On Thursday, December 8th, at the Buckhead Club in Atlanta. With 50 in attendance, the largest gathering since COVID, the evening was filled with great conversations, reconnections, great food, and a wonderful time being together.
On Saturday, December 10th, BENS NY hosted an Army-Navy Game watch party in midtown Manhattan with NY Council Navy League.
PODCASTS
Lieutenant General Michael Groen, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), former Commander, DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center
In this week’s episode of Building the Base, BENS hosts Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula interview Lieutenant General Michael Groen, USMC (Ret.) to discuss the future of the defense industrial network. General Groen emphasizes the need for consistent collaboration between our nation’s warfighters and those who are developing innovative technologies. To that end, the DoD must experience a cultural transition by acting in partnership across not only the public and private sectors, but also the varying branches of service.
This past Friday, the BENS Special Working Group on Workforce Development hosted a meeting to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Co-chairs and BENS members Scott Drach and George Graffy reviewed the Working Group’s efforts over the past year including roundtables with Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals Service and a speaker series on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with public and private sector leaders.
ADVISORIES AND EXTERNAL EVENTS
PRESS RELEASE | HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
House Intelligence Committee Releases COVID-19 Report, Makes Recommendations for Future Pandemic Preparedness
On December 15, the House Intelligence Committee released a declassified report examining the Intelligence Community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic following a two-year investigation.
For the Defense Department, Southcom is an economy of force mission. This mission is based on the principle of employing combat power in the most effective way possible and allocating smaller forces and resources to secondary efforts.
Contact Hannah Beitler, Policy Associate, to submit content for consideration in this newsletter: HBeitler@bens.org
BENS EVENTS
Multiple Dates, Locations BENS Texas luncheon discussion on America’s Nuclear Triad with Patty-Jane Geller, Senior Policy Analyst for Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense.
Multiple Dates, Locations BENS Texas luncheon discussions on China and the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party with Col Heino Klinck, USA (Ret.), Senior Associate, CSIS, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia.
BENS NY Metro welcomed former Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Juan Carlos Pinzon, this week to discuss the important partnership between the United States and Colombia. Members focused on…
Shield Capital, a venture firm that invests in defense and space startups where BENS member Raj Shah is Managing Partner, announced that retired U.S. Air Force general David Goldfein has joined its…
The Iranian government claims it has discovered a massive deposit of lithium, potentially holding 8.5 million tons of the rare element. Mohammad Hadi Ahmadi, an official at Iran’s Ministry of…
