Richard A. Falkenrath is a faculty member at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches “Geopolitics and the Private Sector,” and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as Head of Client Service and Geopolitics at Bridgewater Associates, where he was also Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Security Officer. From 2006 to 2010, he was Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism at the New York City Police Department. In the federal government, he served on the National Security Council and as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, playing a central role in post-9/11 policy, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the first National Strategy for Homeland Security. Earlier, he taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School and authored influential works on military strategy and counterterrorism. A summa cum laudegraduate of Occidental College and British Marshall Scholar with a PhD from King’s College London, he is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Trilateral Commission, and the Board of Governors for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Niloofar Razi has been working at the nexus of technology and national security for the past 30 years. She is President of The Stratham Group, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, and an Operating Partner at Capitol Meridian Partners. She serves on the boards of Morgan Stanley Banks, Pondurance (as Executive Chair), and Tenable (NASDAQ:TENB), and advises firms including Dragos, VanishID, Blackbird.AI, and Enveil. She spent over a decade on the NSA Advisory Board, including as Chair of both the Board and its Cybersecurity Panel, and four years on the DHS/CISA advisory board. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow at New America, she also serves on the board of IREX and as a trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Her previous roles include Chief Strategy Officer at RSA and Endgame, and leadership in private equity at Zone Ventures and Paladin Capital Group. She began her career as a lawyer at O’Melveny & Myers and a consultant at McKinsey, and holds degrees from Columbia College and Harvard Law School.

Richard and Niloo live in Washington, D.C., and share five children—Olivia (24), William (22), Reed (22), Christopher (20), and Noushin (17). Together, they enjoy skiing, hiking, cycling, fly-fishing, globe-trotting adventures, and spirited evenings of conversation with close friends. Richard grew up in Mendocino, California, while Niloo, born and raised in Iran, spent her post-revolution teenage years in Los Angeles, California, including a brief stint working in the entertainment industry instead of attending highschool.