SOFCON 2023 Speakers

Erin M. Logan

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Policy & Programs

Biography

DASD Logan assumed her position in the Fall of 2021. In this role, she is the Senior Executive responsible for the legally mandated Secretariat for Special Operations (SSO). SSO allows the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations & Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD(SO/LIC)) to fulfill his responsibilities to exercise authority, direction, and control of all special operations-peculiar administrative matters relating to the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces and support of the special operations command, including readiness and organization of special operations forces, resources and equipment, and civilian personnel. For the three years prior to becoming DASD SOPP, Ms. Logan was a strategic consultant for the Defense Counterintelligence & Security Agency (DCSA).

For the six years prior to joining the NSC, Ms. Logan held a variety of leadership positions within the Office of ASD(SO/LIC). Ms. Logan spent two years as Principal Director for the DASD for Counternarcotics and Global Threats (CN&GT), helping to lead and run the office responsible for the oversight and allocation of DoD's CN appropriation and for establishing DoD policies for CN, counter threat finance, counter piracy, CTOC, and counter wildlife trafficking. As Chief of Staff for ASD(SO/LIC), she directed and coordinated an ASD office of approximately 145 civilian, military, and contractor personnel; served as a primary advisor to the ASD; oversaw the ASD's budget of over $193 million; and oversaw the management and enhanced the integration of policy making for the three DASDs that report to ASD SO/LIC, including POM submissions, SOCOM oversight, and operational issues. As Chief of Staff for the DASD for Partnership Strategy and Stability Operations she helped lead the office handling security cooperation, coalition affairs, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, stability operations, humanitarian mine action, non-lethal weapons, and JIEDDO policy and oversight.

WILLIAM J. INNES

Deputy Director, Acquisition, U.S. Special Operations Command

Biography

William J. Innes, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Deputy Director, Acquisition, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. He is the principal advisor to the Special Operations Acquisition Executive and is responsible for oversight and policy for special operations forces acquisition, technology and logistics.

Mr. Innes entered civil service upon graduation from Parks College of St. Louis University in 1993 and subsequent positions in industry. His initial Air Force assignment was in 1997 to the San Antonio Air Logistics Center, Kelly AFB, Texas, providing engineering support to the propulsion directorate and later the C-17 Globemaster III program on-site at Charleston AFB, South Carolina. Following a short period at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Georgia, he was assigned to the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, supporting the F-22 Raptor program as Chief Sustainment Engineer. This led to his selection as the CV- 22 Osprey Chief Engineer at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland. Mr. Innes then broadened his career as a Senior Defense Analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (Industrial Policy) in Crystal City, Virginia. In 2009, he volunteered for a 12-month assignment to Kabul, Afghanistan, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom where he supported the U.S. Army and the U.S. Agency for International Development as a Program Manager for infrastructure projects throughout the country. Upon completion of the deployment, Mr. Innes returned to the Air Force and the CV-22 program, taking on the role of Deputy Program Manager. In 2012, he was assigned to U.S. Transportation Command as a Program Management Division Chief for a portfolio of transportation enabling Information Technology programs. He was promoted to SES and assigned as Deputy Director, Acquisition for U.S. Special Operations Command in May 2019.

Peter Bergen

Panel Moderator: Modern Day Strategy of Special Operations

Biography

Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist, documentary producer, think tank executive, professor, and the author or editor of ten books, three of which were New York Times bestsellers and four of which were named among the non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post. The books have been translated into twenty-four languages and have been turned into four documentaries, two of which were nominated for Emmys and one of which won an Emmy. He is Vice President for Global Studies and Fellows and the Director of the International Security Program and the Future of War program at New America in Washington D.C.; Professor of Practice at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, where he is the co-director of the Center on the Future of War; CNN's national security analyst and a fellow at Fordham University's Center on National Security.

Edward Wittenstein

Executive Director, International Security Studies, Panel Moderator: Technology

Biography

Edward ("Ted") Wittenstein is a Lecturer in Global Affairs and the Executive Director of International Security Studies, a research and teaching hub of the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. In that capacity, he helps oversee a number of programs dedicated to international history and global security, including the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power; the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy; and the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy. A former diplomat and intelligence professional, Ted teaches undergraduate, graduate, and law courses on intelligence, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and national security decision-making. He also serves as Co-Director of the Yale Cyber Leadership Forum, a Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, and a visiting faculty fellow at Yale Law School's Center for Global Legal Challenges.

Dr. Steven Girvin

Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics

Biography

Dr. Girvin joined the Yale faculty in 2001, where he is Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics. From 2007 to 2017, he served as Deputy Provost for Research. In that role, he helped oversee research and strategic planning in the basic sciences and engineering across the university. He also helped oversee entrepreneurship, innovation and tech transfer at Yale. In 2017, Professor Girvin stepped down from his role as Deputy Provost to return full-time to teaching and research.

Throughout his career, Professor Girvin's research has focused on theoretical studies of quantum many-particle systems. Since coming to Yale, his interests have moved to atomic physics, quantum optics and quantum computation. Professor Girvin's academic research is currently focused on 'circuit QED,' the quantum physics of microwave electrical circuits using superconducting Josephson junctions as artificial atoms coupled to individual microwave photons.

Dr. Ramayya Krishnan

W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems; Dean of Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Biography

Ramayya Krishnan is W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been Dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at the university since 2009 and is also a faculty member in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy in the College of Engineering at the University. He has helped create and lead multiple educational and research initiatives at the university such as the Masters of Information Systems andManagement program, the Center for Digital Transformation and Innovation, and the Block Center for Technology and Society. Krishnan has extensive experience and expertise in public policy. He regularly advises policy makers, business leaders and international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank on Technology and Policy. He is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, an INFORMS Fellow, an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration, a commissioner of the Geotech Center of the Atlantic Council, serves as the chair of the Department of Defense's Responsible AI initiatives' Academic Innovation Council, and was appointed to the National AI Advisory Committee to the President of the United States and the National AI Initiatives office in 2022. He also serves on the IT and Services Advisory Board chaired by the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania and is a member of the policy advisory board of the GAO chaired by Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States. He also serves on a select advisory board on technology and economic development to the President of Asian Development Bank.

CAPT Jeff Benson

Professor of Strategy and Policy Department, US Naval War College

Biography

Next year Captain Jeff W. Benson will be the first Commanding Officer of the destroyer USS LOUIS H. WILSON (DDG 126), built in Bath, ME, and homeported in San Diego, CA. He recently served as the Division Chief for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Strategy, Plans, and Policy Directorate (J5) for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he was responsible for advising our nation's most senior uniformed and civilian leaders as the Department of Defense addresses China as the most pressing challenge. In addition, he led and coordinated numerous actions among the military Services, Combatant Commands, and the U.S. government interagency.

In a naval career spanning more than twenty years, Captain Benson has served aboard four destroyers: USS JOHN YOUNG (DD 973), USS ROSS (DDG 71), USS MILIUS (DDG 69), and USS STETHEM (DDG 63). As the Commanding Officer and Executive Officer from 2015-2019, he led STETHEM through several operations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan Strait Transits, Freedom of Navigation Operations, U.N. sanctions against North Korea, Ballistic Missile Defense, and other assigned national tasking. Earlier in his career, Captain Benson served as the Operations Officer for Destroyer Squadron Fifteen aboard the aircraft carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), forward deployed in Japan.

David R. Stone, Ph.D.

Professor of Strategy and Policy Department, US Naval War College

Biography

Professor David R. Stone, the William E. Odom Professor of Russian Studies, joined the Strategy and Policy Department in 2015. He received a B.A. from Wabash College and a Ph.D. in history from Yale. He previously taught at Kansas State University. His book "Hammer and Rifle: The Militarization of the Soviet Union" (2000) won the Shulman Prize of ASEEES and the Best First Book Prize of the Historical Society. He has also published "A Military History of Russia" (2006) and "The Russian Army in the Great War: The Eastern Front, 1914-1917" (2015). He edited "The Soviet Union at War, 1941-1945" (2010). He is the author of several dozen articles on Russian military history and foreign policy.

Colonel (Ret.) Liam Collins, PhD

Biography

Dr. Liam Collins is the executive director of the Viola Foundation, the executive director of the Madison Policy Forum, a senior fellow with New America, and a permanent member with the Council on Foreign Relations. He is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of U.S. Counterterrorism and Irregular Warfare Operations and co-author of the recently released Understanding Urban Warfare. From 2016-2018, Liam served as the executive officer to U.S. Senior Defense Advisor to Ukraine. In that position he met with hundreds of Ukrainian officials to include their president, minister of defense, and chief of defense to help them reform their defense establishment. Within the United States he met with numerous officials including the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of Defense, senior Department of State Officials, and the House Armed Services Committee. He has also conducted field research in Georgia to study the 2008 Russo-Georgian War and to the Baltics to study their attempts to deter Russian aggression. He has authored numerous articles and reports and most recently he has provided expert commentary for BBC World News, CNN, NPR, Fox News, CBC News, Deutsche Welle News TV, RFE/RL, BBC Radio, and CBC Radio, among others, to discuss the current war.

Richard D. Hooker

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Transatlantic Security Initiative

Biography

Dr. Richard D. Hooker, Jr. is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, following previous service as university professor, distinguished research fellow, and The Theodore Roosevelt Chair in National Security Affairs at the National Defense University. He rejoined the NDU faculty in July 2018 after service as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe and Russia with the National Security Council from April 2017-July 2018. From 2013-2017 he served as Director, Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, he served as Deputy Commandant and Dean of the NATO Defense College in Rome from September 2010-August 2013. Dr. Hooker is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds affiliations as a Senior Research Associate with the Changing Character of War Program at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.

Jude Blanchette

Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Biography

Jude Blanchette holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, he was engagement director at The Conference Board's China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, where he researched China's political environment with a focus on the workings of the Communist Party of China and its impact on foreign companies and investors. Prior to working at The Conference Board, Blanchette was the assistant director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego. Blanchette has written for a range of publications, including Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, and his Chinese translations have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. His book, China's New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong, was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. Blanchette is a public intellectual fellow at the National Committee on United States-China Relations and serves on the board of the American Mandarin Society. He is also a senior advisor at Martin+Crumpton Group, a geopolitical risk advisory based in Arlington, Virginia. He holds an M.A. in modern Chinese studies from the University of Oxford and a B.A. in economics from Loyola University in Maryland.

Dr. Jacqueline Deal

Foreign Policy Research Institute Senior Fellow, President and CEO of the Long Term Strategy Group

Biography

Dr. Jacqueline Deal, an FPRI Senior Fellow, is President and CEO of the Long Term Strategy Group, a Washington, DC-based defense consultancy. For the last fourteen years, she has worked with the Director of the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Net Assessment on projects related to East Asia. Recent studies include an analysis of the security implications of alternative Chinese futures, an assessment of China's capacity for technological innovation, and a book chapter on China's energy security strategy.

Mike Hayes

VMware's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Biography

Mike Hayes is VMware's Chief Operating Officer, where he is responsible for worldwide business operations and acceleration of the Company's SaaS transition. Mike leads with a passion for driving agility, excellence and meaning in service of customers' missions.

Prior to joining the private sector, Hayes spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEALs, where his last role was Commanding Officer of SEAL Team TWO. He served in the Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan conflicts, including ten months as the Commander of a 2,000-person Special Operations Task Force in southeastern Afghanistan. Hayes was selected as a White House Fellow, served as Director, of Defense Policy and Strategy at the National Security Council, and was the Deputy Commander for Special Operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. His military decorations include the Bronze Star for valor in combat in Iraq, a Bronze Star for Afghanistan, and the Defense Superior Service Medal from the White House.

Hayes authored the bestseller "Never Enough: A Navy SEAL Commander on Living a Life of Excellence, Agility, and Meaning," and donates all profits to pay off mortgages for Gold Star families (fallen service members). He holds a Master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School and a Bachelor's degree from Holy Cross College. He is on the boards of Immuta, a data governance company, and the National Medal of Honor Museum. Hayes is also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ben Milligan

Biography

Ben Milligan was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2000, he graduated from Purdue University with a BA in History. In that same year, he enlisted in the US Navy and upon completion of Boot Camp, attended Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training Class 235 and graduated in August 2001. Milligan's enlisted operational assignments include deployments with SEAL Teams 4 and 5. In 2009, he received a commission in the Naval Reserve and was assigned to SEAL Team 17. His operational overseas deployments were to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and to Europe and Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Milligan is the recipient of the Bronze Star and other awards. In 2009, he received an MA in International Relations from the University of San Diego. He currently lives in the Chicago area with his three sons. He is the author of By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy SEALs, published by Penguin Random House in July 2021. Since then he has been a recurring lecturer on the historical evolution of American special operations forces to various universities and military units.

Rob Mott

Biography

Rob Mott is a former aviation crewmember of the 160th SOAR, co-owner of Velocity Training, and founder of Darkhorse Benefits (501c3). Darkhorse Benefits has become one of the most successful non-profits supporting Special Operations through multiple programs. In 2022, Rob combined these endeavors to establish a full-time operation in Ukraine to support their fight for freedom. Through his four personal deployments to the region and around-the-clock efforts from CONUS, the Darkhorse and Velocity team delivered lifesaving and strategically relevant aid to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoIA) commands.