Tom Donilon Keynote Speaker

Tom Donilon is one of the North America’s leading foreign policy experts, who served as National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. In that capacity, he provided the President’s daily national security briefing, oversaw the National Security Council staff, chaired the Cabinet level National Security Principals Committee, and was responsible for the integration of the Administration’s foreign policy, intelligence, and military efforts.

Tom has worked closely with and advised three U.S. Presidents since his first position at the White House in 1977. His first position was working with President Carter, where he served as an intern and worked in the Office of Congressional Liaison. During the Clinton Administration, he served as Assistant Secretary of State and Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of State and was responsible for the development and implementation of the Department’s major policy initiatives, including: NATO expansion, the Dayton Peace Accords, and the Middle East Peace process.

Tom was successfully established in the private sector. He worked as Executive Vice President for Law and Policy at Fannie Mae, the federally chartered mortgage finance company, as a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005. Before his appointment to the Obama Administration, Tom was a partner in the Washington office of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where he advised companies and their boards on a range of “sensitive governance, policy, legal and regulatory matters”.  He is also a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.

Currently, Tom Donilon is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a non-resident Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award.