Juan Carlos Zarate, Esq. served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from 2005 to 2009. In this role, Mr. Zarate was responsible for developing and overseeing the effective implementation of the U.S. government's counterterrorism strategy. He was also responsible for overseeing all policies related to transnational security threats, including counternarcotics, maritime security, hostages, international organized crime, money laundering, and critical energy infrastructure protection.

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. 

Vincent K. Brooks is a retired four-star general who was in command of all US Forces in Korea, where he concurrently commanded United Nations Command as well as the Republic of Korea. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he led the 4,000 cadets as the cadet brigade commander or “First Captain.” A history-maker, Brooks is the first African American to have been chosen for this paramount position. He is also the eighth African American in history to attain the military’s top rank—four-star general in the United States Army. Widely respected as a speaker and leader of cohesive, innovative organizations, within and beyond the military, his areas of expertise are: leadership in complex organizations, crisis leadership, and building cohesive trust-based teams, national security, policy, strategy, international relations, military operations, combating terrorism and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Judge Michael Mukasey served as the 81st attorney general of the United States. With a legal background spanning more than 40 years, he has ruled on high-profile terrorism cases, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Jose Padilla, and Susan Lindauer. He connects the historical dots for his audience and uses personal anecdotes that inspire discussion as he shares insights on the intersection of politics and law, terrorism and torture, health care, balancing security with civil liberties, and other legal issues.

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.

Ari Fleischer is a former White House Press Secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush, from January 2001 to July 2003. Today, he works as a media consultant for corporations and sports players and organizations like the NFL, Bowl Championship Series through his company, Ari Fleischer Sports Communications. With the signature wit and humor he used to handle the toughest of questions in the White House briefing room, in speeches he provides an in-depth look at the current presidential administration, political landscape, the media, and U.S. foreign policy.

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.

Norman T. Roule is the Chief Executive Officer of Pharos Strategic Consulting, LLC and served as the National Intelligence Manager for Iran (NIM-I) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from November 2008 until September 2017. As NIM-I, he was the principal Intelligence Community (IC) official responsible for overseeing all aspects of national intelligence policy and activities related to Iran, which includes IC engagement on Iran issues with senior policy makers in the National Security Council and the Department of State.

Focusing on emerging global markets, Ian Bremmer defines the keys to managing risk in an unstable world. A former foreign policy advisor to top world leaders, Bremmer outlines the opportunities in Asian markets and discusses America's role in the 21st century.

Asha Rangappa is a Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. Asha served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. Her work involved assessing threats to national security, conducting classified investigations on suspected foreign agents, and performing undercover work. Asha has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post, among others, and has appeared on NPR, BBC, and several major television networks. She is an editor for Just Security and is currently a legal and national security analyst for CNN.

Major General Vinny Boles served as the Army Chief Operating Officer for Logistics Operations at the Pentagon. He shares time-tested methods for leaders looking to help their team put their hearts and spirits into organizational goals and aspirations, and uses lessons from the world’s most demanding leadership laboratory –the field of combat.