Promise Over Peril: Part Six

Mr. Daniel Breedlove currently serves on the National Intelligence Council as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Emerging & Disruptive Technologies, which dual-hats as Chair of the US Intelligence Community’s Scientific and Technical Intelligence Committee.

Prior to serving on the National Intelligence Council, Mr. Breedlove served as Deputy Chief Scientist at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Farragut Technical Analysis Center, driving complex analytic efforts for hundreds of scientists and engineers.  He also served as ONI’s Senior Intelligence Analyst for Emerging & Disruptive Technologies, where he led the development and conveyance of ONI’s analytic line on adversary AI/ML to thousands of Navy customers.

Before joining the US Intelligence Community in 2012, Mr. Breedlove spent time as a nuclear engineer at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, guiding hands-on nuclear repairs on US Navy submarines and aircraft carriers, and in support of Virginia Class submarine construction at the Washington Navy Yard.

Mr. Breedlove holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, a M.S. in Technology Intelligence with a focus on Emerging & Disruptive Technologies, and is currently working toward a M.S. in Systems Engineering.  He is the recipient of multiple US Navy and National-level awards, including a Meritorious Service and Civilian Service Award for leading joint US Intelligence Community efforts.

The Honorable Susan M. “Sue” Gordon is the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, serving from 2017-2019, where she advised the President on intelligence matters and provided operational leadership of the agencies and organizations of the Intelligence Community (IC). She is a widely respected authority on risk management, technical innovation, and cyber and space issues. Today, she is an active board member, university fellow, and advises private companies in the areas of technology, strategy, and leadership.

Throughout Ms. Gordon’s more than three decades in the IC, she led large scale organizational change and delivered revolutionary outcomes. Ms. Gordon worked to adapt the IC to emerging economic, military, and political trends impacting the current operating environment. Ms. Gordon led the establishment of In-Q-Tel, the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture arm, in the 1990s. In the last several years, she focused on advancing intelligence integration across the IC, expanding outreach and partnerships to the private sector and international allies, and driving innovation across the Community.

While serving as Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from 2015 to 2017, Ms. Gordon helped lead NGA through a transformation to adapt to emergent challenges. In this role, she spearheaded agile decision-making, modernization of the information environment, and the expansion of geospatial intelligence services to the open marketplace.

Ms. Gordon joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1980 and served for 29 years, rising to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support. She is renowned for her commitment to mentorship and diversity and inclusion, serving as a champion for the LGBTQIA+ community. Ms. Gordon is recognized for her creative executive leadership, receiving numerous awards, including the Distinguished Intelligence and Distinguished Career Intelligence medals, Presidential Rank awards, and the Oliver Baker, Lundahl-Finnie, and William Webster leadership awards.

Ms. Gordon serves as an independent director on the boards of CACI International, BlackSky, SecurityScorecard, and BCore; is the Vice Chairman of the MITRE Corporation; and is an advisor for several technology companies in the areas of quantum, AI, and cyber. She is the President of the Pallas Foundation and advisor to the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. She serves on government advisory boards on national security and intelligence, including the Defense Innovation Board, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Gordon holds a Bachelor of Science from Duke University where she was a three-time captain of the Duke Women’s Basketball team. She is married to fellow Duke graduate Jim Gordon with whom she has two grown children, four grandchildren, and two Greater Swiss Mountain dogs, Astro and Elroy.

Amy Mackinnon is an award-winning national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. She has reported from across Eastern Europe and was previously based in Moscow and in Tbilisi, Georgia, as senior editor for the crisis reporting site Coda Story. Mackinnon is a recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for her reporting on homophobic vigilantes in Russia. She speaks Russian and has a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and a dual master’s in Russian, Central, and East European studies from the University of Glasgow and Corvinus University of Budapest.

William “Chip” Usher is the Senior Director for Intelligence at the Special Competitive Studies Project. Prior to SCSP, Chip served 32 years in the Central Intelligence Agency where he held a variety of executive positions. Chip is a former member of the Senior Intelligence Service and has expertise on East Asia, the Near East, and Eurasia. He is passionate about enhancing the US Intelligence Community’s ability to deliver timely, relevant intelligence insights to US decisionmakers. A sought after expert on IC modernization and the Near East, he has been quoted in several leading publications, including the the New York Times, Bloomberg News, and The Hill. Prior to joining the federal government, Chip ran an import-export company based in Nagoya, Japan. He holds a BA in Political Science from Duke University and a MS in National Security Studies from the National War College.

Anthony Vinci, PhD, is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and is a Managing Director at a private equity fund where he focuses on technology and supply chain investments. He served as the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Capabilities at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

As CTO, he drove the agency’s efforts to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the enterprise and to form public private partnerships with Silicon Valley and other commercial technology centers. As Associate Director, he was a member of the agency’s Executive Committee and was responsible for overseeing NGA’s offices of technology, R&D, contracting, financial management, program development and strategy. Dr. Vinci was the founder and former CEO of Findyr, a revolutionary technology company which crowdsources data from around the world, as well as Leviathan Analytics, an AI and geospatial data analytics company focused on global risk. Previously, he was on the management team at Bridgewater Associates. Dr. Vinci is a board member or advisor to several emerging technology and national security companies. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from The London School of Economics and studied Philosophy at Reed College and the University of Oxford. Dr. Vinci is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and a Fellow of the Explorers Club.