. Gordon began his long and distinguished career when he received his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1968. Beginning his career as a physicist at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, his military career highlights include being Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Director of Operations for Air Force Space Command, Commander of the 90th Missile Wing, and Senior Director for Policy on the National Security Council staff at the White House. With 32 years in the U.S. Air Force, he retired as a general in 2000 to lead NNSA. He died on April 19, 2020.

The Albuquerque Complex project is on schedule to be occupied in late 2021 by 1,200 NNSA staff members who currently work in 25 separate buildings and facilities, some of which were constructed in the 1940s.