Admiral James Stavridis
16th Supreme Allied Commander, NATO; Partner and Vice Chairman, Carlyle; New York Times Bestselling Author; Senior Military Analyst, CNN
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Robert Lighthizer
Robert E. Lighthizer served as the 18th United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2017 to 2021.
View biographyAdmiral James Stavridis biography
A Florida native, Jim Stavridis attended the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, and spent 37 years in the Navy, rising to the rank of 4-star Admiral. Among his many commands were four years as the 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, where he oversaw operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the Balkans, and counter piracy off the coast of Africa. He also commanded US Southern Command in Miami, charged with military operations through Latin America for nearly three years. He was the longest serving Combatant Commander in recent US history. Following his military career, he served for five years as he 12th Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
In the course of his career in the Navy, he served as senior military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense. He led the Navy’s premier operational think tank for innovation, Deep Blue, immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Admiral Stavridis was promoted directly from 1-star rank to 3star rank in 2004.
He won the Battenberg Cup for commanding the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet and the Navy League John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational leadership, along with more than 50 US and international medals and decorations, including 28 from foreign nations. He also commanded a Destroyer Squadron and a Carrier Strike Group, both in combat.
In 2016, he was vetted for Vice President by Secretary Hillary Clinton, and subsequently invited to Trump Tower to discuss a cabinet position with President Donald Trump.
He earned a PhD from The Fletcher School at Tufts, winning the Gullion prize as outstanding student in his class in 1983, as well as academic honors from the National and Naval War Colleges as a distinguished student. He speaks Spanish and French.
Admiral Stavridis has published fifteen books on leadership, character, risk, the oceans, maritime affairs, and Latin America, as well as hundreds of articles in leading journals. An active user of social networks, he has tens of thousands of connections on the social networks. His TED talk on 21st century security in
2012 has close to one million views. He tweeted the end of combat operations in the Libyan NATO intervention. Two of his most popular books are 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, which was a New York Times bestseller and is being published in 22 languages, and To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision. His book 2054 explores artificial intelligence and geopolitics. The Restless
Wave offers a gripping account of the U.S. Navy’s battles in the early years of World War II. His most recent book, The Admiral’s Bookshelf, highlights twenty-five essential leadership lessons drawn from classic works of literature.
Admiral Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and a Senior Military Analyst for CNN.
He is happily married to Laura, and they have two daughters – one working at Google and the other a Nurse Practitioner and former naval officer, both married to physicians.
In the course of his career in the Navy, he served as senior military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense. He led the Navy’s premier operational think tank for innovation, Deep Blue, immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Admiral Stavridis was promoted directly from 1-star rank to 3star rank in 2004.
He won the Battenberg Cup for commanding the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet and the Navy League John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational leadership, along with more than 50 US and international medals and decorations, including 28 from foreign nations. He also commanded a Destroyer Squadron and a Carrier Strike Group, both in combat.
In 2016, he was vetted for Vice President by Secretary Hillary Clinton, and subsequently invited to Trump Tower to discuss a cabinet position with President Donald Trump.
He earned a PhD from The Fletcher School at Tufts, winning the Gullion prize as outstanding student in his class in 1983, as well as academic honors from the National and Naval War Colleges as a distinguished student. He speaks Spanish and French.
Admiral Stavridis has published fifteen books on leadership, character, risk, the oceans, maritime affairs, and Latin America, as well as hundreds of articles in leading journals. An active user of social networks, he has tens of thousands of connections on the social networks. His TED talk on 21st century security in
2012 has close to one million views. He tweeted the end of combat operations in the Libyan NATO intervention. Two of his most popular books are 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, which was a New York Times bestseller and is being published in 22 languages, and To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision. His book 2054 explores artificial intelligence and geopolitics. The Restless
Wave offers a gripping account of the U.S. Navy’s battles in the early years of World War II. His most recent book, The Admiral’s Bookshelf, highlights twenty-five essential leadership lessons drawn from classic works of literature.
Admiral Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and a Senior Military Analyst for CNN.
He is happily married to Laura, and they have two daughters – one working at Google and the other a Nurse Practitioner and former naval officer, both married to physicians.
Robert Lighthizer biography
Robert E. Lighthizer served as the 18th United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2017 to 2021.
An experienced trade negotiator and litigator, Ambassador Lighthizer spearheaded several historic trade agreements as USTR, ushering in a new era of fair, balanced, and reciprocal trade for U.S. workers, producers, and businesses. Chief among these accomplishments, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) promises to update and rebalance trade in North America, expand U.S. market access, protect workers and the environment, and incentivize manufacturing in the United States. Additional agreements he reached with South Korea and Japan significantly expanded U.S. trade opportunities in those countries and established a groundbreaking paradigm for digital trade. After confronting China on its abusive trade practices, Ambassador Lighthizer also secured the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement, a fully enforceable agreement that addresses China’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. companies, intellectual property theft, and currency manipulation, while maintaining tariffs on key Chinese products and increasing China’s purchases of U.S. goods and services by at least $200 billion over two years. Additionally, he brought attention to systemic issues and outdated, ineffective rules at the World Trade Organization (WTO), placing unprecedented pressure on the WTO’s activist Appellate Body and working with our trade partners on wider reforms.
At the time he was chosen by President Trump to serve as USTR, Ambassador Lighthizer had been a partner at an international law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for over 30 years. Before that, Ambassador Lighthizer served as Deputy USTR for President Ronald Reagan and negotiated over two dozen bilateral international agreements, including agreements on steel, automobiles, and agricultural products. As Deputy USTR, he also served as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Prior to becoming Deputy USTR, Ambassador Lighthizer was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance under Chairman Bob Dole. In this position, he was a key player in enacting the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 – the most significant tax reform in decades – and other elements of the Reagan economic program. Ambassador Lighthizer earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a native of Ashtabula, Ohio and has two children. He is the author of “No Trade Is Free”, a best-selling book on trade policy. He writes often for major publications and is a frequent speaker on trade, politics, and American history.
An experienced trade negotiator and litigator, Ambassador Lighthizer spearheaded several historic trade agreements as USTR, ushering in a new era of fair, balanced, and reciprocal trade for U.S. workers, producers, and businesses. Chief among these accomplishments, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) promises to update and rebalance trade in North America, expand U.S. market access, protect workers and the environment, and incentivize manufacturing in the United States. Additional agreements he reached with South Korea and Japan significantly expanded U.S. trade opportunities in those countries and established a groundbreaking paradigm for digital trade. After confronting China on its abusive trade practices, Ambassador Lighthizer also secured the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement, a fully enforceable agreement that addresses China’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. companies, intellectual property theft, and currency manipulation, while maintaining tariffs on key Chinese products and increasing China’s purchases of U.S. goods and services by at least $200 billion over two years. Additionally, he brought attention to systemic issues and outdated, ineffective rules at the World Trade Organization (WTO), placing unprecedented pressure on the WTO’s activist Appellate Body and working with our trade partners on wider reforms.
At the time he was chosen by President Trump to serve as USTR, Ambassador Lighthizer had been a partner at an international law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for over 30 years. Before that, Ambassador Lighthizer served as Deputy USTR for President Ronald Reagan and negotiated over two dozen bilateral international agreements, including agreements on steel, automobiles, and agricultural products. As Deputy USTR, he also served as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Prior to becoming Deputy USTR, Ambassador Lighthizer was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance under Chairman Bob Dole. In this position, he was a key player in enacting the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 – the most significant tax reform in decades – and other elements of the Reagan economic program. Ambassador Lighthizer earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a native of Ashtabula, Ohio and has two children. He is the author of “No Trade Is Free”, a best-selling book on trade policy. He writes often for major publications and is a frequent speaker on trade, politics, and American history.