PolicyWest 2019

Aaron Brooks

Consultant

Aaron J. Brooks is an operations and logistics professional with global experience, coming from 21 years of Marine Corps service before receiving an Honorable Discharge as a field grade officer.

Aaron's overseas deployments include: a UN multi-national coalition (Operation Southern Watch, 2002), detainee & intelligence operations (Joint Task Force Guantanamo, 2004-05), Security Cooperation with Gulf nations (2007-08), the phased US withdrawal from Iraq (2009) and the surge of Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan (2009-10) before returning to stateside assignments. Aaron's USMC career culminated with a rewarding tour as the Commanding Officer of Marine Aviation Training Support Squadron One.

Aaron is a member of the Truman National Security Project, an associate member of The Royal Institute of International Affairs, and has served on several nonprofit boards in the communities where he has lived. He completed a two-year term as the VP of Programs for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (SD / Baja) where he regularly partnered with member companies that straddle the busiest international border crossing in the world.

Aaron has also contributed as a talk show host, field reporter, and desk anchor for a weekly radio and television program as part of Homefront Media. Aaron has recently served as Reading Clerk for the Florida Legislature, providing him with a front row seat to changing law and policy in a dynamic swing state.

Aaron loves dogs and gardening, and he believes that hospitality is still the best form of diplomacy.

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

12:40 PM 02:30 PM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Frances Brown

Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Frances Z. Brown is a fellow with Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, where she researches stabilization, state building, democratization, decentralization, drivers of conflict, and local governance in fragile states.

Brown comes to Carnegie after fifteen years as a practitioner and analyst at the intersection of conflict and governance. Most recently, she served for eighteen months as director for democracy on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff, where she helped manage interagency policy processes on key political transitions, post-conflict stabilization efforts, democratic institution building, and emergent global accountability norms. Serving under the Obama and Trump administrations, she also convened a fragile states interagency committee, aimed at elevating strategic foresight and functional analysis on conflict into policy deliberations.

Prior to the NSC, Brown worked for five years at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives, managing stabilization and political transition programs in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa from the field and Washington. Previous research roles include a year as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow; fellowships with Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and the U.S. Institute of Peace; and her current doctoral work at Oxford, which examines donors’ bottom-up state-building and stabilization programs in conflict-affected states. Other experience outside of government includes a year at the Kabul-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit; two years in Beirut, Lebanon; consulting for the Quadrennial Defense Review; shorter project-management roles in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Pakistan; and political risk forecasting.

She has published field research projects on Afghanistan stabilization and subnational governance with the U.S. Institute of Peace, and her shorter analyses have been published in the American Interest, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project.

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Canon

Antonella Caruso

Political Analyst, North Africa & the Middle East

RAND Corporation

Antonella Caruso is a Political Analyst for North Africa and the Middle East at RAND. She was previously the UN Director of the Middle East and West Asia division in the Department of Political Affairs. She previously worked in Baghdad where she developed and directed a track II Iraqi Dialogue on national reconciliation, that led to the formation of the first parliamentary caucus on national reconciliation (2008-12). She worked in private and public sectors, in particular as Senior adviser on the MENA region to the CEO of the Italian energy company ENI and to the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. She has collaborated with the Italian media group l’Espresso and she has authored several scientific publications on medieval and contemporary Islam.

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Canon

Katelyn Davidson

USS CARL VINSON

Operations Division Officer

LT Katie Davidson is a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy currently stationed in the greater Seattle area. She is an acting Operations Division Officer onboard USS CARL VINSON, an aircraft carrier. She is a 2013 Marshall Scholar and graduated at the top of her class academically at the U.S. Naval Academy. Katie conducted postgraduate study at Oxford and Cambridge, where she focused on foreign policy questions regarding gender, peace, and security as well as the contemporary nuances of cybersecurity. She has worked with various defense organizations including the CNO's Energy and Environmental Readiness Division, National Defense University, NATO Allied Transformation Command, and the United Kingdom's Defense, Doctrine and Concepts Centre and Defence Personnel Secretariat Diversity and Inclusion Team. Most recently, she was selected to help build Naval Surface Group Western Pacific, a Navy organization designed in response to the 2017 collisions and to mitigate the manning, training, and equipage issues for Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Japan. Katie lives in the Pacific Northwest. In her spare time, she likes exploring and hunting for the perfect cold brew coffee. She dreams of a day when she will be in one place long enough to have a dog again.

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Canon

Caroline Dorminey

Policy Director

Women's Action for New Directions

Caroline handles a portfolio of nuclear policy, arms control, and defense politics issues. She has extensive research experience and her analysis has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Axios, War on the Rocks, Reuters, The Hill, and more. She is an expert with the Forum on the Arms Trade and contributor to the Pentagon Budget Campaign. Before joining WAND, she spent two years at the Cato Institute as a Policy Analyst. She holds a Master's in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor's in Peace, War, and Defense from UNC Chapel Hill.

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

12:40 PM 02:30 PM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Eric Eide

Director of Ecosystem Development

Alliance for Southern California Innovation

Eric is a seasoned economic development professional with experience spanning the private sector, federal and municipal government, and academia. Before joining the Alliance, Eric grew the Government Relations team at Bird Rides and expanded electric scooter rental operations domestically and internationally. Previously, Eric served as Director of International Trade for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In this role, Eric worked to increase international business activity, facilitate the import and export of goods, and attract investment to Los Angeles. Eric also served in the U.S. federal government as an Advisor for Strategic Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State, where he collaborated with U.S.-based entrepreneurs, firms, and universities with interests in South and Central Asia. In a prior role, Eric represented the U.S. Small Business Administration with the startup community and improved the overall performance of a $2.6 billion federal program that funds early stage technology companies.

Eric holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, where his research focused on innovation ecosystems, industrial policy, and globalization.

04 October

The Internet of Things: Quantum, 5G, AI, and You

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Brighton

TF

Tom Foldesi

Director of Commercial Operations

Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)

Tom is Director of Commercial Operations and is responsible for DIU’s private sector interface and activities.He brings a combination of military service and nearly 20 years of executive experience in strategy, product, and business development.

Before joining DIU, Tom was Vice President of Digital and Connected Products at LVMH, the world's largest luxury conglomerate, where he delivered several major digital platforms and product lines for TAG Heuer, Hublot, and Louis Vuitton. Prior to LVMH, Tom was a Senior Director at Intel and led both product and business development teams in IoT, mobile, wearables, and data analytics. During his time at Intel, he led teams that delivered dozens of products for major global partners, including TAG Heuer, New Balance, Fossil, Nike, Vodafone, and Orange.He also worked at Credit Suisse and UBS as an investment banker.

Tom served honorably in the United States Navy as a SEAL officer. He was assigned to SEAL Team THREE and served as a squad leader, assistant platoon commander, and assistant operations officer.He completed a deployment to Iraq in 2006 and served in the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force HQ in Balad and in the Naval Special Warfare Task Group in Fallujah.

Tom holds a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.He speaks fluent Russian, German, and Hungarian.

04 October

National Security and Silicon Valley

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Palm

Kara Frederick

Associate Fellow, Technology and National Security Program

Center for a New American Security

Kara Frederick is the Associate Fellow for the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Prior to joining CNAS, Kara helped create and lead Facebook’s Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program. She was also the team lead for Facebook Headquarters’ Regional Intelligence Team in Menlo Park, California. Prior to Facebook, she served as a Senior Intelligence Analyst for a U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command, and spent six years as a counterterrorism analyst at the Department of Defense. While at the Department of Defense, she deployed three times to Afghanistan in support of special operations forces, served as a briefer to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict and as a liaison to the National Security Agency.
She received her M.A. in War Studies from King's College London and her B.A. in Foreign Affairs and History from the University of Virginia, where she played varsity soccer.

04 October

National Security and Silicon Valley

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Palm

Glenn Gerstell

General Counsel

National Security Agency (NSA) & Central Security Service (CSS)

Mr. Gerstell was appointed in August 2015 as the General Counsel of the National Security Agency and Central Security Service.

Prior to joining NSA, Mr. Gerstell practiced law for almost 40 years at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where he served as the managing partner of the firm's Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Hong Kong offices. Earlier in his career, he was an Adjunct Law Professor at the Georgetown University School of Law and New York Law School.

Mr. Gerstell served on the President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which reports to the President and the Secretary of Homeland Security on security threats to the nation's infrastructure, as well as on the District of Columbia Homeland Security Commission.

A graduate of New York University and Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Gerstell is an elected member of The American Academy of Diplomacy and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

09:45 AM 11:00 AM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Eric Gomez

Policy Analyst

Cato Institute

Eric Gomez is a policy analyst for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on U.S. military strategy in East Asia, missile defense systems and their impact on strategic stability, and nuclear deterrence issues in East Asia. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the State University of New York-College at Geneseo, and a Masters of Arts in International Affairs from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Eric Gomez is the co editor of America’s Nuclear Crossroads: A Forward-Looking Anthology, recently published by the Cato Institute.

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

12:40 PM 02:30 PM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Rebecca Grant

National Security Analyst

IRIS Independent Research

Dr. Rebecca Grant is a national security analyst based in Washington, DC. She earned her PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics at age 25 then worked for RAND and on the staff of the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Since founding IRIS Independent Research, she has specialized in research for government and aerospace industry clients ranging from analysis of military campaigns to projects on major technology acqusition such as the B-21 bomber. Dr. Grant has written over 100 articles for Air Force Magazine and appears regularly on the Smithsonian Channel, Fox News, CNN, Veterans Radio and other media outlets talking about airpower and national security. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and daughter and spends her leisure time with Thoroughbred ex-racehorses off the track. She has flown with the United States Air Force in the T-38, E-3 AWACS, B-52, F-16 Aggressors, F-15 in Exercise Cope North and in the B-2 Spirit bomber.

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

12:40 PM 02:30 PM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Derek Grossman

Senior Defense Analyst

RAND

Derek Grossman is a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation focused on a range of national security policy and Indo-Pacific security issues. He is particularly interested in China’s relationships with Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Japan, and the Koreas. Grossman has over a decade of experience in the Intelligence Community (IC), where he served as the daily intelligence briefer to the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the briefer to the assistant secretary of Defense for Asian & Pacific Security Affairs at the Pentagon. Grossman leveraged this experience to write an award-winning paper for the IC's "Galileo Competition," which solicits innovative ideas to optimize IC enterprise management practices.

Prior to DIA, Grossman worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he pioneered a new assessment format to enhance NSA's intelligence support to policy. He also served at the CIA and on the President's Daily Brief staff. Grossman worked at the Jamestown Foundation as the China program manager and editor of China Brief. He previously supported the then-Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Grossman has published articles for Asia Policy, China Brief, Defense Dossier, Foreign Policy, Global Taiwan Brief, International Security, Journal of International Security Affairs, Newsweek, PacNet, Studies in Intelligence, The Diplomat, The Hill, The National Interest, and War on the Rocks. He holds an M.A. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in U.S. national security policy and a B.A. with Honors from the University of Michigan in political science and Asian Studies.

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Canon

Grant Harris

CEO

Harris Africa Partners LLC

Grant T. Harris is CEO of Harris Africa Partners LLC and advises companies and organizations on strategy, policy, and mitigating risk with respect to doing business in Africa.

For four years, Harris served as the principal advisor to President Barack Obama on issues related to Africa, serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the White House from August 2011 to August 2015.

In this role, Harris initiated and coordinated U.S. policies toward the 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including political, economic, and security matters. Harris conceived of and was a primary lead in implementing the historic U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, in which President Obama hosted 51 African Leaders in Washington, DC in August 2014. The Summit generated $37 billion in new commitments to support trade, investment, and development across Africa.

Harris also initiated and coordinated the Doing Business in Africa Campaign, to encourage greater U.S. trade and investment; launched the President’s Young African Leaders Initiative, to support emerging leaders; and conceived and was the primary architect of the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, signed by President Obama in 2012. During his time at the White House, Harris also oversaw U.S. efforts to create and implement the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking, and led the U.S. response to various peace and security crises across Africa.

Prior to this position, Harris was Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. Previously, Harris was an associate at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where he focused on international business transactions. Prior to that, Harris served in the African Affairs Directorate at the National Security Council at the White House under President Bill Clinton and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

Harris holds a law degree from Yale Law School, a Master’s in Public Affairs, with Distinction, from Princeton University, and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California, Berkeley. His writings have appeared in such publications as The Washington Post; Forbes; TIME; U.S. News & World Report; Foreign Affairs; Foreign Policy; HuffPost SA; The Hill; Yale Journal of Law & Policy; Berkeley Journal of International Law; Horizons; Israel Law Review (peer-reviewed); and The San Francisco Chronicle. He is a frequent conference speaker and has been widely quoted on Africa issues in U.S., international, and African media. In January 2017, Harris was appointed by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Harris has also served as a non-executive independent director on the board of the Africa Finance Corporation, an international financial institution that has invested more than $4 billion in infrastructure projects across Africa.

04 October

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Palm

Joey Hood

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

U.S. Department of State

Joey Hood is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.Mr. Hood has spent much of his career working in the Middle East, and particularly on the Arabian Peninsula. He has served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Iraq and in Kuwait, as well as Consul General and Principal Officer in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Prior to these assignments, Mr. Hood was Acting Director of the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Mr. Hood has also served in Riyadh, where he coordinated U.S.-Saudi military cooperation, and in Asmara, where he was a liaison to rebel leaders from Sudan’s Darfur region. He has also been assigned to U.S. embassies in Yemen and Qatar.

Prior to the Foreign Service, Mr. Hood was a Fulbright scholar in Burkina Faso and worked at a bank in Vermont. He earned a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College.

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Canon

Ana Kasparian

Host & Executive Producer

The Young Turks

With a sharp sense of humor and pointed wit rivaling anyone in the industry, Ana Kasparian has captivated viewers as host and executive producer of the online news show The Young Turks and a new show titled NoFilter where Kasparian expresses her unfiltered opinion and commentary on tough topics.

Her bold and intelligent style has transformed her into a favorite of millions while playing a vital part to the astronomical rise of TYT, the largest online news show in the world. Her honest coverage and dedication to truthful commentary was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2016 and in the Daily Dot as one of the Top Women of YouTube. Most recently, Kasparian was part of the inaugural group of YouTube creators to take part in speaking with world leaders at the Munich Security Conference as part of #yourMSC. Prior to TYT, Kasparian has also served as a contributor on MSNBC. As a dynamic speaker with the natural ability to connect and engage people; she uses her platform to provide a voice to those who are silenced around the world.

In 2018, she was recognized by the American Humanist Association with the Humanist Media Award. She was also awarded a Webby Award after appearing on the Sundance Channel's "Dream School" where she successfully encouraged high school dropouts to finish their education. Other accolades include the 2018 People’s Voice Webby Award for Online News and Politics Series, 2017 Streamy Subject Award for News and Culture, 2011 People’s Voice Webby Award for “Best News & Political Series,” as well as the 2009 “Best Political News Site” award.

Kasparian gets fired up when discussing the criminal justice system and education. Aside from being a regular op-ed writer for Raw Story, Kasparian has also written for the New York Times and Time.com. She also teaches journalism at California State University Northridge, the same school where she received her Bachelor's in journalism and Master's in political science.

It's not all work and no play for Kasparian, who enjoys running, going to music concerts, rapping along to Drake when she's alone in her apartment, and abandoning online shopping carts she fills with items she could never afford. She is the proud owner of a rescue dog named Charlie who has her wrapped around his little paws.

04 October

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Brighton

Patricia Kim

Senior Policy Analyst, China

United States Institute of Peace

Patricia M. Kim is a senior policy analyst with the China Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Her areas of expertise include Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security issues. Dr. Kim's research portfolio includes topics ranging from U.S.-China great power competition, China's policies toward the Korean Peninsula, to China-Africa relations. She is currently the project director of the China-Red Sea Senior Study Group at USIP which examines China's activities and influence in the Gulf and Horn of Africa.

Previously, Dr. Kim held positions as the Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, International Security Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University. She is currently a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Kim’s writing has been featured in outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, The South China Morning Post, and The Washington Post. She has testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Patricia received her PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University and her BA with highest distinction in political science and Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and proficient in Japanese.

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Canon

Joshua Kirschenbaum

Senior Fellow, Alliance for Securing Democracy

German Marshall Fund of the United States

Joshua Kirschenbaum is a senior fellow at GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, focusing on illicit finance. Josh joined GMF from the Treasury Department, where he worked from 2011 to 2018. He served as acting director of the Office of Special Measures at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, overseeing international money laundering investigations under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Previously, Josh worked on Iran sanctions at Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

He received a master’s degree in international security from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Northwestern University.

04 October

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Palm

Liz Koslov

Assistant Professor, Urban Planning and Environment and Sustainability

UCLA

Liz Koslov is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, where she explores the social dimensions of climate change, questions of environmental and climate justice, and how cities are adapting to effects such as extreme weather and sea level rise. Her current book project, Retreat: Moving to Higher Ground in a Climate-Changed City, offers an ethnographic account of “managed retreat” from the coast in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. Related work has been published in Public Culture, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, and Public Books, and cited in outlets that include Scientific American, The New Yorker, and WWNO New Orleans Public Radio.

Prior to joining UCLA, Liz was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at MIT. She holds a PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University, an MSc in Culture and Society from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Communication and Spanish and Latin American Literature from George Washington University.

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

09:45 AM 11:00 AM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Paul McLachlan

Head of Data Science & Principal Data Scientist

Ericsson Global Artificial Intelligence Accelerator

Dr. Paul McLachlan is Head of Data Science (San Francisco) and Principal Data Scientist at Ericsson’s Global Artificial Intelligence Accelerator. At Ericsson, he develops new 5G technology that will empower the next generation of interactive mobile content, with a particular focus on digital advertising, extended reality, and virtual reality. At his AI team at Ericsson, he designs architecture to harness the power of 5G networking and edge computing, with the aim of protecting users’ privacy while enabling greater personalization and interactivity.

Paul is also a member of Ericsson’s data monetization and exposure working groups, which provide Ericsson’s board of directors with expert opinions and technology briefs on the latest developments and opportunities in the data science and AI ecosystems. In addition to delivering new product lines, giving presentations, and teaching courses, he serves as an innovation ambassador for Ericsson’s internal incubator. In this role, he coaches teams to help them translate their ideas into successful businesses and improve their go-to-market strategies. Numerous startups and nonprofits, both in the San Francisco Bay Area and abroad, have formally invited Paul to serve as a mentor or advisor.

Prior to his current role at Ericsson, Paul was Director of Data Science at Ericsson Emodo, which focuses on applying mobile operator data to digital advertising. Before joining the telecommunications world, he was Director of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence practice lead at Epsilon, which was recently acquired by Publicis Groupe for $4 billion. At Epsilon, he led development of AI applied to marketing data. Before entering the corporate world, he was a member of the data science faculty at Emory University.

Reflecting his wide-ranging interests, Paul has published in multiple academic disciplines and has multiple patents pending. He earned his PhD from the University of California, San Diego.

04 October

The Internet of Things: Quantum, 5G, AI, and You

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Brighton

Antonio Mugica

Chief Executive Officer

Smartmatic

Antonio's the founder and CEO of the Smartmatic Group. Since the year 2000, he has defined the corporation’s vision and its goals.

He believes in a hands-on approach to management, and accordingly he actively participates in the strategic planning of all areas and departments.

Antonio's envisioned many of the technological solutions and breakthroughs Smartmatic has made. As of 2013, he held 11 issued and two pending patents in the United States, with more under way. He has an electronic engineering degree from the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas (Venezuela).

One of Antonio's strengths has been the ability to balance being both a leader and a team player.

When he founded Smartmatic, he wanted to create the kind of technology that could help improve societies around the world. The elections solution was created to eliminate voting fraud and solidify democracy.

The ID management solution was designed to help governments provide their citizens with secure and agile identification means. The public safety solution aims at solving crime prevention issues and at improving the response times of safety agencies.

The public transport solution uses various technologies to improve the quality of life of the people who use public transit services – and to fulfill crucial sustainability commitments.

Antonio is always seeking ways to complement his work with other interests, such as music and writing. He enjoys playing and composing music and he wrote a children’s book that was recently awarded the prestigious Moonbeam Children's Book Gold Medal in the Spanish Language category.

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

09:45 AM 11:00 AM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Patrick Schaefer

Executive Director

Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness

Patrick is the Executive Director of the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness, part of the University of Texas at El Paso, which produces detailed economic and legal analysis of the various markets that converge in the transboundary, Paso del Norte region. The Institute provides an open platform of regional databases, strategic sector analyses, critical sector mapping, and economic impact models in order to foster greater cohesion among local, regional, and international stakeholders and market actors. Prior to founding the Institute, Patrick held positions with the World Bank Group and the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., where he advised client-states on legal reforms to improve their commercial and financial sectors. In particular, his work centers on the comparative commercial, financial, and natural resource laws within the Ibero-American context, with a special emphasis on Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Portugal. He received his J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law and his LL.M. from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He has also studied at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, the Universidade de São Paulo, the Université Paris 1: Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Hague Academy for International Law, the Katholieke Universitiet Leuven, graduating magna cum laude, and St. John’s College, where he received his undergraduate degree. His publications have dealt with international bankruptcy and trans-boundary natural resource management. He is an adjunct professor of NAFTA Law at the University of Texas at El Paso and has coached two teams from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez to two international arbitration competitions in Vienna and Los Angeles. Patrick is also an active member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, the Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, the State Bars of New York and New Mexico, as well as the American Society of International Law.

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

09:45 AM 11:00 AM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Robert Shrum

Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics

University of Southern California

Robert M. Shrum is the Director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife. He is a former political strategist and consultant who was described as "the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party," by The Atlantic Monthly.

Mr. Shrum served as speechwriter to New York Mayor John V. Lindsay from 1970 to 1971, speechwriter to Sen. George McGovern’s 1972 Presidential campaign and speechwriter and press secretary to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from 1980 to 1984. He served as senior advisor to the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000 and to the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. Other former clients include Barbara Mikulski, Joe Biden, and John Glenn in their Senate campaigns, Bob Casey in his run for Governor of Pennsylvania, and Tom Bradley's run for Mayor of Los Angeles. He continued his storied career as a political consultant until 2009.

Overseas his clients included Ehud Barak in his campaign for Prime Minister of Israel, the British Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Ireland and the President of Colombia.
His political memoir, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner, was published in June 2007 by Simon and Schuster.

04 October

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Brighton

James Verini

Contributing Writer

New York Times Magazine & National Geographic

James Verini is a Contributing Writer at The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atavist, Vanity Fair, Foreign Policy and many other publications. He has received a National Magazine Award and a George Polk Award.

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Canon

Staci Warden

Executive Director

Milken Institute's Global Markets Development

Staci Warden is executive director of the Global Market Development practice at the Milken Institute, where she leads initiatives on strengthening capital markets, financial inclusion, financial-market education, and innovative financial solutions to development challenges. Warden is also chair of the Rwandan Capital Markets Authority, a cabinet-appointed position. Prior to the Milken Institute, Warden spent six years at JPMorgan in London, where she ran its public-sector client franchise in EMEA, and two years in New York as part of the Sovereign DCM team. Before that, she was a director at NASDAQ and led its two market offerings for micro-cap companies, the BBX and the OTCBB. In the public and nonprofit sectors, she has served as an international economist at the U.S. Treasury Department, start-up COO of the Center for Global Development, and a development associate at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Warden has worked or done business in over 50 countries and has served as an advisor to several ministers of finance on sovereign-wealth management, debt management, capital-market development, and financial inclusion. She speaks and writes widely on economic and financial development, financial innovation, and public sector strategy. Warden holds an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and has completed her coursework for a Ph.D. in economics from Brandeis University.

04 October

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

11:15 AM 12:30 PM Palm

Jonathan Wong

Associate Policy Researcher

RAND

Jonathan Wong is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. His research focuses on the role of new technologies, processes, and concepts in shaping how militaries fight. He also contributes to other force development research and RAND's military logistics, manpower, intelligence policy, and strategy portfolios.
Previously, Wong was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group, advising corporate clients on strategic decision-making in the industrial goods and public sector spaces. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an enlisted infantryman, infantry officer, and manpower planner from 2001-11, deploying multiple times to Iraq and the Western Pacific.

Wong has a B.A. in political science from the University of California San Diego, an M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

04 October

National Security and Silicon Valley

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Palm

Dakota Wood

Senior Research Fellow, Defense Programs, Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy

The Heritage Foundation

Dakota Wood served as a U.S. Marine for 20 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He is currently the Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation.He holds degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy and the Naval War College,and earned meritorious distinction from the Marine Corps’ School of Advanced Warfighting.While in uniform, Mr. Wood served as a strategic analyst for the Commandant of the Marine Corps and Secretary of Defense. His operational assignments included deployments and/or contingency operations in the Asia-Pacific, Euro-Mediterranean-Africa, and Middle East regions.Following retirement in2005, he helped to stand-up a global bio surveillance program. From 2006 to 2011,he served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.Following his time with CSBA, he served as the Strategist for the Marine Corps’ Special Operations Command.

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

12:40 PM 02:30 PM Beverly Hills Ballroom

Thomas Zimmerman

Director of Programs

Pacific Council on International Policy

Thomas Zimmerman is the Director of Programs at the Pacific Council on International Policy, where he oversees programing for Council members and the general public. He started his career working in Kabul Afghanistan with American Councils for International Education. After working on Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, Thomas joined the Pakistan Desk at the Department of Defense before moving to the White House to serve as Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor. In 2012, he managing the national security and foreign policy research portfolio for President Obama’s reelection campaign. Most recently, Thomas worked at the Center on International Cooperation and as a visiting scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, focusing on Afghanistan, Somalia, and Chinese regional policy. He specializes in the facilitation of Track II dialogues.

Thomas holds a BA from Williams College and an MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is originally from Austin, Texas, and currently lives in Los Feliz where he’s still not over his being minutes away from hiking trails, record stores, and breakfast tacos.

04 October

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

02:45 PM 04:00 PM Brighton

PolicyWest 2019

Schedule

Registration & Breakfast

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

The Internet of Things: Quantum, 5G, AI, and You

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

A Century of America in the Middle East

National Security and Silicon Valley

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

Coffee Social

Keynote Speaker

Closing Reception

Sponsors

Speakers

Aaron Brooks

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

Frances Brown

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

Antonella Caruso

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

Katelyn Davidson

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

Caroline Dorminey

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

Eric Eide

04 October

The Internet of Things: Quantum, 5G, AI, and You

Tom Foldesi

04 October

National Security and Silicon Valley

Kara Frederick

04 October

National Security and Silicon Valley

Glenn Gerstell

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Eric Gomez

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

Rebecca Grant

04 October

Lunch Debate: The United States Should Spend Less on Defense

Derek Grossman

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

Grant Harris

04 October

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

Joey Hood

04 October

A Century of America in the Middle East

Ana Kasparian

04 October

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

Patricia Kim

04 October

China's Military: Peer or Paper Dragon?

Joshua Kirschenbaum

04 October

Economic Diplomacy in the 21st Century: U.S. Competitiveness Abroad

Liz Koslov

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Paul McLachlan

04 October

The Internet of Things: Quantum, 5G, AI, and You

Antonio Mugica

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Patrick Schaefer

04 October

TED-Style Talks: Democracy, Mexico, Climate Change, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Robert Shrum