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PSA ADVISORY BOARD

The distinguished PSA Advisory Board provides unique credibility and access to help forge common ground and fashion thoughtful, fact-based policy that promotes America’s national interest. Members of the Advisory Board participate in the full range of PSA’s activities, from signing Bipartisan Policy Statements to speaking at programs for Capitol Hill staff and public audiences.

Indiana Governor 1989-1997

Senator (D-IN) 1999-2011

Evan Bayh is a former U.S. Senator from Indiana (1999 – 2011) and two-term governor (1989 – 1997). He concluded his second term as governor with an approval rating of nearly 80%.

He was first elected to public office as Secretary of State for Indiana in 1986.  As Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Senator Bayh pushed for “Third Way” solutions to issues that often fall victim to partisan fighting. He has also served with numerous corporate and business entities, as well as a lecturer at Indiana University Bloomington. Bayh has also served on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Sen. Bayh received his bachelor’s degree in business with honors from Indiana University in 1978 and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981.

Senator (R-TN) 2007-2018

Bob Corker is a successful businessman, former United States senator, and was previously named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine. Corker represented Tennesseans in the Senate from 2007-2018, where he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and became a national and global thought leader on fiscal, financial, and foreign policy issues. He was Tennessee’s commissioner of finance and mayor of Chattanooga before being elected to the Senate, but he spent most of his life in business. At the age of 25, Corker started his own general contracting firm that quickly expanded operations to 18 states around the country. Soon after, he founded the Corker Group, which acquired, developed, built, managed, and leased projects. After an extensive public service career, in January of 2019, Corker returned to business. He currently serves as chairman of Rise Ventures, which acquires, develops, manages, and leases both commercial and residential projects; is chairman of One-to-One Health, which operates health clinics for self-insured employers; and is a special advisor to Jefferies Financial Group, a global investment banking firm. He also serves on the advisory board for several philanthropic and policy-focused organizations. Corker and his wife, Elizabeth, call Chattanooga home.

Secretary of Defense 1997-2001

From his very first days in Washington, Secretary Cohen was singled out as a future American leader. In 1974, during his very first term in Congress, TIME magazine named him as one of “America’s 200 Future Leaders,” and the following year the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named him one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men in America.”

This reflected, in part, the national prominence Secretary Cohen attained as a freshman Republican Congressman who was tasked by the House Judiciary Committee to build, on national television, the evidentiary base for impeachment of President Nixon — and who then cast one of the critical votes to impeach. But it also reflected the recognition that the intellectual clout, integrity, independence, and public persuasiveness he demonstrated during the Watergate hearings portended a future without bounds on the national scene. Internationally, Secretary Cohen’s reputation also took root as, despite the political risk it could entail for a freshman Congressman, he traveled to Thailand in 1974 to reassure a stalwart ally following the U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam. In the process, Secretary Cohen established relationships that have flourished there and elsewhere around the globe over the quarter century since.

In 1978, he was propelled into the Senate, defeating a highly respected incumbent. During his first weeks in the Senate, he was singled out to be chairman of two powerful subcommittees, the Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Force Projection Subcommittee and the Governmental Affairs Committee’s Government Oversight Subcommittee. The former was responsible for tens of billions of acquisition dollars for naval vessels and long-range transport aircraft, as well as U.S. security policy in East Asia, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. The latter was responsible for reforming the procurement process for the entire Federal Government. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging, Secretary Cohen led efforts to improve the efficiency of Medicare and other health care programs and was a central player in the health care reform debates of the 1990s. Secretary Cohen also was a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence for a decade, serving half that time as Vice Chairman, overseeing a large budget involving some of the Nation’s most advanced technology.

His experience and expertise led to his selection to serve on the “Iran-Contra Committee.” His sustained leadership on environmental issues gave him the distinction of being the only Republican Senator endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters re-election after re-election, while his efforts on behalf of small business and early leadership in reversing federal deficits won him awards from the National Federation of Independent Businessmen and the National Taxpayers Union.

Secretary Cohen’s international expertise was recognized by his selection to the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1989 to 1997, whose Middle East Study Group he chaired. He has chaired and served on numerous other study groups and committees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the School for Advanced International Studies, and the Brookings Institute. He established and led U.S. delegations to the annual Pacific Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, as well as the American-Arab Dialogue in Cairo, both regional conferences on economic and security issues. Beginning in 1985, he led the U.S. delegation of senior Executive Branch officials and Members of Congress to the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, which brings together senior government and industrial officials from throughout Europe and Asia.

Secretary Cohen’s service in the House and Senate was marked by electoral success, as well. He was undefeated in six consecutive Maine elections, winning each by wide margins. In 1996, again expected to easily defeat whomever would be nominated to challenge him, Secretary Cohen stunned Maine and Washington by announcing he would not seek re-election. Frustrated with partisan gridlock, Secretary Cohen announced he would return to private life to promote international business and, through his writings and the media, a more thoughtful public discourse on national political issues. He also launched the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce at the University of Maine.

President Clinton interrupted these plans, however, when he asked Secretary Cohen to lead the Department of Defense, the first time in modern U.S. history when a President has chosen an elected official from the other party to be a member of his cabinet. At his January 1997 confirmation hearing, Secretary Cohen set forth his prioritized objectives as Secretary and completed his tenure having accomplished them all. Reversing a steady decline in defense budgets that began in the 1980s, Secretary Cohen succeeded in modernizing the military and maintaining its readiness to fight; reversing recruitment and retention problems by enhancing pay and other benefits; and strengthening security relationships with countries around the world in order to reorient them from the Cold War to the challenges of a new era. Under his leadership, the U.S. military conducted the largest air warfare campaign since World War II, in Serbia and Kosovo, and conducted other military operations on every continent. During his tenure, Secretary Cohen held substantive meetings with foreign leaders in over 60 countries.

A published author of eleven works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry; a futurist with degrees in classical Latin and Greek; the son of a working-class family who rose to the highest levels in government, it was natural for the Christian Science Monitor to call him “a true Renaissance Man.” He is also an accomplished athlete and was named to the Maine all-state high school and college basketball teams, and, while at Bowdoin, he was inducted into the New England All-Star Hall of Fame. In 1987, he was named by the National Association of basketball Coaches to the Silver Anniversary All Star Team, and in 2001, the NCAA presented him with its Theodore Roosevelt Award. Secretary Cohen is currently a member of the Board of Directors of CBS Corporation.

After 31 years of public service, Secretary Cohen leaves behind a record of unparalleled accomplishment, integrity, and respect, and takes with him unrivaled knowledge, reputation, and relationships, across America and around the globe.

Congressman (D-SD) 1979-1987

Senator (D-SD) 1987-2005

Tom Daschle has participated in the development and debate of almost every major public policy issue of the last three decades. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and was chosen as Senate Democratic Leader in 1994. Senator Daschle is one of the longest-serving Senate Democratic leaders in history and served as both Majority and Minority Leader.

In 2007, Senator Daschle joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time.

Senator Daschle serves on numerous public and private boards, including the Center for American Progress and the National Democratic Institute. He is the founder and chairman of The Daschle Group, a public policy advisory of Baker Donelson, where he provides strategic advice on key national issues including health care, energy, transportation, and the environment. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Daschle graduated from South Dakota State University in 1969. He then served for three years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Command. Following his military service, he spent five years as an aide to Senator James Abourezk.

Undersecretary of State 2001-2009

Dr. Paula J. Dobriansky is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Chair of the National Board of Directors of the World Affairs Councils of America. From 2010-2012, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters. In this position, she was responsible for designing and implementing corporate strategy in Washington, DC and other key capitals around the globe. During this time, she also held the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.

From May 2001 to January 2009, Dr. Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (longest serving in history.) In February 2007, she was appointed the President’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Prior to her Presidential appointments, Dr. Dobriansky served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was also the Council’s first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Her other government appointments include Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Deputy Head of the U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the 1985 U.N. Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, the White House. From 1997-2001, she served on the Presidentially-appointed U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

Dr. Dobriansky received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. She is a Fulbright-Hays scholar, Ford and Rotary Foundation Fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of various honors, including the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, and high-level international recognition such as the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland, Poland’s Highest Medal of Merit, Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, National Order “Star of Romania”, Hungary’s Commander’s Cross Order of Merit and Ukraine’s Order of Merit. She has also received three Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters and one Honorary Doctorate of Laws.

Dr. Dobriansky serves on various boards, including Freedom House, the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, and American University in Afghanistan. Previous boards have included the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, National Endowment for Democracy (Vice Chair), and George Mason University Board of Visitors. She has lectured and published articles, book chapters, and op-ed pieces on foreign affairs-related topics. For three years, she hosted Freedom’s Challenge and co-hosted Worldwise, the international affairs programs on National Empowerment Television. She has been interviewed widely on television and radio and has testified frequently before the Senate Foreign Relations and House International Relations Committees.

Congressman (D-IN) 1965-1999

Lee H. Hamilton is Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was previously the Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Prior to becoming Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Mr. Hamilton served for thirty-four years as a United States Congressman from Indiana. He is a member of the advisory council for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and in December, 2002, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission).

During his tenure in Congress, he served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), and chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993. Mr. Hamilton also served as Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. Mr. Hamilton served as Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, working to promote long-term economic growth and development, global market competition, and a sound fiscal policy. Mr. Hamilton served as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (better known as the Hart-Rudman Commission), and was Co-Chair with former Senator Howard Baker of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos.

He now serves as Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Mr. Hamilton has been awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1999, the Paul H. Nitze Award for Distinguished Authority on National Security Affairs in 1999, the American Political Science Association Hubert H. Humphrey Award in 1998, the American Bar Association CEELI Award in 1998, the Center for Civic Education Civitas Award in 1998, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1998, the Center for National Policy Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award in 1997, the American Political Science Association Outstanding Legislator Award in 1997, the Indiana University President’s Medal for Excellence in 1996, and the Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study Distinguished Citizen Fellow in 1994.

Other awards of distinction include the Central Intelligence Agency Medallion in 1988, the Defense Intelligence Agency Medallion in 1987, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1985, and the Knight of the French Legion of Honor in 1984.

Senator (D-CO) 1975-1987

Gary Hart is Senior Counsel to Coudert Brothers, a multinational law firm.

He was a United States Senator for Colorado from 1975 to 1987. In 1984 and 1988 he was a candidate for his party’s nomination for President. During his twelve years in the Senate, he served on the Armed Services Committee, the Senate Environment Committee, Budget Committee, and Intelligence Oversight Committee. He was co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century. He was president of Global Green, the U.S. affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s environmental foundation, Green Cross International. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, a former member of the Defense Policy Board, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was co-chair of the Council task force that produced the report: “America Unprepared- America Still at Risk”, in October, 2002.

Senator Hart has been Visiting Fellow, Chatham Lecturer, and McCallum Memorial Lecturer at Oxford University, Global Fund Lecturer at Yale University, and Regents Lecturer at the University of California.

US Trade Representative 1989-1993

Carla A. Hills is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hills & Company, International Consultants, which advises companies on global trade and investment issues.

Ambassador Hills served as U.S. Trade Representative (1989-93), in the first Bush Administration, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice in the Ford Administration. She serves on four corporate boards. She also serves as Chair of the National Committee on US-China Relations; Vice Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Inter-American Dialogue; member of the Executive Committee of the Institute for International Economics and of the Trilateral Commission, Co-Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and trustee of the US-China Business Council.

Ambassador Hills is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees. In 2000 she was awarded the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor given by the Mexican government to a non-citizen.

Defense Security Cooperation Agency 2017-2020

Lieutenant General Charles Hooper (Ret.) joined The Cohen Group as a Senior Counselor in October 2020 following a distinguished 41-year military career.

He most recently served as the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). In this role, he led the agency responsible for the sale of all US weapons, military equipment, support services, and training packages to foreign governments, which included oversight of 20,000 people globally and over $50 billion in annual sales. As DSCA’s leader, Lieutenant General Hooper built strong relations with officials from allied nations around the world — not just defense officials, but with leaders from foreign ministries and finance ministries as well, among others.

Over the course of his career, Lieutenant General Hooper has held senior level military-political positions around the world. Prior to his role at DSCA, Lieutenant General Hooper served as the Senior US Defense Official/US Defense Attaché and Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation at US Embassy Cairo. He has also served as the Director of Strategy, Plans, and Programs at US Africa Command and Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at US Indo-Pacific Command.

Lieutenant General Hooper spent much of his career focused on US policy in the Indo-Pacific region, and specifically on the US-China bilateral relationship. He completed two attaché assignments in Beijing, including as US Defense Attaché to China, serving for a total of seven years in China. He also served as the Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in addition to teaching Chinese foreign policy to rising US military leaders at the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1975, Lieutenant General Hooper was one of the first few West Point cadets selected to study the Mandarin dialect of the Chinese language, which he still speaks fluently. He also speaks Arabic.

Although Lieutenant General Hooper was commissioned as an infantry officer, he was later selected for the US Army’s prestigious Foreign Area Officer (FAO) program following extensive training and additional education. FAOs — best described as the Army’s “Soldier Statesmen” — are unique officers who combine professional military skills with regional expertise, language competency, and military-political awareness. With 16 years of security cooperation, security assistance, and military attaché experience, Lieutenant General Hooper retired as the Army’s Senior Career Foreign Area Officer.

A native of Willingboro, New Jersey, Lieutenant General Hooper is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also a graduate of the US Army War College and the UK Ministry of Defense Chinese Language School, Hong Kong.

In addition to his work with Partnership for a Secure America, Lieutenant General Hooper is affiliated with The Cohen Group, the National Bureau of Asian Research, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and he serves on the Board of Directors of UL Inc. and the Board of Trustees of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

Ambassador to China 2009-2011, Ambassador to Russia 2017-2019

Jon Huntsman has spent considerable time in public service at the state, national and international levels.  Huntsman began his career in public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan.  He has served each of the five U.S. presidents since then in critical roles around the world, including as U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. Ambassador to China, and most recently, U.S. Ambassador to Russia.  Huntsman is the only American in history to have served as Chief of Mission in both China and Russia.  In all four Senate confirmations, he received unanimous votes.  

Twice elected governor of Utah, Huntsman brought about historic economic and tax reforms, tripled the state’s rainy-day fund, and helped bring unemployment rates to historic lows.  While doing so, he was one of Utah’s most popular governors, reaching approval ratings as high as 90 percent.  During his tenure, Utah was named the best managed state in America and ranked number one in the nation in job growth.  Recognized by others for his service, Huntsman was elected Chair of the Western Governors Association, serving nineteen states throughout the region.  He was a candidate for the Presidency in 2012 where he ultimately placed third in the New Hampshire primary before bowing out.

Jon Huntsman currently serves on the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, where most recently he also served a full-time senior management role as Vice Chairman.  Additionally, he serves on the boards of Mobileye and Chevron.  He serves as a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.  He is on the Executive Committee of the National Committee on US-China Relations, serves on the boards of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Center for New American Security, and chairs the World Trade Center Utah.  He previously served as Chairman of the Atlantic Council, as a trustee of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the Reagan Presidential Foundation, as well as Chairman of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.  He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and has received the U.S. State Department’s top honor – the Distinguished Service Award – along with service awards from other federal agencies.

A California native, Huntsman is a seventh generation Utahn and together with Mary Kaye Huntsman are parents of seven children, including two adopted daughters from China and India.  Their two sons, both graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy, are active-duty naval officers.  Huntsman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has ten honorary doctoral degrees.

Secretary of Homeland Security 2013-2017

Jeh Johnson is a partner in the Paul, Weiss Litigation Department and member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Secretary Johnson led the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from December 2013 to January 2017, where he was responsible for counterterrorism; cybersecurity; border, port, aviation and maritime security; enforcement and administration of immigration laws; response to national disasters; detection and prevention of nuclear, chemical and biological threats; and the protection of critical infrastructure and the nation’s leadership. Secretary Johnson is credited with building a more effective, cohesive Department of Homeland Security and with raising morale. He served as the public face of the U.S. government’s homeland security mission, engaging with the press on numerous occasions and testifying before Congress 26 times. Secretary Johnson managed 230,000 employees in 22 different components and agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service.

Between 2009-2012, Secretary Johnson served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, where he was a primary legal architect for the military’s counterterrorism missions in the Obama Administration, and was responsible for the prior legal approval for every military operation authorized by the President and the Secretary of Defense. He co-authored the 2010 report that paved the way for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law by Congress. In his book Duty, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called Johnson “the finest lawyer I ever worked with in government – a straightforward, plain-speaking man of great integrity, with common sense to burn and a good sense of humor.”

Between 1998-2001, Secretary Johnson served as General Counsel of the U.S. Air Force. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1989-1991, trying 12 cases before a jury and arguing 11 appeals in three years.

Secretary Johnson has received numerous awards and acknowledgments, including three Department of Defense medals for distinguished public service and nine honorary degrees. On three occasions, Secretary Johnson has been a guest lecturer or debater at the distinguished Oxford Union in England, and in 2015 delivered the annual Green Foundation Lecture at Westminster College in Missouri. His November 2012 address at the Oxford Union, “How Will the War Against al Qaeda End?,” received international attention and acclaim. Secretary Johnson received a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Morehouse College.

Senator (R-KS) 1978-1997

Nancy Kassebaum-Baker was a United States Senator from Kansas (1979-1997).

She was a member of the Kansas governmental ethics commission from 1975-1976 and a member of the Kansas committee for the humanities from 1975-1979. She was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on November 7, 1978, for the six-year term commencing January 3, 1979. She was subsequently appointed by the Governor on December 23, 1978 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James B. Pearson, for the term ending January 3, 1979. She was reelected in 1984 and again in 1990 and served from December 23, 1978, to January 3, 1997. She was not a candidate for reelection in 1996.

She served as chairman on the Committee on Labor and Human Resources (One Hundred Fourth Congress).

Governor, New Jersey 1982-1990, 9/11 Commission Chair

Thomas H. Kean is the former governor of New Jersey (1982-1990) and served for ten years in the New Jersey Assembly, rising to the positions of majority leader, minority leader, and speaker. As governor, he served on the President’s Education Policy Advisory Committee and as chair of the Education Commission of the States and the National Governor’s Association Task Force on Teaching.

Governor Kean was Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). While president of Drew University, Governor Kean served on several national committees and commissions. He headed the American delegation to the UN Conference on Youth in Thailand, served as vice chairman of the American delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing; and served as a member of the President’s Initiative on Race. He also served on the National Endowment for Democracy. He is chair of the Newark Alliance and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and former chair of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Educate America, and the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation.

Governor Kean is on the board of a number of organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund.

Secretary of the Navy 1981-1987

9/11 Commission 2003-2004

Dr. Lehman co-founded JFLCO in 1992 and has been involved in all aspects of the firm’s private equity investment and management activities. Immediately prior to forming JFLCO, he spent three years as a Managing Director in Corporate Finance at PaineWebber, Inc., where he led the Aerospace and Defense Group.

From 1981 to 1987, Dr. Lehman served as Secretary of the U.S. Navy. As the chief executive of the Navy, he was responsible for the management of 1.2 million people, an annual budget of $95 billion and total assets equivalent to those of the seven largest Fortune 500 corporations combined. Prior to being appointed Secretary of the Navy, Dr. Lehman served as President of the aerospace consulting firm Abington Corporation, a delegate to the Mutual Balanced Force Reductions negotiations, Deputy Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and a senior staff member to Dr. Henry Kissinger at the White House. For more than two decades, Dr. Lehman flew various tactical aircraft for the Naval Reserve.

Previously, he has served on the boards of Ball Corporation, TI Group plc, Westland Helicopter plc, Sedgwick plc and many of JFLCO’s investments. He is also Chairman of the Princess Grace Foundation and an Overseer of the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he was also a member of the 9/11 Commission and the National Defense Commission.

A native of Pennsylvania, Dr. Lehman earned a B.S. from St. Joseph’s University, a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ambassador to UN 1979-1981

Donald F. McHenry served as Ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 20, 1981.

As chief United States representative to the United Nations, he also served as a member of President Carter’s Cabinet. At the time of his appointment, Ambassador McHenry was Ambassador and U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN Security Council, a position to which he was appointed in March 1977.

Ambassador McHenry has studied, taught and worked primarily in the fields of foreign policy and international law and organizations. He joined the U.S. Department of State in 1963 and served eight years in various positions related to U.S. foreign policy. In 1966 he received the Department’s Superior Honor Award. In 1971, while on leave from the Department, he was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. and an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York. In 1973, after leaving the State Department, he joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. as a project director in Humanitarian Policy Studies. In 1976 he served as a member of President Carter’s transition staff at the State Department before joining the U.S. Mission to the UN.

During his career, Ambassador McHenry represented the United States in a number of international fora and as the U.S. negotiator on the question on Namibia. He served as Presidential Envoy to Nigeria; a member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s eminent persons mission to Algeria; and, leader of a consulting mission on Senegal elections.

Activity after public service

Ambassador McHenry is a former member of the Board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange, the Board of Directors of Fleet Boston Financial, GlaxoSmithKline, AT&T, International Paper, the Council of Foreign Relations, the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, the Johnson Foundation, the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, Mount Holyoke College, Mayo Foundation, and the World Peace Foundation.

Ambassador McHenry has taught at Southern Illinois, Howard, American and Georgetown Universities. He is the author of Micronesia: Trust Betrayed (Carnegie Endowment, 1975) and numerous other articles published in professional journals and newspapers.

Ambassador McHenry is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Memberships and Affiliations

– Board Director of the Coca-Cola Company
– Chairman of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Fund
– Chairman Emeritus of Africare
– Director of the Institute for International Education, Illinois State University Foundation
– Director of The American Assembly
– Director, the American Ditchley Foundation
– Director, the Peterson Institute For International Economics
– Honorary Director, The Brookings Institution
– Member of Board of Governors of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
– Member of Institute for International Economics
– Editorial Board Member of Foreign Policy Magazine
– Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
– Trustee Emeritus of Columbia University
– Trustee Emeritus of Mayo Foundation
– Senior Advisor to the National Democratic Institute
– Advisor to the Women’s Foreign Policy Group
– Advisor to the Washington Centre

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 2007-2011

Considered one of the most influential Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in history, Admiral (Ret.) Mike Mullen takes a fresh approach to the most important geopolitical issues of the 21st century, including America’s position in the world and how economic health directly impacts our National Security. Mullen believes our national debt is our greatest security threat.

Mullen, who spent four years as Chairman—the top military advisor to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama—is a broad-minded, intellectually curious leader widely recognized as an “honest broker” by policymakers, Members of Congress and senior military officers. He brought bold and original thinking to the work of strengthening the U.S. military and advocating for those who serve.

Mullen oversaw the end of the combat mission in Iraq and the development of a new military strategy for Afghanistan, while promoting international partnerships, new technologies and new counter-terrorism tactics culminating in the killing of Osama bin Laden.

A 1968 graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Mullen sought challenging positions including command at every level to develop his leadership skills during his naval career. He rose to be Chief of Naval Operations prior to assuming duties as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Since retiring from the Navy, Mullen has joined the boards of General Motors, Sprint, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. He teaches at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is also known for his efforts on behalf of service members, veterans, and their families. He is renowned for his role in dismantling “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allowing gay service members to serve openly.

Today, he shares with audiences his deep experience in leading change in complex organizations, his assessment of geopolitical relationships, diversity implementation, crisis management, economic policy, risk management and the growing and existential threat of cyberattacks.

Senator (D-GA) 1972-1996

Sam Nunn is co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

He served as a United States Senator from Georgia for 24 years (1972-1996) and is retired from the law firm of King & Spalding. During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He also served on the Intelligence and Small Business Committees.

His legislative achievements include the landmark Department of Defense Reorganization Act, drafted with the late Senator Barry Goldwater, and the “Nunn-Lugar” Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which provides assistance to Russia and the former Soviet republics for securing and destroying their excess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

In addition to his work with NTI, Senator Nunn has continued his service in the public policy arena as a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech and as chairman of the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

He is a board member of the following publicly-held corporations: Chevron Corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell Inc., General Electric Company, Internet Security Systems, Inc., and Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

Secretary of Defense 2011-2013

Secretary of Defense 2011-2013

Leon E. Panetta is Chairman of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and Former Secretary of Defense. Co-founder of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, Leon Panetta returned to the Institute on February 27, 2013, after serving as the 23rd Secretary of Defense.

A Monterey native and Santa Clara University School of Law graduate,
Secretary Panetta began his long and distinguished public service career in 1964 as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and upon discharge went to work in Washington as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senate Minority Whip Tom Kuchel of California. In 1969, he was appointed director of the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, where he was responsible for enforcing equal education laws, and later he served as executive assistant to the mayor of New York City. He then returned to Monterey, where he practiced law until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976.

Serving his Central Coast district in Congress for sixteen years, Secretary Panetta was a key participant in agriculture, healthcare, marine, and federal budget issues, and from 1989 to 1993 he chaired the House Budget Committee. He authored a wide range of legislation, including the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, Medicare and Medicaid coverage for hospice care for the terminally ill, and numerous measures to protect the California coast, including creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

In 1993, Secretary Panetta left Congress to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget for the incoming Clinton administration. There, he was instrumental in developing the policies that led to a balanced federal budget and eventual budget surpluses. In 1994, he accepted appointment as the president’s chief of staff, and immediately brought order and focus to White House operations and policy making.

Upon leaving the Clinton administration in 1997, Secretary Panetta joined with his wife Sylvia to establish and co-direct the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. Reflecting Secretary Panetta’s own ideals and personal example, the nonpartisan, not-for-profit study center seeks to attract thoughtful men and women to lives of public service and prepare them for the policy challenges of the future. In addition, Secretary Panetta developed programs for the Institute, such as its Leon Panetta Lecture Series, Congressional Internship Program and Leadership Seminar, that help to inform Americans about the critical issues facing our communities, states and nation in the 21st century. Institute programs also aim to inspire a deeper engagement in the democratic process while simultaneously setting a public example of service and commitment.

Returning to public service in the Obama Administration as Director of the CIA, he ran the operation that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, and, as Secretary of Defense, led the effort to develop a new defense strategy, helping bring two wars to an end, and opened up opportunities for everyone to serve in the military. Secretary Panetta chronicles his life in public service in his memoir Worthy Fights, which was published by Penguin Press in the fall of 2014.

Over the years Secretary Panetta has served on numerous boards and commissions. He co-chaired California Forward, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and Governor Schwarzenegger’s Council on Base Support and Retention. In 2006, he served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan national commission seeking a new course for the war in Iraq.

Secretary Panetta is the recipient of many awards and honors. His most recent awards include: the California Teachers Association’s Friends of Education Award; the Judicial Council of California’s Stanley Mosk Defender of Justice Award; The Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award; the Sons of Italy Foundation’s National Education & Leadership Award; the Peter Benchley Ocean Award for “Excellence in Policy”; and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s William Oliver Baker Award.

Undersecretary of State 1997-2000

Thomas Pickering is Vice Chairman of Hills & Co., International Consultants, having retired in 2006 as a Boeing senior vice president for International Relations and a member of the Boeing Executive Council. He joined Boeing in January 2001 upon his retirement as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

Mr. Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs since May 1997. Prior to that, he served briefly as the president of the Eurasia Foundation. Mr. Pickering held the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. He has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Mr. Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. Between 1959 and 1961, he served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department, in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and from 1962 to 1964 in Geneva as political adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the 18-Nation Disarmament Conference.

In 1984, he was awarded an honorary doctor-in-laws degree from Bowdoin College, and has received similar honors from 12 other universities. In 1983 and in 1986, Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and, in 1996, the Department of State’s highest award – the Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 2011-2012

General (Ret.) David H. Petraeus is one of the most prominent U.S. military figures of the post-9/11 era. During his 37-year career in the United States Army, General Petraeus was widely recognized for his leadership of the Surge in Iraq, which retrieved a desperate situation and reduced violence in Iraq by well over 85%; for his oversight of the organization that produced the U.S. Army’s counterinsurgency manual and overhauled all aspects of preparing U.S. Army leaders and units for deployment to combat; and for his command of coalition forces in Afghanistan as they reversed the momentum of the Taliban and enabled the commencement of the transition of tasks to Afghan forces and institutions.

A graduate with distinction from the United States Military Academy, General Petraeus is the only person in U.S. Army history to be the top graduate in both the U.S. Army’s challenging Ranger School and the year-long U.S. Army Command and General Staff College course. He also earned a Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary program of international relations and economics from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and later completed a fellowship at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

General Petraeus’ military career was distinguished by significant achievements during assignments in Cold War Europe, Central America, the United States, Haiti, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the greater Middle East and central Asia. His career culminated with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, a record believed unmatched in the post-World War II era.

After General Petraeus’ retirement from the military, and following confirmation by the Senate with a vote of 94-0, he served as Director of the CIA, during which time the Agency played the central role in a number of important achievements in the global war on terror, established an overarching strategic campaign plan for the Agency, and pursued initiatives to invest additional resources in the Agency’s most important element, its human capital.

General Petraeus is now a Partner with the global investment firm KKR and the Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, a position he has held for over three years. He is also a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College, a Judge Widney Professor at the University of Southern California, a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, Co-Chairman of the Woodrow Wilson Institute’s Global Advisory Council, Senior Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute, and a member of the boards of the Institute for the Study of War, the Atlantic Council, and seven veterans service organizations. He is also engaged in personal venture capital investing.

Over the past decade, General Petraeus was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by the U.S. News and World Report, a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph man of the year, a Time 100 selectee, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals. He has been awarded numerous U.S. military, State Department, NATO, and United Nations medals, including four awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, the Combat Action Badge, and Master Parachutist Wings, as well as the Madison Medal from Princeton University. He has also been decorated by 13 foreign countries.

Congresswoman (R-ME) 1979-1995

Senator (R-ME) 1995-2013

Olympia Snowe is a former U.S. Representative (1979 – 1995) and Senator (1995 – 2013) from Maine. When first elected to Congress in 1978, at the age of 31, Snowe was the youngest Republican woman, and the first Greek American woman, ever elected to Congress.  She is also the first woman in American history ever to be elected to both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress. In 2005, Snowe was named the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. In 2006, TIME magazine named her one of the top ten senators.

Senator Snow currently is a member of the board of numerous private major American companies; is a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Board of Directors of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard’s Institute of Politics, the National Institute for Civil Discourse’s Advisory Board, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

In 2014, she founded the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute to elevate the confidence and aspirations of high school girls and now serves as Honorary Chair of its Board of Directors. In May 2013, Weinstein Books published Snowe’s book, Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, that explains how Congress has become so polarized and what Americans can do to encourage their representatives to govern effectively once again.

Undersecretary For Defense Policy 1993-1994

Frank G. Wisner is an International Affairs Advisor at Patton Boggs, LLP. A career diplomat with the personal rank of Career Ambassador, he previously served as Ambassador to India from 1994‐1997. Additionally, he held the positions of Ambassador to Zambia (1979‐82), Egypt (1986‐91), and the Philippines (1991—92). Mr. Wisner has served in a number of positions in the U.S. government, including Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (1993‐94), Undersecretary of State for International Security Affairs (1992‐93), Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs (1982‐86), and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State (1977). During the course of his career, Frank Wisner served in the Middle East and South and East Asia.

After leaving government service, Mr. Wisner joined the American International Group, where he was named Vice Chairman, External Affairs. He returned to government in 2005 to represent the Secretary of State as her special representative to the Kosovo status talks.

Today Mr. Wisner is a member of the Boards of Directors of EOG Resources and Ethan Allen, as well as the boards of numerous non‐profit organizations. He is an advisor to Kissinger Associates.

A native of New York, Mr. Wisner was educated at Princeton University.

Secretary of Defense 1994-1997

William J. Perry currently serves as the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University, with a joint appointment in the School of Engineering and the Institute for International Studies. He is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and co-director of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Stanford and Harvard Universities.

Dr. Perry was the 19th Secretary of Defense under President Clinton, serving from February 1994 to January 1997. As Secretary of Defense, he was instrumental in implementing and strengthening the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. He also served as Deputy Secretary of Defense (1993-1994) and Under Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Dr. Perry has extensive business experience and currently serves on the boards of several high-tech companies and is chairman of Global Technology Partners. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Perry has received numerous awards and decorations from U.S. and foreign governments, non-governmental organizations and the military, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997.

Homeland Security Advisor 2004-2008

Frances Fragos Townsend is the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Government, Legal and Business Affairs at MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, Inc. Ms. Townsend was a corporate partner at the law firm of Baker Botts, LLP. Previously, she served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council from May 2004 until January 2008. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from May 2003 to May 2004. Ms. Townsend is a contributor for CNN as a counterterrorism, national and homeland security expert. Prior to serving the President, Ms. Townsend was the first Assistant Commandant for Intelligence for the U. S. Coast Guard. Before that, Ms. Townsend spent 13 years at the U.S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President George H. W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. Ms. Townsend is a Director and chairs the compensation committees of 2 private company Boards. She serves on numerous government advisory and nonprofit boards. Ms. Townsend chairs the Board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

President of the World Bank Group 2007-2012

Deputy Secretary of State 2005-2006

U.S. Trade Representative 2001-2005

Robert Zoellick served in the Treasury Department, State Department, and in the George H.W. Bush White House from 1985-1993. Between 1993 and 1997 he was the Executive Vice President of Fannie Mae.

In 1997 he took a position with Goldman Sachs as a senior advisor and held various academic appointments. Zoellick returned to government when he was appointed the U.S. Trade Representative (2001-2005) and would go on to serve as Deputy Secretary of State (2005-2006.) In 2007, President George Bush nominated him to serve as the President of the World Bank, a position he would hold until 2012. Since leaving the role, Zoellick has served on the boards of a broad range of institutions including, the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, the German Marshall Fund, the European Institute, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Zoellick  is the non-executive chairman of AllianceBernstein, a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients in major world markets.  He is also a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  In addition, Zoellick serves on the boards of Temasek, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, and Laureate International Universities.  He also is a member of the board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, chairs the Global Tiger Initiative, and is a member of the Global Leadership Council of Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian agency.

Zoellick holds a J.D. magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor’s degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from Swarthmore College.

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