Donald A. Imgram began his career as a missile and aircraft designer for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in 1950, following his graduation from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He was a senior test engineer on the RIG EL submarine-launched cruise missile and later served as Project Engineer for the F9F-7 Flex Deck aircraft and the Eagle air-to-air missile. In 1959 he led Grumman's efforts to win an unmanned spacecraft contract from the newly formed NASA. In 1960, under his direction, the company won Goddard Space FIight Center's contract for the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), at the time NASA's largest, heaviest and most complex unmanned spacecraft, the first of NASA's "great" observatories and a precursor to the Hubble telescope. As the OAO's Technical Director for the next eight years he guided the program from its start through successful orbital operation. He subsequently was appointed Director of all Grumman Space Programs, including the Shuttle and Space Station, and led the company's entry into military space programs.
Mr. Imgram is a former Congressional Fellow who worked on Armed Services and Foreign Relations issues for Senator Dan Quayle. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School's Management Development Program, served on three Defense Science Boards (Scenarios & Intelligence, Global Surveillance, and the National Imaging & Mapping Agency) and was a member of the 1990 NATO military space surveillance study.
In 1994, following retirement from Grumman Aerospace, he joined Technology Strategies and Alliances, the consulting firm formed by Dr. William Perry and Dr. Paul Kaminski, where he provided strategic advisory support to the Government and the aerospace industry.