Who is Lawrence Ekstrom from Deception Point and what is their importance?

Ekstrom is the administrator of NASA and throughout the book is the suspected mastermind behind the falsified meteorite. In fact, he did lie about how his agency discovered the meteorite, but does believe in its authenticity and wants to protect the people that work for him.

Ekstrom is a cold and not very likable character. He cares most about how his agency looks and wants his people to get credit. He does not appreciate that the President brought in civilian scientists and that they are going to share the credit with NASA for the discovery of the fossils.