Kurt Volker Keynote Speaker

Ambassador Kurt Volker is a leading commentator, writer and speaker about geopolitics and global strategy with over 35 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities.

He served as a career diplomat under six U.S. Presidents, including as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017 to 2019 and U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2009.  During his diplomatic career, he worked with luminaries such as Senator John McCain, Colin Powell, Richard Holbrooke and many others.

Ambassador Volker is currently President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, which provides strategic advice for a diverse range of businesses.  He co-founded the American University Kyiv in 2022 and serves as co-Chair of its Supervisory Board.  Ambassador Volker serves on the Advisory Board of BGR Group, a Washington, D.C. based government and public relations firm, and is a Distinguished Fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis.  He also serves Board of the American College of the Mediterranean, the Hungary Foundation, and on the international advisory boards of the U.S. Institute for Peace, GLOBSEC, and the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

From 2012-2019, Ambassador Volker was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University based in Washington, DC.  He teaches a masters’ class in transatlantic relations at Arizona State University and has also taught at George Washington University.  He is a frequent expert commentator on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business and other major media outlets and contributes regularly to public policy debates, through op-eds, articles, speeches, and television appearances.

Ambassador Volker began his career as an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency in 1986, before joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1988.