14 September 2021 NCF Panel Participants
PANELISTS
Michael V. Hayden, retired four-star general in the United States Air Force, served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency from 1998 to 2005 and 2006 to 2009, respectively. He was also the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2005 to 2006, and the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the country at that time. In all of these jobs, he worked to put a human face on American intelligence, explaining to the American people the role of espionage in protecting both American security and American liberty.
General Hayden is a frequent commentator on major news outlets and in top publications, and is valued for his expertise on intelligence matters, cyber security, government surveillance, geopolitics, and more. He was featured in the HBO documentary Manhunt, which looked at espionage through the eyes of the insiders who led the secret war against Osama bin Laden, and in Showtime’s The Spymasters, a detailed look at the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency.
He is the recipient of many distinguished intelligence awards. In 2019 General Hayden was awarded the Honorable William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award by the International Spy Museum for his contributions to the field of intelligence. In 2013 the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) awarded General Hayden the William Oliver Baker Award, recognizing his contribution to intelligence and national security affairs. General Hayden was also the first recipient of the Ambassador Richard M. Helms Award presented in 2008 by the CIA Officers’ Memorial Foundation in recognition of his extraordinary qualities of leadership in service to the nation and CIA.
General Hayden has served as a distinguished visiting professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University since 2009. He is also the founder of its Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. In 2014 he was the inaugural Humanitas visiting professor in intelligence studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. General Hayden is also chairman of the board of the National Intelligence University Foundation.
He is also the author of two New York Times best sellers—his memoir, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, was selected as one of the 100 most notable books of 2016. His more recent work, The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies, addressed the impact of a post-truth world on the intelligence enterprise.
Since suffering a stroke in 2018 General Hayden has been an advocate for stroke recovery and aphasia organizations.
General Hayden is currently a principal at The Chertoff Group and serves on the boards of several defense and intelligence firms.
Dr. Donald M. Kerr is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation. He first joined the board in 2009, was named vice chairman in 2014, and elevated to chairman in 2018. He also serves as a director of Michael Baker International, LLC; and Orbis Operations, LLC. Previously, he was confirmed by the Senate on October 4th, 2007 as principal deputy director of national intelligence and served in that position until January 20th, 2009.
From July 21st, 2005, Dr. Kerr was the fifteenth director of the National Reconnaissance Office and concurrently served as the assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Intelligence Space Technology. Prior to that he was deputy director for science and technology at the Central Intelligence Agency since August 2001,
From October 1997 until August 2001, Dr. Kerr was an assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in charge of the Laboratory Division. Dr. Kerr’s previous government service was with the Department of Energy from August 1976 through July 1979, first in Las Vegas as deputy manager of Nevada Operations, and subsequently in Washington, D.C., as the deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary for Defense Programs and later for Energy Technology.
Dr. Kerr has held several key executive positions in private industry. From 1993 through 1996, he was corporate executive vice president and a director at Science Applications International Corporation. Dr. Kerr was president and a director of EG&G, Inc., from 1989 through 1992. He served as a director of Resources for the Future from 1990 through 1999, and on the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers Board from 1987 through 1992.
Dr. Kerr was the fourth director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1979 to 1985. He was also employed at Los Alamos from 1966 until 1976, conducting and leading research in high altitude weapons effects, nuclear test detection and analysis, weapons diagnostics, ionospheric physics, and alternative energy programs.
Dr. Kerr received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1963 and went on to earn an M.S. (1964) in microwave electronics and a Ph.D. (1966) in plasma physics and microwave electronics, all from Cornell University. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His awards include: DOE Outstanding Service Medal, CIA Distinguished Intelligence Medal, Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, NRO Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
Ms. Stephanie O'Sullivan served as the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence at Office of the Director of National Intelligence from Feb 2011 - Jan 2017. Ms. O'Sullivan focused on the operations of the ODNI and the Intelligence Community (IC), as well as IC integration initiatives and resource challenges. Before this assignment she served as the Associate Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where she worked with the Director and Deputy Director in the overall leadership of the Agency, with emphasis on day-to-day management of the organization.
Prior to becoming Associate Deputy Director of the CIA, Ms. O'Sullivan for four years led the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) - the part of the Agency responsible for developing and deploying innovative technology in support of intelligence collection and analysis. In her career, she held various management positions in the CIA's DS&T, where her responsibilities included systems acquisition and research and development in fields ranging from power sources to biotechnology. Ms. O'Sullivan joined the CIA in 1995 after working for the Office of Naval Intelligence and TRW.
Post retiring in 2017, Ms. O’Sullivan has served on a number of corporate and advisory boards, charitable foundations, and academic organizations continuing to focus on national security, research and STEM education.
Current Affiliations:
Corporate Boards
Aerospace Corporation – Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Battelle Memorial Institute - Director
Hughes Research Laboratory – Director
Huntington Ingalls – Director
Foundations
CIA Officers Memorial Foundation Board
Organizations
National Academy of Engineers - Member
MODERATOR
Mr. Greg Myre is a national security correspondent with a focus on the intelligence community, a position that follows his many years as a foreign correspondent covering conflicts around the globe.
He was previously the international editor for NPR.org, working closely with NPR correspondents abroad and national security reporters in Washington. He remains a frequent contributor to the NPR website on global affairs. He also worked as a senior editor at Morning Edition from 2008-2011. Before joining NPR, Myre was a foreign correspondent for 20 years with The New York Times and The Associated Press.
He was first posted to South Africa in 1987, where he witnessed Nelson Mandela's release from prison and reported on the final years of apartheid. He was assigned to Pakistan in 1993 and often traveled to war-torn Afghanistan. He was one of the first reporters to interview members of an obscure new group calling itself the Taliban.
Myre was also posted to Cyprus and worked throughout the Middle East, including extended trips to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. He went to Moscow from 1996-1999, covering the early days of Vladimir Putin as Russia's leader.
He was based in Jerusalem from 2000-2007, reporting on the heaviest fighting ever between Israelis and the Palestinians. In his years abroad, he traveled to more than 50 countries and reported on a dozen wars. He and his journalist wife Jennifer Griffin co-wrote a 2011 book on their time in Jerusalem, entitled, This Burning Land: Lessons from the Front Lines of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
Myre is a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington and has appeared as an analyst on CNN, PBS, BBC, C-SPAN, Fox, Al Jazeera and other networks. He's a graduate of Yale University, where he played football and basketball.
