Frederick “Jay” Stefany
Senior Counselor
Direct Reporting Program Manager, Maritime Industrial Base, U.S. Navy (2024–2025)
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (2021–2023)
Principal Civilian Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Research, Development, and Acquisition (2024, 2019–2021)
Mr. Frederick “Jay” Stefany joined The Cohen Group in June 2025 as a Senior Counselor following an outstanding 43-year career leading Navy acquisition and technology programs.
Most recently, Mr. Stefany stood up and led the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base Program, a role for which he was personally selected by the Secretary of the Navy. Before that, he served as acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition with responsibility for an annual $130 billion portfolio including all US Navy and Marine Corps shipbuilding, aviation, space, weapons, communications, and electronics programs. He was also responsible for executive management of an additional $15 billion annually of Foreign Military Sales to partner nations. In this role, Mr. Stefany’s duties included developing policy and providing oversight of all contracting by the Navy and Marine Corps worldwide.
From 2019 to 2021 and again in 2024, he served as Principal Civilian Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for RDA, representing Navy acquisition within the Pentagon, White House, and defense committees in Congress, as well as leading the Department of the Navy’s 55,000-person acquisition workforce.
From 2018 to 2019, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ship Programs, responsible for executive oversight of all naval shipbuilding programs, major ship conversions, and the modernization and disposal of in-service ships.
Previously, Mr. Stefany served as Executive Director, Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift Office, Program Executive Office for Ships where he oversaw one of the broadest acquisition portfolios in the Navy. Leading up to that, he held multiple leadership roles in shipbuilding program management and naval engineering with Naval Sea Systems Command.
Mr. Stefany received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University, and a master’s degree in management from the Florida Institute of Technology.
He is the recipient of multiple awards from the US Department of the Navy, including the Superior Civilian Service Award, Distinguished Civilian Service Award, Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and the Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer Award for Sustained Acquisition Excellence.