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Business Executives for National Security
 

Strategic Engagements

BENS regularly receives requests from national security agencies and military commands for member involvement in addressing ongoing security challenges.  Past engagements have included:

  • Joint Task Force Horn of Africa/U.S. Africa Command. BENS trips to Africa are designed to evaluate U.S. economic, political and military development issues.  The 2007 trip resulted in a report circulated among congressional leadership and various government agencies stressing the importance of continuing current efforts in the region.  Seven BENS members traveled to the region in 2008 and three subsequently participated in an interagency conference on the structure and establishment of U.S. Africa Command, sponsored by the command and the U.S. Department of Commerce.    

  • U.S. Northern Command.  NORTHCOM is the lead military command on homeland security and is a close partner with the BENS-created (now independent) Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership.  BENS has helped NORTHCOM interface with the private sector in its disaster preparedness and response planning, bringing a business perspective to NORTHCOM’s operations through executive training workshops and conferences. 

  • U.S. Special Operations Command.  Since launching our relationship with SOCOM, over 100 members and “Friends of BENS” have participated in nearly a dozen activities involving SOCOM and its components.  Starting with our initial visit in August 2007, BENS has been the primary private-sector resource in three Global Synchronization Conferences, which involve agencies like FBI, DHS, and DEA as well as SOCOM.  The SOCOM-BENS Stored Value Card Roundtable in June 2008 arose out of that event and the meeting included over 60 business and government participants to talk about emerging security issues that are critical to SOCOM, its partners, and U.S. troops.  As a result of BENS involvement, SOCOM implemented steps that help soldiers identify and understand cards they find on enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.

  • U.S. European Command.  BENS has done annual trips to the EUCOM Area of Responsibility (AOR) to learn more about hotspots that are important to U.S. interests and bring members’ unique perspectives to security issues.  The 2006 visit was to North Africa and Turkey; the 2007 visit was to the Balkans (on Balkan economic and military reform efforts and to measure regional stability issues affecting growth and development); the 2008 visit took members to the southern Caucasus with a focus on energy issues, the Georgian-Russian conflict and Eastern European economic and development issues.

  • U.S. Strategic Command.  STRATCOM is responsible for deterring attacks on U.S. strategic interests, as well as space and cyberspace operations, missile defense, information warfare and combating weapons of mass destruction.  BENS has assisted STRATCOM with several activities, including the involvement of six members and prospects in an unclassified portion of a February 2008 conference on human network analysis and advising on how to secure computer networks. As part of a month-long project in January 2009 to present cyber solutions to STRATCOM leaders, BENS members offered insights on preventing threats such as those posed by removable storage media.

  • U.S. Central Command.  BENS does annual trips to the CENTCOM area of operations, including a 2007 visit to Iraq.  Members met with General Petraeus, Ambassador Crocker, and Iraqi politicians in Baghdad, and visited US Army troops in Kirkuk and US Marines in Al Anbar.  A subsequent report, circulated to congressional leaders, resulted in one of the first favorable reviews of the troop surge, which had just been implemented.  The July 2008 visit saw members accompanying Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The objectives were the evaluation, from a business perspective, of ongoing combat and development operations primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan and to get a first-hand look at the political situation in Pakistan.

  • U.S. Southern Command.  BENS is providing a business perspective to help SOUTHCOM analyze how drug cartels and other illegal groups operate – which is often much like a legitimate business.   Having undergone a recent restructuring, SOUTHCOM also asked BENS members to provide an outside evaluation of their strategic planning process, which was completed in 2009. 

  • U.S. Air Force.  Responding to a request from the office of the Air Force Chief of Staff, two members hosted a senior-level USAF team in 2008 to discuss how their firms evaluate risk and set up their management operations to deal with related challenges. 

  • U.S. Joint Forces Command.  BENS has engaged with JFCOM on numerous activities, sending members to participate in exercises to lend their business expertise to operational issues.  In December 2008, BENS recruited members to join a three-day, JFCOM-SOCOM Limited Objective Experiment (LOE) on the Irregular Warfare Joint Operating Concept.

  • U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.  In partnership with Gen. William Wallace, head of TRADOC, BENS hosted a 2008 conference involving about 10 BENS members together with university and military leaders to focus on an alarming manpower challenge facing the Army. 
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation. BENS worked with the FBI and National Counterintelligence Executive Dr. Joel Brenner on heightening awareness among American business executives of cyber threats posed by foreign intelligence organizations.  Drawing on their experience in the technology industry, BENS members advised Dr. Brenner on developing a presentation to business executives about how to protect their computers and data.  Dr. Brenner has presented the material to several BENS audiences.
  • U.S. Pacific Command. BENS collaborated with U.S. Pacific Command's Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE), a Defense Department-sponsored, non-profit organization that trains and coordinates disaster management and humanitarian assistance among civilian agencies, the private sector and other non-government organizations.  A team of BENS members worked with COE executives on the creation of an affiliate private foundation to lead private-sector outreach for COE and assist COE with making the business case for corporate involvement.


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