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US-Ukraine Security Dialogue VIII: Speaker Bios

Anders �slund

Anders Aslund is presently a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States. Dr. Aslund has long engaged in monitoring the transformation of formerly socialist economies to market-based economies. While the central areas of his studies are Russia and Ukraine, he also focuses on the broader implications of economic transition. Immediately prior to his tenure at the Council, the renowned Swedish economist was Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics; earlier, he served as Director of the Russian and Eurasian Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

Stephen Blank

Stephen Blank is currently Senior Fellow on Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council; prior to his present position, Dr. Blank spent 24 years, 1989-2013, as a Professor of National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA. His expertise covers the entire Russian and post-Soviet region and he has also written extensively on defense strategy, arms control, information warfare, energy issues, US foreign and defense policy, European, and Asian security.

Brendon Boyle

Brendon Boyle was first elected to Congress in 2014 by the citizens of the 13th Congressional District, representing Northeast Philadelphia, part of North Philadelphia, and approximately half of Montgomery County, PA. Since entering public service, Rep. Boyle has served as a champion for working and middle class families, in particular on issues relating to social and economic justice. At the same time, as a highly active member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he has served to mobilize attention to events in Ukraine; as his latest initiative, Rep. Boyle is looking to introduce legislation that shows the commitment of the U.S. to assisting Ukraine with their cybersecurity efforts.

Valeriy Chaly

Valeriy Chaly presently serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States. He came to the post immediately after having held the position of Deputy Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine. Before his political and foreign services appointments, Amb. Chaly worked a number of years as Deputy Director General of Ukraine”s leading NGO, the Razumkov Center, gaining recognition in Ukraine as well as internationally for his efforts at the institution.

Wesley Clark

Wesley Clark, during his 34 years in the U.S. Army, rose to the rank of four-star general and was named director for strategic plans and policy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Supreme Allied Commander and Commander in Chief of the U.S. European Command (1997-2000), he commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO”s first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. In August 2000, Gen. Clark was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2004, the long serving and decorated warrior was a major contender during the Democratic presidential primaries and was considered to be on the short list of the party’s vice presidential nominees.

Luke Coffey

Luke Coffey is presently Director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In his current position, he is responsible for directing policy research for the Middle East, Africa, Russia and the former Soviet Union, the Western Hemisphere, the Arctic region, and NATO. Immediately prior to his work at Heritage, Mr. Coffey was posted as a special adviser to Britain’s Ministry of Defence. Earlier, he served as an officer in the United States Armed Forces, with deployments in South Europe and Afghanistan.

Janusz Bugajski

Janusz Bugajski is a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC and host of television shows broadcast in the Balkans. Bugajski has authored 20 books on Europe, Russia, and trans-Atlantic relations and is a columnist for several media outlets. His recent books include Eurasian Disunion: Russia”s Vulnerable Flanks (with Margarita Assenova) (2016); Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared (2014); Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement (2013); and Georgian Lessons: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe (2010).

Ariel Cohen

Ariel Cohen is a well-known international expert on Ukrainian, Russian, Eurasian, European and Middle Eastern foreign, security and economic affairs; global energy security; terrorism and organized crime. He is presently Director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; concurrently, he is a Non Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States. For many years previous, Dr. Cohen served as Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Heritage Foundation, working closely with Congressmen and Congressional staff members and cabinet-level foreign decision makers.

William Courtney

William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and executive director of the RAND Business Leaders Forum. He is also president of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association, which represents U.S. exporters to and investors in Kazakhstan. In 2014 he retired from Computer Sciences Corporation as senior principal for federal policy strategy. From 1972 through 1999, he was a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State. He co-chaired the U.S. delegation to the review conference that prepared for the 1999 Istanbul Summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and advised in the reorganization of U.S. foreign affairs agencies, mandated by the Foreign Affairs Reform Act of 1999. Earlier he served as special assistant to the President for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia and as Ambassador to Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the U.S.-Soviet commission that implemented the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.

John Falk

John M. Falk is the Founding Member and President of Vigilent Inc., started in December 2011 in response to the decade-long gap in federal government action for a comprehensive Bio-Terrorism Threat Response System. Joining forces with General Klaus Schafer (former Assistant Surgeon General–U.S. Air Force) and Keith Copenhagen (formerly with DARPA) the company is bringing forward Actionable Bio-Surveillance Intelligence solutions from Sensor-Fusion to Bio-Threat Alerts by leveraging advanced UAS/UAV systems and Command Response software for the Defense, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Intelligence and First Responder community. Mr. Falk represents U.S. companies, such as General Dynamics Land Systems, Westport Shipyard and Boeing/Insitu, within the Military, Homeland Security, and Technology sectors in the areas of Federal and International Business Development, Strategic Relations and Federal Procurement matters. Mr. Falk has also successfully assisted numerous clients in the sale of products and services to Foreign Governments and the development of International markets for Military, Security, Law Enforcement, Infrastructure and Advanced Technology products and solutions.

Brian K. Fitzpatrick

Brian K. Fitzpatrick is the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district. He was elected in 2016 and took office on January 3, 2017. Before his election to the Congress, Rep. Fitzpatrick served our country as an Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent, where his focus was on fighting political corruption and supporting global counterterrorism efforts. As an FBI agent, Brian served our country in Operation Iraqi Freedom – the largest of several active fronts in the War on Terror; he also served as the National Director for the FBI”s Campaign Finance and Election Crimes Enforcement Program, and as a national supervisor for the FBI”s Political Corruption Unit. Rep. Fitzpatrick has traveled the world (including a number of trips to Ukraine) to promote freedom and democracy; he is recognized as an expert in restoring integrity to governmental institutions.

Andrew J Futey

Andrew J Futey, in September 2016, was elected to a four year term as President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the representative organization of over 1.5 million Americans of Ukrainian descent; he concurrently serves as a Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress. Mr. Futey brings more than 20 years of extensive government and campaign experience as President of Andrew J Futey & Associates. His firm provides public policy and government relations consulting, strategic planning, public affairs and campaign development strategies at the international, federal, state and local levels. His clients have included Ohio and out-of-state Fortune 500 Companies, Major Corporations, Small Businesses, Community Non-Profit Organizations, Professional and State Associations and Governmental Entities. He has successfully represented his clients at all levels of government and has the respect of public officials in both parties. In June 2002, the government of Ukraine appointed him as Honorary Consul of Ukraine for the states of Ohio and Kentucky.

John Herbst

John Herbst is former United States Ambassador to Ukraine and presently Director for Eurasia at the Atlantic Council of the United States; immediately prior to the current posting, he served as Director of the National Defense University Center for Complex Operations. Amb. Herbst has worked as a political counselor at the US embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel, Moscow, Russia, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Director of Regional Affairs in the Near East Bureau of the US State Department, as Director of the Office of Independent States and Commonwealth Affairs and as Principal Deputy to the Ambassador-at-large for the Newly Independent States. He was appointed Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2000 before assuming the post of US envoy to Ukraine in 2003.

Glen Howard

Glen Howard serves as the President of The Jamestown Foundation. Mr. Howard is fluent in Russian and proficient in Azerbaijani and Arabic, and is a regional expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia. He was formerly an Analyst at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Strategic Assessment Center. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, and Jane’s Defense Weekly. Mr. Howard has served as a consultant to private sector and governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Intelligence Council and major oil companies operating in Central Asia and the Middle East.