WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday announced that the current secretary of defense Robert Gates, seen as a pragmatic team-player, will keep his job in the new administration.

    A native of Wichita, Kansas, Gates was born on Sept. 25, 1943.

    He received his bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary, his master's degree in history from Indiana University, and his doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University.

    Gates and his wife Becky have two adult children.

    He joined the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents.

    During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties.

    Gates served as director of CIA from 1991 until 1993. He is the only career officer in CIA's history to rise from entry-level employee to director.

    He served as deputy director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser at the White House from Jan. 20, 1989, until Nov.6, 1991, for former President George H.W. Bush.

    After leaving Washington, he served as interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University from 1999 to 2001, and become the university's president afterwards.

    On Dec. 2006, Gates was picked by President George W. Bush to succeed unpopular secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.

    He is the author of the memoir, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, published in 1996.

    Although serving a long time in the Republican administration, Gates has earned a reputation for reaching out to Democrats.

    Experts said Gates could be a relatively seamless fit with an Obama administration, as he has advocated several policies and goals that enjoy considerable support across party lines.

    He pushed quietly, if unsuccessfully, for closing the Guantanamo detention center, and has sought to deliberately extricate the United States from Iraq without sacrificing security gains.

    Gates has argued that diplomacy must come before the use of force in dealing with such foreign policy challenges as Iran.

Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008