Chuck Hagel was the 24th Secretary of Defense, serving from February 2013 to February 2015. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense.

Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate (1997–2009) representing the state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He Chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees. Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional–Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.

Previously, Secretary Hagel was Co-Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, Chairman of the Atlantic Council, and a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. He served as a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board and Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Power, Systemic Risk Council Board of Directors. Hagel also served as Chief Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G–7 Summit) and Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Commissioner General of the 1982 World’s Fair.

Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company, an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska. In the mid–1980’s, Hagel co–founded VANGUARD Cellular Systems, Inc., a publicly traded corporation. He was President and CEO of the World USO and Private Sector Council (PSC).

Some of Hagel’s current commitments include service on the United States Military Academy Board of Visitors; Board of Trustees of RAND; Advisory Board of Corsair Capital; Senior Advisor to the McCarthy Group; Centennial Scholar, Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service; Distinguished Scholar, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Distinguished Statesman at the Atlantic Council; Board of Directors of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); Board of Trustees of the United States Capitol Historical Society; Director and Co–Founding Member of the American Security Project; Advisory Board Chairman of the HillVets Veterans Organization; and Chairman of the Veterans Justice Commission.

He is the author of the book, America: Our Next Chapter. He and his brother Tom are the subjects of a 2018 book by General Daniel Bolger entitled, Our Year of War. Hagel is also the subject of a 2006 book by Charlyne Berens entitled, Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, have a daughter (Allyn) and son (Ziller).

Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty served as the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Under Secretary for Nuclear Security at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from February 2018 until November 2020. Confirmed by the United States Senate on February 15, 2018, she was the first woman to hold this leadership position. With more than 30 years of national security experience, Ms. Gordon-Hagerty was responsible for the management and operations of NNSA in support of President Trump’s nuclear security agenda. NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad. She was a member of the joint DOD-DOE Nuclear Weapons Council.

Ms. Gordon-Hagerty served as a career civil servant in several U.S. Government leadership positions, including as the Director of Combating Terrorism, National Security Council staff for more than five years. She also served at DOE as the Director, Office of Emergency Response, and as Acting Director, Office of Nuclear Weapons Surety. Ms. Gordon-Hagerty was a professional staff member on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. She began her professional career as a health physicist at NNSA’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Presently, Ms. Gordon-Hagerty is the CEO of Wolverine Global, Inc, (formerly LEG, Inc.) a Woman Owned Small Business in Delray Beach, FL. She serves as an Outside Director with Visible Assets, Inc., and Westinghouse Electric Corporation, WGS. She recently served as a commissioner of the Strategic Posture Commission established by the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act which was released in October 2023. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Ms. Gordon-Hagerty was president of Tier Tech International, Inc., a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business providing professional expertise to combating WMD terrorism worldwide. She was president and CEO of LEG, Inc., a consulting firm focusing on national security issues. Ms. Gordon-Hagerty served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of USEC, Inc. at the time, the world’s largest commercial uranium enrichment company.

Ms. Gordon-Hagerty holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Physics and a Bachelor of Science, both from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Health Physics Society.

John Deutch is an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Deutch has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1970, and has served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science, and Provost. Mr. Deutch has published over 160 technical publications in physical chemistry, as well as numerous publications on technology, energy, international security, and public policy issues.

John Deutch served as Director of Central Intelligence from May 1995–December 1996. From 1994–1995, he served as Deputy Secretary of Defense and served as Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology from 1993–1994. John Deutch has also served as Director of Energy Research (1977–1979), Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology (1979), and Undersecretary (1979–80) in the United States Department of Energy. In addition, John Deutch has served on the President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee (1980–81); the President’s Commission on Strategic Forces (1983); the White House Science Council (1985–89); the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1990–93); the President’s Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (1996); the President’s Commission on Reducing and Protecting Government Secrecy (1996–1997); and as Chairman of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1998–99). He was a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (1997–2001) and a member of the National Petroleum Council (2008–2018). He received the Aspen Strategy Group Leadership Award in 2004 and was the Phi Beta Kappa “Orator” at Harvard University, 2005. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the American Philosophical Society. In 2009 John Deutch received the MIT Gordon Y Billard award: “… for special service of outstanding merit performed for the Institute.” He was a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (2012 – 2017) and chair (2014–2017).

He has served on the board of directors of Cheniere, Citigroup, CMS, Cummins, Raytheon, Schlumberger, and SAIC and as a Trustee or Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization, Center for American Progress, theCouncil on Foreign Relations, Resources for the Future, and the Urban Institute.

Stephen Rademaker is Senior of Counsel at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches at the graduate level on U.S. sanctions policy. He joined Covington & Burling following a long career in public service in all three branches of government. Among his accomplishments in public service, he had lead responsibility, as a House staffer, for drafting the legislation that created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Serving as an Assistant Secretary of State from 2002 through 2006, Mr. Rademaker headed at various times three bureaus of the State Department, including the Bureau of Arms Control and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. He directed the Proliferation Security Initiative, as well as nonproliferation policy toward Iran and North Korea, and led strategic dialogues with Russia, China, India and Pakistan. He also headed U.S. delegations to the 2005 Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the 2003 Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the 2002 Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention, and many other international conferences.

Mr. Rademaker concluded his government career on Capitol Hill in 2007, serving as Senior Counsel and Policy Director for National Security Affairs for then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). In this role, Stephen helped manage all aspects of the legislative process relating to foreign policy, defense, intelligence and national security. He earlier served as Chief Counsel for the Select Committee on Homeland Security of the U.S. House of Representatives, and for nearly ten years prior to that on the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, including as Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel.

During President George H. W. Bush’s administration, Mr. Rademaker served as General Counsel of the Peace Corps, Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel, and as Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council. After leaving government in 2007, Mr. Rademaker continued to serve as the U.S. representative on the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, and was appointed by House Republican Leader John Boehner to the U.S. Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

At Covington & Burling, Mr. Rademaker’s practice centers on advising clients about compliance with various U.S. sanctions measures and other international trade controls, including those directed at Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. He also maintains an active pro bono practice, which has included representation of Philippines journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe who was imprisoned in Russia and released in August 2024 as part of the largest prisoner exchange with Russia since the end of the Cold War. For his work on behalf of Ms. Kurmasheva, Mr. Rademaker was named by The American Lawyer magazine as one of four finalists for its “Attorney of the Year” award for 2024.

Mr. Rademaker has a B.A., a J.D., and an M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and is the father of four children.

Richard A. Meserve is Senior Of Counsel in the Washington, DC, office of Covington & Burling LLP. He is the President Emeritus of the Carnegie Institution for Science and former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Early in his career, after obtaining a PhD in applied physics from Stanford and a JD from Harvard Law School, he served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and as legal counsel to the President’s Science Adviser. Among other activities, he is the former President of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the former Chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group (chartered by the International Atomic Energy Agency). He has chaired or served as a member of a wide variety of studies undertaken by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, including as chairman of a recently completed study of advanced reactors. He is currently serving as an external adviser to the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority, the regulator established after the Fukushima accident, and has received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Stars, from the Japanese Emperor for his service to Japan after the accident.

Bill Ostendorff currently serves on the board of directors of Sandia National Laboratory, Global Laser Enrichment and Cavendish Nuclear USA. He also serves on INPO’s Advisory Council and chairs the Decommissioning Nuclear Safety Review Board for Three Mile Island Unit 2.

From 2016-2021, he served as the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the US Naval Academy. Mr. Ostendorff has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on three occasions in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He served as Principal Deputy Administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in the Bush administration (2007-2009) and as a Commissioner at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2010-2016) in the Obama administration prior to joining the Naval Academy faculty.

From 2003 to 2007, he served as counsel and staff director for the Strategic Forces Subcommittee with oversight responsibilities for the Department of Energy’s Atomic Energy Defense Activities as well as the Department of Defense’s space, missile defense and intelligence programs.

Mr. Ostendorff was an officer in the United States Navy from 1976 until he retired in 2002 with the rank of captain. Entering the Rickover Nuclear Navy, he served on six submarines. During his naval career, he commanded a nuclear attack submarine and a nuclear attack submarine squadron. Mr. Ostendorff earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the United States Naval Academy and law degrees from the University of Texas and Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the US Nuclear Industry Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Nuclear Society’s Eisenhower Award.

Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter is currently a consultant/contractor for a number of US Government agencies and advises military, government, defense contractors and civilian groups on missile defense, terrorism, counter-terrorism, cyber-warfare, intelligence, ISR & Space, virtual reality, war gaming, next-generation technology and unconventional strategies. He is a Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a member of the Director’s Strategic Red Team at MIT/ Lincoln Laboratories, a consultant for the Global Security & Intelligence Sector of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a Senior Thinker for the Institute For Human & Machine Cognition.  He was a Specialist Reserve Officer with the Anti-Terrorist Division of the Los Angeles Police Dept for 15 years and a founding member of the Terrorism Early Warning Group, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and a consultant for General Atomics.