ISOA Fireside Chat with Simone Ledeen
| By isoa_admin
Special Guest
Simone Ledeen
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Middle East Policy
Simone Ledeen has shaped the thinking of the nation’s senior-most leaders, including Members of Congress, other U.S. government officials, and partners abroad, on matters of defense, finance, telecom, and transportation. Ms. Ledeen has served in various
U.S. Government and business leadership positions, most recently as the presidentially-appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy where her leadership of U.S. defense policy spanned Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran,
Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Her experience on multiple oversees deployments influenced key counterterrorism activities, intelligence collection and
analysis, as well as military information support operations involving cyber and disinformation, irregular warfare, direct action, sensitive special operations, and personnel recovery/hostage issues.
Ms. Ledeen’s work has also been shaped by her 20 years of experience prior to appointment with the Department of Defense. She draws on her work as Executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank managing multi-national financial crime compliance; Senior
U.S. Treasury Representative to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force; Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance; and as a member of the Coalition Provisional Authority. She is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute and Visiting
Fellow at the National Security Institute of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law where she advocates to foster global security and facilitate international business.
Ms. Ledeen has an MBA from the Bocconi University School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree with from Brandeis University. With a strong intercultural competency having lived several years abroad, she is fluent in Italian and conversational in
French, Arabic, Polish, and Hebrew.
Moderator
Gianni Koskinas
The Hoplite Group
Seasoned senior executive with extensive public sector and highly relevant commercial experience in economic development in frontier markets. A strategic thinker and leader – equally at home in the field or in the boardroom with proven record of achieved
results in unique enterprises, in challenging environments. An acknowledged specialist in producing innovative solutions to complex problems in the harshest of conditions. A highly decorated retired military officer, published scholar,
coach, mentor, risk analyst, project manager skilled at building and leading committed, empowered, and effective teams. In 2013, he founded the Hoplite Group, LLC, in order to bring together regional experts, with deep appreciation of
geo-political challenges and possessing unique perspectives necessary to offer clients nuanced solutions.
Mr. Koskinas is also a Senior Fellow in the International Security Program at New America Foundation, an avid writer, and frequent contributor to Foreign Policy, Defense One, War on the Rocks, Huffington Post. Gianni has also been a moderator and panelist
in a significant number of conferences, as well as a guest on several radio and TV programs such as Fox News, National Public Radio’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” and Australia’s Foreign Correspondent newscast. Most recently, he was the
field producer (in Afghanistan) for a feature film published on Showtime, called “The Longest War,” that aired on 19 April 2020.