Dr. Kenneth Pollack, the director and senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, is an expert on Middle Eastern political-military affairs, with an emphasis on the Persian Gulf region. With an extensive background in national security, intelligence, and foreign policy, he has also written myriad books and articles. Pollack began his career as an Iran-Iraq military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and twice served on the staff of the National Security Council. He addresses foreign policy, the Middle East, national security, and intelligence.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are best known for breaking the Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for modern investigative journalism. For this work, they and The Post were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Their work has been called “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time” by longtime journalism figure, Gene Roberts, and the book they co-authored on their experience, All the President’s Men, went on to become a New York Times best-seller and an Academy Award-winning feature film. 

Ambassador Douglas Lute is the former United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s standing political body. Appointed by President Obama, he assumed the Brussels-based post in 2013 and served until 2017. During this period he was instrumental in designing and implementing the 28-nation Alliance’s responses to the most severe security challenges in Europe since the end of the Cold War. He received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.

At the White House, Mr. Pfeiffer served as Senior Director of the Situation Room where he independently led the President’s 24/7 operations and intelligence center, providing timely intelligence and information to the President and most senior National Security advisors. He also expanded and managed the President’s national security secure communications and information technology infrastructure to better support senior leaders during times of greatest emergency. Building on an expansive career across multiple intelligence organizations, Mr. Pfeiffer served six Directors and two Acting Directors at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including three years as Chief of Staff.

Mr. E. William (Bill) Priestap is a recognized thought leader in national security, with a particular expertise in the growing threats posed by certain foreign nations, especially Russia and China. After twenty-one years, he concluded his FBI career in April 2019. For the last three years, he was responsible for all aspects of the FBI’s counterintelligence mission as Assistant Director, including the development and implementation of the agency’s global strategy to counter foreign nations’ intelligence efforts. Under his leadership, the division also conducted the Hillary Clinton email and Russia election influence investigations. Priestap provides audiences an in-depth overview of the current threats posed by nation-states today. His presentations also include a description of the gravity and complexity of these intelligence and counterintelligence threats as well as an easy-to-understand explanation about why every American should be concerned about them.

Samuel Sanders Visner is a Technical Fellow at the Aerospace Corporation. Sam served previously as a MITRE Tech Fellow and the Director of the National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center (MITRE), sponsored by the National Institute of Science and Technology. Sam was appointed in 2020 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities and serves Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Glenn S. Gerstell served as the general counsel of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Security Service (CSS) from 2015 to 2020. He has written and spoken widely about the intersections of technology and national security and privacy. Prior to joining the NSA, Mr. Gerstell practiced law for almost 40 years at the international law firm of Milbank, LLP, where he focused on the global telecommunications industry and served as the managing partner of the firm's Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Hong Kong offices.