Jane Harman – Chair
Jane Harman is a former nine-term U.S. Congresswoman whose Southern California district included major aerospace facilities. She served as Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee after 9/11, playing a central role in modernizing congressional oversight of the U.S. intelligence community. Following nearly two decades in Congress, Harman remains a respected voice on national and homeland security, defense, and foreign policy.
In 2011, Harman became the first woman President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, leading the institution for a decade and continuing as President Emerita. She later chaired the bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy, which issued a unanimous report in July 2024 and was reappointed to serve on the Commission in 2026. Harman has served on advisory boards across the intelligence, defense, homeland security, and foreign policy communities, received numerous awards including the CIA Director’s Medal, and recently co-chaired the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Space Management Policy. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and the Advisory Council of the Munich Security Conference, and a Trustee of the Aspen Institute, the Trilateral Commission, Freedom House, Eisenhower Fellowships, and the University of Southern California.
Harman is the author of “Insanity Defense: Why Our Failure to Confront Hard National Security Problems Makes Us Less Safe”, a candid examination of U.S. policy choices since the end of the Cold War and a call for bipartisan realism in addressing America’s toughest security challenges.
A product of Los Angeles public schools, Harman graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College, where she was later awarded an honorary degree. She also holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Chertoff Group, a global security risk management and growth advisory firm, which he co-founded after a notable career in public service, where he repeatedly addressed security issues of first impression.
As U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary from 2005-2009, he led the largest reorganization of the Federal civilian workforce since World War II. He gave up lifetime Federal appeals court judgeship to serve as DHS Secretary.
Earlier, at U.S. Department of Justice, he supervised investigation into the 9/11 attacks. Secretary Chertoff began his career as Federal prosecutor in New York in 1983, where he led the simultaneous prosecution of the heads of five major mafia crime families.
At Chertoff Group, Mr. Chertoff uses the same critical thinking discipline he used in government to help major corporations address evolving security issues, including cyber, geopolitical and physical risk. “Risk management has become the CEO’s concern,” he says. “We help our clients develop comprehensive strategies to manage risk without building barriers that get in the way of carrying on their business.”
Mr. Chertoff graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College (1975) and Harvard Law School (1978). From 1979-1980 he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr. In addition to his role at Chertoff Group, Mr. Chertoff is also a senior of counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group.
He serves as an advisor to the American Bar Association’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force, as co-chair of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, on the board of trustees of the Freedom House, and as a director on the board of The Atlantic Council.
He is the author of Exploding Data: Reclaiming Our Cyber Security in the Digital Age.
Courtney Simmons Elwood
Courtney Simmons Elwood served as the Senate-confirmed General Counsel of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from June 2017 to January 2021, receiving the CIA Director’s Distinguished Service Award upon her departure. She previously held a number of senior government positions from 2001 to 2007, including as Associate Counsel to the President, Deputy Counsel to the Vice President, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General.
Ms. Elwood advises and speaks on national security, civil society, and democratic governance through her firm, Headland Consulting LLC. Her recent work includes the national security implications of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, U.S.–Iran policy, and civic education on college campuses. She serves on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security and has twice served on bipartisan American Law Institute advisory groups on reforming the Electoral Count Act and the Insurrection Act.
Ms. Elwood was a partner at the law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC, where she practiced appellate and complex civil litigation for more than a dozen years. She was a law clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court and for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Ms. Elwood is a graduate of Yale Law School and Washington and Lee University.
Michael Leiter
Mr. Leiter has significant experience navigating national security reviews before CFIUS and negotiating complex mitigation agreements across the full range of business sectors, having represented corporations, private equity, venture capital and sovereign wealth funds. In recognition of his work, Mr. Leiter has been named a Top Advisor by Foreign Investment Watch, a listing recognizing “top global CFIUS experts.” He has also been recognized in Band 1 of Chambers Global and Chambers USA, as well as by Lawdragon as one of its 100 Leading AI & Legal Tech Advisors, 500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management and 500 Leading Lawyers in America.
Mr. Leiter has assisted clients in matters involving the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency, export controls, aerospace and defense, government services-related mergers and acquisitions, advanced technologies and artificial intelligence, and government contracting. In addition to his transaction practice, Mr. Leiter has extensive experience with all aspects of cybersecurity based on his previous private sector experience and through serving in senior national security positions in the federal government in which he oversaw numerous legal and operational aspects of cybersecurity. He routinely works with clients on issues that include cybersecurity preparedness, breach response, and board and corporate leadership counseling.
Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Leiter was president of Leidos Defense, a $2.5 billion business unit of Leidos, which provides technology and solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense and allied nations globally. He joined Leidos in 2014 as chief strategy officer and executive vice president for business development and head of M&A, and negotiated, its acquisition of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems and Global Solutions business — an approximately $5 billion transaction. Immediately after leaving the government in 2011, he served as head of global government and cyber solutions and senior counselor to the chief executive officer at Palantir Technologies, based in Palo Alto.
Mr. Leiter has served in a number of senior national security positions in the federal government. He was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from 2007 until 2011 for both Presidents Bush and Obama, where he led the primary organization in the U.S. government for analysis and integration of all terrorism intelligence, both domestically and overseas. In addition, he reported directly to the president for strategic operational planning of all U.S. counterterrorism activities, to include the integration of military, intelligence, cyber, diplomatic, financial and homeland security programs and operations. In this role and in his private sector capacities, he worked extensively with senior government officials and corporations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and Africa, and also coordinated global intelligence and law enforcement investigations involving the U.S. and allies around the world.
Before NCTC, Mr. Leiter helped establish the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, serving as its deputy chief of staff responsible for oversight of the U.S. intelligence community, including the CFIUS process and all legislative affairs. Mr. Leiter continues to serve as an advisor to multiple organizations in and outside of government, including being the chairman of the RAND Corporation’s Board of Trustees, a member of the American Law Institute’s Adviser’s Group on Data Privacy, the Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Advisory Committee, the NCTC Director’s Advisory Board, the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Advisory Group, and the Columbia University Data and Society Council. He previously served as NBC News’ senior national security, cybersecurity and counterterrorism analyst and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Leiter currently is part of The Washington Post’s Cybersecurity 202 Network, a “group of high-level digital security experts” tasked with voting in surveys on pressing issues in the sector. In November 2020, he testified before the U.K. House of Commons regarding the nation’s National Security and Investment Bill.
He has previously served as a senior adviser to Monument Capital Group; a member of the Board of Directors of GardaWorld Government Services; a member of several NSA advisory panels; a member of the National Academies Committee on Responding to Presidential Policy Directive 28; The Feasibility of Software to Provide Alternatives to Bulk Signals Intelligence Collection; a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Defense Industrial Association; and as the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at New York University Law School’s Center on Law and Security.
Prior to his work in national security positions, Mr. Leiter was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he investigated and brought to trial a wide range of federal crimes, including racketeering, capital murder and money laundering. He also was a law clerk to Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Before attending law school, Mr. Leiter served as a naval flight officer aboard EA-6B Prowlers, an electronic warfare and signals intelligence carrier-based jet, during which time he participated in combat and peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq.
Matt Olsen
From 2021 to 2025, Mr. Olsen served as Assistant Attorney General for National Security, leading DOJ’s mission to defend the United States against nation-state adversaries, espionage, cyber attacks, terrorism, and other national security threats.
From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Olsen was the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, where he led the government’s efforts to combat terrorism through the integration and analysis of intelligence and strategic planning. He also served as General Counsel of the National Security Agency.
Mr. Olsen has worked at the Department of Justice as a career attorney and in a number of leadership positions, including as Special Counselor to the Attorney General and Special Counsel to the FBI Director. He served for over a decade as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Mr. Olsen began his public service career at as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
In the private sector, Mr. Olsen is currently with the law firm WilmerHale. He previously served as the Chief Trust and Security Officer for Uber Technologies and co-founded and operated a cyber security consulting and software company.
Mr. Olsen has taught at Harvard Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Norma Holloway Johnson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He graduated from Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia.
Jake Sullivan
Jake Sullivan is the Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He is also the co-host of The Long Game podcast. From January 2021 to January 2025, he was the 28th Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor). In the Obama Administration, he served as National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Biden, Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State, and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the years between government service, Sullivan was a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he helped conceive a bipartisan task force project on a foreign policy for the middle class. He held teaching posts at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, and Yale Law School. And he co-founded and co-chaired the advisory board for National Security Action.
He holds a B.A. in political science and international studies from Yale College; a M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States. He grew up as the second of five children in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is a proud product of the Minneapolis public schools. He lives with his wife, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, in New Hampshire.
Katherine Tai
Ambassador Katherine Tai is an expert on international economic policy and diplomacy. As the 19th United States Trade Representative, she served as a member of President Biden’s Cabinet and the principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on U.S. trade policy from March 2021 to January 2025. Her vision and leadership shaped the first worker-centered trade policy in U.S. history, harnessing the power of international relations and trade to enhance workers’ rights in the United States and across the globe.
In addition to leading U.S. participation at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and forums like APEC, the OECD, and the trade tracks at the G20 and G7, Ambassador Tai led a team at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) that traveled to all 50 states. In reaching out to America’s small business owners, workers, family farmers and ranchers, and engaging communities directly, she spearheaded a major shift in recognizing USTR’s need to speak for the interests of the entire U.S. economy, not only the largest players.
Prior to her unanimous Senate confirmation, Ambassador Tai spent nearly 2 decades in public service crafting, monitoring, and enforcing U.S. and international trade laws. She served as Chief Trade Counsel and Trade Subcommittee Staff Director to the House Ways and Means Committee, playing a pivotal role during the first Trump administration in the re-negotiation and ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. She is also an experienced WTO litigator. From 2007 to 2014, Ambassador Tai developed and tried cases for USTR, eventually becoming the agency’s Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement.
Ambassador Tai is currently Executive Director and Co-Founder of Coalition for New Trade, a non-profit initiative building a broad-based coalition in support of new trade policies by connecting policy roundtables with everyday kitchen tables.
A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, Ambassador Tai began her career practicing law in the private sector, clerking for federal judges in the Districts of Columbia and Maryland, and teaching English in Guangzhou, China as a Yale-China Association fellow. She is fluent in Mandarin.