- Ben Carson
« Press release from Carson America
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2015
Dr. Ben Carson Announces Foreign Policy Advisors
“I’m honored that these distinguished individuals have agreed to join my campaign,” said Dr. Carson. “They bring with them great breadth and depth of experience in international affairs. I look forward to relying on their good counsel to offer solutions to the grave national security challenges this country faces.”
The National Security and Foreign Policy Advisory Committee for the Ben Carson for President 2016 consists of the following experts.
Mr. Danny Benjamin
Mr. George Birnbaum
Colonel Chris Bourne, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired
Ms. Lisa Coen
Major General Jerry Curry, U.S. Army,
Retired
Major General Bob Dees, U.S. Army, Retired (Chairman of the Advisory Committee)
Dr. Paul Gregory
Brigadier General Jeff Horne, U.S. Army, Retired
Lieutenant Colonel Sue Huggler, U.S. Army, Retired
Ms. Ying Ma
Dr. David McIntyre
Mr. George Papadopoulos
Dr. Stephen Parke
Mr. Tim Ryan
Major General Gregory A. Schumacher, U.S. Army, Retired
Major General Mel Spiese, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired
Short bios for members of the National Security and Foreign Policy Advisory Committee are available below. Each member of the Committee who is not affiliated with the Carson campaign is serving in his or her personal capacity and not as a representative of any of the institutions with which he or she is affiliated.
Mr. Danny Benjamin
As
an American with Iraqi Assyrian roots, Mr. Benjamin possesses unique
cultural, business and security experience and relationships in Kuwait,
Iraq, Kurdistan, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. Following Operation Iraqi Freedom, he worked closely with
the
George W. Bush White House and select members of Congress regarding
Middle Eastern policy. Currently, Mr. Benjamin is an attorney and the
Business Development & Marketing Senior Director for the Eastern
Hemisphere at Exterran Holdings Inc. & Belleli Energy, located in
Dubai, UAE.
Mr. George Birnbaum
Raised
in Atlanta, Georgia from the age of four, Mr. Birnbaum is the son of
immigrants from France and Germany, as well as the son and grandson of
Holocaust survivors. Mr. Birnbaum has vast experience working in over a
dozen international political campaigns. Additionally, he served as
chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and
possesses deep knowledge of Israeli political, cultural, economic and
security concerns. Having worked with three Israeli Prime Ministers,
Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon, Mr. Birnbaum has
unique insight and perspective into many of the important issues of the
day, such as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and fighting
terrorism.
Colonel Chris Bourne, USMC, Retired
Col.
Bourne is an experienced defense professional with 25 years of service
in the U.S. Marine Corps, including extensive strategic leadership in
Washington, DC and diverse operational experience in Iraq, Afghanistan
and the Pacific Theatre. He also has broad national security
experience, including leadership of Joint Chiefs of Staff planning in
the interagency process for a Presidential Initiative on Peace
Operations, an initiative on the War on Terror and UN Security Council
resolutions on peacekeeping and Iraq. He also has had extensive
interactions with regional forces in the Middle East and the Gulf
Region. Col. Bourne led the first conventional unit into Afghanistan
after 9/11, and is currently President of Bourne Executive Strategies,
LLC in Greenville, South Carolina.
Ms. Lisa Coen
Ms.
Coen brings extensive global trade, economic and health experience to
the campaign as she has served in numerous policy positions in the
George W. Bush Administration. In addition to being the Deputy
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs and
subsequently the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for
Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Global Pharmaceutical Affairs, Ms.
Coen served as a Director on the White House National Security Council.
In this position, she supported the Deputy National Security Advisor
for International Economic Affairs where she managed the G-8 process on
global public health, energy security, education and diverse
international economic and foreign policy issues. She has also
supported the Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and
Agricultural Affairs on regional issues in the Middle East and North
Africa and on congressional relations, global trade, sanctions, export
controls, investment and energy security matters. Prior to that, she
worked at two major law firms. Presently, Ms. Coen is the Deputy
Campaign Manager for the Carson campaign.
Major General Jerry Curry,
U.S. Army, Retired
Gen.
Curry is a decorated combat veteran, Army aviator, paratrooper and
Ranger who has served his country both in the military and as a
presidential political appointee for nearly forty years. He has many
honors and decorations and has a strong background in federal
regulatory matters, foreign affairs, national defense concerns,
corporate planning and product liability litigation concerning the
safety of motor vehicles.
Major General Bob Dees, U.S. Army,
Retired (Chairman of the Advisory Committee)
Gen.
Dees has served on every continent with the U.S. Army for 31 years,
including at the Command of the Second Infantry Division in Korea and
Deputy Command of V Corps in Europe, and as Commander of the
U.S.-Israeli Combined Task Force for Missile Defense and Acting
Director for Joint Interoperability for the Office of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff. After retiring from the military, he has served as Executive
Director of Defense Strategies at Microsoft Corporation. Currently, he
is the Director of the Institute for Military Resilience at Liberty
University.
Dr. Paul Gregory
Dr.
Gregory is a leading expert and author on Russia and the former Soviet
Union. Gregory has taught at Moscow University, East Europe Institute
and Free University Berlin; and has chaired the advisory board of the
Kiev School of Economics. He currently serves as a fellow at the Hoover
Institution and at the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin.
He is the author or coauthor of twelve books and more than one hundred
articles on economic history, the Soviet economy, transition economies,
comparative economics and economic demography.
Brigadier General Jeff Horne, U.S.
Army, Retired
Gen.
Horne has served at all levels of air defense employment, including
protecting Washington, D.C. and critical U.S. assets immediately
following 9/11. He has also served within the command structure of
space systems for a federal intelligence agency and the Department of
Defense, and was appointed to be the system manager for fielding
America's first land-based ballistic missile shield. Currently, he is
the CEO of the Institute for Veteran's Education and Training – a
non-profit organization assisting veteran employment and transition
challenges.
Lieutenant Colonel Sue Huggler,
U.S. Army, Retired
Col.
Huggler has served on active duty, ready reserve and individual
augmentee in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps from 1977 to present (38 years),
providing expert care across a wide range of specialties on behalf of
soldiers and families. She has also served on the teaching faculty at
the Army Command and General Staff College, providing subject matter
expertise on military medical and veterans health care. She is
currently an advocate that helps veterans navigate Veterans Affairs
services.
Ms. Ying Ma
Ms.
Ma is an author who has written extensively on international affairs,
the rising influence of China, political and economic freedoms and
conservative principles. She has served as a visiting fellow at the
Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a premier conservative think
tank; practiced law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlet LLP, a leading
global law firm headquartered in New York; managed corporate
communications at Sina.com, the first Mainland China-based Internet
company to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market; and served on the first
professional staff of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission, a congressional commission. Her articles have been
published in the Wall Street
Journal Asia, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Weekly Standard, Forbes.com, FoxNews.com and elsewhere. She
currently serves as the Deputy Communications Director for the Carson
campaign.
Dr. David McIntyre
A
nationally recognized analyst, writer, speaker and teacher specializing
in national and homeland security, Dr. McIntyre is a 30-year Army
veteran who has been designing and teaching security strategy at senior
levels of government and academia for the last 28 years. He has served
as Dean of Faculty at the National War College and Director of the
Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University.
He was also a national board member of InfraGard (the FBI
public-private partnership), an academic advisor to the International
Association of Emergency Managers (IAEA) and a Defense Science Board
Summer Study on homeland security. Dr. McIntyre currently teaches at a
major university and is a fellow specializing in homeland security at
another university.
Mr. George Papadopoulos
Mr.
Papadopoulos was previously an analyst and research fellow/associate at
the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C. His research predominantly
focused on the geopolitics and energy security changes of both the
Caspian and Eastern Mediterranean and their impact on U.S. strategy.
Mr. Papadopoulos designed the first ever project in Washington, D.C.
think tank history on U.S., Greece, Cyprus and Israel relations at a
symposium entitled “Power Shifts in the Eastern Mediterranean: The
Emerging Strategic Relationship of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus.” Mr.
Papadopoulos is a private consultant, speaker and writer on energy
policy and has presented at numerous conferences throughout the Middle
East.
Dr. Stephen Parke
Dr.
Parke was previously an Associate Dean at the Helms School of
Government and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Liberty
University. Previously he served in the U.S. Army and was the
Staff
Judge Advocate for Joint Task Force – Guantanamo. As the SJA for
JTF-GTMO, Dr. Parke was the principal legal advisor to the Commander on
all matters relating to detention and intelligence gathering
operations.
Mr. Tim Ryan
A
retired career State Department Foreign Service Officer of 26 years,
Mr. Ryan brings a wealth of diplomatic knowledge to the Carson
campaign. When in the Foreign Service, he served in numerous
assignments, including in Kingston, Jamaica, at the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations and as Chargé d'Affaires and Vice Consul in Quebec
City,
Canada. In addition to these tours, Mr. Ryan was responsible for
providing Department of State input and diplomatic support for
Department of Defense and Joint Staff planning and operations. While on
detail to the CIA, he was responsible for developing, prioritizing and
tasking worldwide human intelligence collection by the U.S.
Intelligence Community.
Gen. Greg Schumacher retired after 37 years of military service, which included command of all intelligence units in the Army Reserve. He also served as Army Deputy Director for Intelligence, a role in which he built intelligence and operations teams for a number of constituencies. He has significant cyber expertise and served as intelligence lead for the Army Staff team on Army Cyber Command initiatives. He was also the Director for Analysis, and then as the Executive Director, for the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force.
Major General Mel Spiese, USMC, Retired
Gen. Spiese recently retired as Deputy Commanding General of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, having spent more than 36 years leaving a visionary and lasting impact on the U.S. Marine Corps. His career spanned numerous tactical commands all the way to Commanding General, USMC Training and Education Command. He also held a range of diverse staff experiences, ranging from serving as a U.S. Special Operations Command policy officer dealing with counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to having staff responsibility for strategy with the 92-country European theater of operations. The latter required managing contingency plans, multilateral regional defense organizations, bilateral military relationships and direct support to ambassadors and country teams. Gen. Spiese currently serves as a defense and national security consultant and public advocate for the military and their families.
Contact:
Ying Ma