In 2012, U.S. foreign military sales topped $65 billion. This panel will introduce small and mid-sized companies to some of the possibilities and pitfalls that accompany expanding into the international market.  The speakers will discuss the types of opportunities available and how to access them, the differences between foreign military sales (FMS) and direct commercial sales (DCS) and how to leverage the U.S. government and foreign embassies in the D.C. area. This will be the first in a series of events designed to get GTSC members and other small and mid-sized companies thinking about the possibility of diversifying their revenues through international work.

Speakers:

Evan Croen

Director, Government Sales Research

Bloomberg Government

Evan Croen is the Director of Government Sales Research at Bloomberg Government. Evan worked at Boston Consulting Group, focusing on the energy, chemical and health-care industries, and at Duke Energy, where he researched strategies to reduce carbon emissions from Chinese energy production. He earned an MBA and master’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Michigan along with an undergraduate degree from Princeton.

General Mark T. Kimmitt (ret.)

Principal, MTK Defense Consulting

Former Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs

Former D/Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Affairs

Brigadier General, US Army (ret)

The Honorable Mark T. Kimmitt advises firms on security and defense matters in the Middle East. He is also an on-air commentator for the al Jazeera English network, and a contributor to Oxford Analytica.

Until December, 2011, Kimmitt served as Executive Vice President of Advanced Technology Systems Company, a defense advisory firm with an overseas focus, principally in the Middle East

While in government service as a Presidential appointee, Kimmitt served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the U.S. State Department. In that capacity, he was responsible for worldwide State Department political-military issues, with particular emphasis on security assistance and defense trade, as well as serving as the principal liaison between the Departments of State and Defense.

From 2006 to 2008, Kimmitt served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy. In this position, he was responsible for defense policy development, planning, and guidance to include operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and represented DOD in the 2008 Status of Forces negotiations with Iraq as well as leading DOD efforts to enhance security in the Middle East through the Gulf Security Dialogue.

Kimmitt served for over 30 years as an officer in the United States Army in a wide variety of command, operational, and policy positions with experience abroad in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Korea, Germany, and Belgium.

Kimmitt is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned a Masters Degree (with Distinction) from the Harvard Business School. He is a life member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Ambassador Marisa R. Lino (ret.)

Corporate Director, Homeland/Civil/Regulatory/International

Government Relations, Northrop Grumman Corporation

Marisa Lino joined Northrop Grumman Corporation as Corporate Director in Government Relations in January, 2009. From 2007 to 2008, she served at the Department of Homeland Security as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs as a career appointee. Prior to joining DHS, she directed the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Bologna Center in Italy from 2003-2006.

During nearly 30 years of distinguished service in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ms. Lino held overseas positions in Albania, Italy, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Peru. In her last position at the U.S. State Department from 2000 to 2003, she served as Senior Negotiator for Base Access and Burdensharing in the Bureau of Political Military Affairs. In this role, she led various negotiations with foreign governments on the legal and financial arrangements and coverage for military and civilian Defense Department personnel deployed abroad.

From 1996 to 1999 she served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Albania. She was Refugee Coordinator in Pakistan overseeing the Afghan refugee program from 1988 to 1990, during the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a particularly active period. Ms. Lino acted as Deputy Chief of Mission in Syria for almost a year of her tour as Economic and Commercial Counselor at Embassy Damascus (1986-88). She served in Iraq from 1979-81, as Economic and Commercial Officer, the second year of which coincided with the start of the Iraq-Iran War.

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Ms. Lino has an M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University where she was the first woman granted a Scottish Rite Fellowship from the State of Oregon. She has a B.A. in political science from Portland State University. She later attended the University of Zagreb (then Yugoslavia), for a year of graduate studies in political science. On a State Department-sponsored mid-career program, she completed a Certificate in Advanced Engineering Studies in systems analysis at M.I.T. She also was awarded an honorary doctorate of international affairs by John Cabot University in 1999. Ms. Lino earned a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, four Superior Honor Awards and one Meritorious Honor Award during her Foreign Service career. In 2003, she was selected for the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Vangala S. Ram

Office Director

Bureau of Political-Military Affairs/Office of Region Security and Arms Transfers

U.S. Department of State

Mr. Ram was born in New York City. He is a first-generation American of Indian heritage. Mr. Ram was raised in the Middle East, where he attended elementary and high school in Beirut, Lebanon. After graduating from college, Mr. Ram served as a Military Intelligence (MI) officer in the U.S. Army on active-duty for over ten years in a variety of assignments that included a tour as a paratrooper in the Fourth Psychological Operations Group (PSYOPS) in the 1st Special Operations Command (Airborne), before joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1992.
Mr. Ram has served in the NEA, AF, EAP, EUR and SCA bureaus with previous postings in Amman, Seoul, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Cologne, Banjul, Herat, Tunis and Riyadh in addition to Washington DC. During his nine consecutive overseas tours Mr. Ram served as Vice-Consul, First Secretary in the Management and Public Diplomacy cones, besides his assignment as Senior Civilian Representative to Regional Command (RC) West in Afghanistan and Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in The Gambia.
Mr. Ram’s foreign languages include: German, French, Russian, Arabic and Persian-Farsi. He has earned awards during all his assignments and earned his MA in International Relations with Distinction from Boston University. Mr. Ram is a 2011 Distinguished Graduate (DG) of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) He is married to Marion H. Ram, also a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), now assigned as the Country Affairs Officer in the WHA/CCA bureau in Washington DC.

Thank you to Mr. Brandon Torres Declet, GTSC Strategic Advisor, and RADM Donald P. Loren (ret.), both of GTSC’s International Outreach workgroup, for putting this program together.

GTSC’s International Outreach Workgroup

Mr. Brandon Torres Declet, CEO, SouthernCrux International, LLC & GTSC Strategic Advisor

Brandon Torres Declet serves as Chief Executive Officer at Southern Crux International (www.socrux.com). Brandon brings more than a decade of experience working among senior government officials internationally and at the federal, state and local level. He previously served as Counsel to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and as Counsel to Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on the House Committee on Homeland Security. He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) at George Washington University, an advisor to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Counter Terrorism Bureau and an adjunct professor at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy & International Relations at Seton Hall University. He also served as a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Brandon earned a B.A. from Union College, a J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law and an L.L.M. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

RADM Donald P. Loren (ret.), U.S. Navy, President & CEO, Old Dominion Strategies

Don Loren is an independent international, national and homeland security professional, and a leading edge provider of Advisory and Assistance Services to government and commercial business. He formerly served as Special Assistant for National Security with The Tauri Group, a well respected innovator in systems-level strategic planning, technology assessment, and integration for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the commercial sector for mission critical projects for homeland defense, homeland security, countering weapons of mass destruction, and critical infrastructure protection. Prior to joining the private sector, Don was appointed as Bush administration Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Security Integration, where he was responsible for strategic planning and policy development, capability and resource assessment, domestic and NATO/international partnership Defense Support of Civil Authority integration and capacity building, congressional activities, strategic communications, and education issues related to homeland defense and homeland security. Additionally, in this capacity he represented the Department of Defense on the Homeland Security Council Domestic Readiness Group.