Professor of Practice, Hobby School of Public Affiars

Expertise: International business and diplomacy, public ethics and governance, strategic advisory and nonprofit leadership, policy and government relations

Career Higlights: 

Chase Untermeyer is a professor of practice at the Hobby School of Public Affairs with more than 50 years of experience in journalism, academia, business and public service at the local, state, national and international levels. He earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College, graduating with honors in 1968. 

Commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, Untermeyer served as a U.S. Navy officer during the Vietnam War. After his military service, he began his career as a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

He entered public service in 1974 as executive assistant to the Harris County judge and was later elected to two terms in the Texas House of Representatives. In 1981, he joined the staff of Vice President George H.W. Bush as an executive assistant, handling politics, Texas affairs and presidential personnel. He traveled with the vice president on 99 trips, including 10 abroad. 

Untermeyer was appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and facilities in 1983, and the following year, President Ronald Reagan named him assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs. In that role, he oversaw personnel matters for more than 800,000 Navy and Marine Corps service members and civilian employees.

In 1988, he led the presidential transition planning for then-Vice President Bush. After the election, President Bush appointed him director of presidential personnel, a role he held until 1991, when he became director of the Voice of America.

After leaving government service in 1993, Untermeyer became director of public affairs at Compaq Computer Corp. and later served as vice president for government affairs and professor of public policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. 

In 1999, then-Gov. George W. Bush appointed him chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. He was elected to a full term in 2000 and served until 2003. From 2004 to 2007, he served as U.S. ambassador to Qatar under President George W. Bush. Untermeyer has held numerous part-time public service roles, including chairman of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy, president of the Houston READ Commission, and chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission. He also served on the boards of National Public Radio, the Houston Port Commission and the Episcopal Health Foundation, among others.

He is the author of three volumes of diary-based memoirs of the Reagan and Bush administrations: “When Things Went Right,” “Inside Reagan’s Navy” and “Zenith: In the White House of George H.W. Bush.” He also wrote “How Important People Act: Behaving Yourself in Public.”