Guy Snodgrass

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Guy Snodgrass is Chief Executive Officer for Defense Analytics, a national security and foreign policy advisory firm specializing in strategy development, government policy, and technology adoption.

 A retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot and former TOPGUN Instructor, his last tour of duty took him into the halls of the Pentagon where he served as communications director and chief speechwriter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. During that period, he authored the publicly available 2018 National Defense Strategy for the United States, assisted with Presidential speeches, and was responsible for Mattis’s congressional testimony and public remarks.

Norman Augustine

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Norman Augustine is a U.S. aerospace businessman who served as United States Under Secretary of the Army from 1975 to 1977. Augustine served as chairman and CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He was chairman of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee.

Among Augustine’s many honors are the National Medal of Technology and the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award, the Distinguished Service Medal, given to him five times. Most recently, he was awarded the 2005 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize and the 2006 Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Science. A Colorado native, Augustine graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. He is the author of Augustine’s Travels, The Defense Revolution, and Augustine’s Laws.

Aaron Burciaga

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Aaron Burciaga is a renowned Data Scientist, AI Engineer, author and Advisor. As a seasoned technology and business leader in both startup and enterprise settings, he has focused his career on delivering efficiency and value through automation, data science, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, and emerging concepts and innovative technologies.

Aaron’s current roles include Senior Practice Manager, US Federal Partner Professional Services at Amazon Web Services as well as Co-Founder of DataPrime Inc. Aaron received his M.S. in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School and his B.S. from the US Naval Academy. 

Michael Huston

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Michael Huston is co-chair of the Appeals, Issues & Strategy practice at Perkins Coie LLP, where he counsels some of the World’s leading companies on appellate matters and all aspects of litigation strategy.

Michael is a former Assistant to the Solicitor General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he represented the federal government before the Supreme Court of the United States. Michael has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court and briefed hundreds more. He is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court. Michael also graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy. He was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Peter Agre

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Dr. Peter Agre’s research has focused upon molecular aspects of human diseases, including hemolytic anemias, blood group antigens, and malaria. Agre received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery of the aquaporin water channels. Agre has also served as Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. He oversees scientific training and research efforts of 20 laboratories in Baltimore and field studies in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Allyn Kilsheimer

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Since 1969, Mr. Kilsheimer’s structural design work has encompassed a broad range of project types, including high-rise office buildings, commercial and industrial projects, residential and hotel complexes, clinical and medical research facilities, military facilities and embassies throughout the United States and overseas totaling over $49 billion in construction cost. On September 11, 2001, within minutes of the terrorist attacks, Mr. Kilsheimer was called for help from both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He realized that little could be done in New York to stabilize the buildings and secure them from catastrophic collapse, so he immediately responded to the Pentagon to begin emergency stabilization, rescue assistance, determination of extent of demolition, and required techniques. . He became the Design Team Prime Professional, lead Structural Engineer, and the Owner’s Representative. The design and construction team achieved the reconstruction of over 1,000,000 GSF of damaged and re-built structure within 11 months, ahead of schedule and under budget. 

Victor H. Esch Jr. 

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Victor H. Esch, Jr., is an international emergency & disaster management, disaster response, global health, and fire/rescue/ems services subject matter expert; who lectures, internationally, on a broad range of emergency management related topics. He has developed emergency & disaster management related programs internationally, extensively, throughout Afghanistan. He is a 46-year veteran of the fire and rescue service, having served 36-years as a Fire Chief. Chief Esch has also been a FEMA/DHS Grant Manager and served on the FEMA NDMS and NMRT Disaster Response Teams.

James Howson 

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James Howson is a Scouter, active in the National Capital Area Council, where he serves as a Unit Commissioner. He has been active in Scouting since he was a youth. For the 2021 Antarctic Expedition, Jim served as an associate advisor to Venturing Crew 774. Professionally, Jim is the Emergency Manager for the US Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. He serves a subject matter expert for the Bureau on emergency management and disaster healthcare issues. Additionally, he has provided operational medical support to training and mission activities run by the Bureau, both domestically and at various Embassies, Consulates, and Missions worldwide.

Max Finberg

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Max Finberg currently serves as the President and CEO of Growing Hope Globally, a faith-based organization dedicated to ending hunger by supporting farmers and their food security. Formerly Foods Resource Bank, Growing Hope Globally has helped 2.1 million people to escape hunger and extreme poverty. Their unique model has farmers and their communities in the US supporting farmers and their communities overseas. He is responsible for running all aspects of the organization. He has dedicated his life to serving others, especially those who suffer from hunger and poverty. 

Roger Thyen

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Roger Thyen completed multiple deployments to the Middle East in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, leading several high-priority, high-value operations. He received two Bronze Star Medals for his actions. Thyen has served at multiple U.S. diplomatic posts, many of them in high-threat countries including Egypt, again in Iraq, and Pakistan. He has received two Superior Honor Awards for his outstanding leadership and work in some of the most challenging locations in the world.

As the RSO at the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, Thyen’s been able to spend more time with his immediate family and serve the local community there. Within a month of arriving, Thyen was serving on the board of the American International School in Zagreb, helping the school develop a mission strategy and finalize the details of a multi-million-dollar loan to build a new school campus. Leveraging his diplomatic skills, Thyen established ties with the Croatian scouting movement, which will allow the Cub Scouts to participate in scouting activities with their Croatian counterparts. Thyen’s distinguished military and law enforcement career, and his commitment to his community and the next generation, made him the perfect choice for the 2019 NOESA award.

Charles Lewis

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Charles Lewis is a professor of journalism at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and the founding executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He has been a Ferris Professor at Princeton University, a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Lewis, a former ABC News and CBS News “60 Minutes” producer, founded two Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organizations, the award-winning, nonprofit Center for Public Integrity (1989) and its International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (1997), the first global network of premier investigative reporters to develop and publish online multimedia exposés across borders. The ICIJ published the Panama Papers — the largest collaboration in the history of journalism, involving a leaked cache of 11.5 million financial records, analyzed and reported by more than 370 journalists in 76 countries and published in over 100 newspapers around the world.

Guy Snodgrass

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Guy Snodgrass is a retired American naval aviator, Topgun graduate and instructor, who served as speechwriter and chief of communications for Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. His book “Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis” details key decisions and moments during Mattis’ time as Secretary of Defense and provides the author’s first-hand look into the relationship between Mattis and Trump, the Pentagon, The White House, and American national security decision making.

Tom Jones

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Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D. is a veteran NASA astronaut, scientist, author, pilot, and speaker. In more than eleven years with NASA, he flew on four space shuttle missions to Earth orbit. In 2001, Dr. Jones led three spacewalks to install the centerpiece of the International Space Station, the American Destiny laboratory. He has spent fifty-three days working and living in space.

After graduation from the Air Force Academy, Tom piloted B-52D strategic bombers, earned a doctorate in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona, studied asteroids and robotic exploration missions for NASA, and engineered intelligence-gathering systems for the CIA.

Morgan Sullivan

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Morgan Sullivan is a senior member of the JLL’s brokerage division. Morgan focuses on tenant representation and specializes in acquisition, disposition, and expansion related services, conducting market studies, feasibility and financial analysis and lease negotiation. Morgan has an extensive background in commercial construction management.

Prior to joining JLL, he participated in the management of more than one million square feet of commercial base building and interior construction in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Morgan received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Science from Bowling Green State University

Tara Presnall

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