Ethan Kapstein Joins CNAS; New Additions to Board of Advisors

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is pleased to announce that Ethan Kapstein has joined CNAS as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow.  Kapstein, professor of sustainable development at INSEAD and former vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, is an expert in defense acquisitions and international economics and has published widely on national security issues. CNAS is also pleased to announce that Stephen Friedman, Jill Iscol, and Marc Lasry and have joined CNAS as members of its board of advisors, bringing unique experience in national security, international affairs, and global development to the distinguished board.

Ethan Kapstein holds the INSEAD Chair in Political Economy at INSEAD, the international business school with campuses in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore. Previously he was the Stassen Professor of International Peace at the University of Minnesota, vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, principal administrator at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, and executive director of the Economics and National Security Program at Harvard University. He is a former international banker and has served as an officer in the United States Navy. A specialist in international economic relations and defense economics, he has published widely in professional and policy journals, and is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal Europe and other newspapers. He is the author or editor of eight books, the most recent of which is The Fate of Young Democracies (Cambridge University Press, with Nathan Converse).

Stephen Friedman currently serves as chairman of Stone Point Capital, LLC, which manages private equity funds investing in financial services businesses. He is a retired chairman, and currently a director, of Goldman, Sachs & Co.  Mr. Friedman is former chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and of the Intelligence Oversight Board.  Previously, he served as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  From December 2002 to December 2004, he served as assistant to President George W. Bush for Economic Policy and director of the National Economic Council.  Mr. Friedman is currently a trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Aspen Institute and director of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jill Iscol is the president of the IF Hummingbird Foundation, a family foundation created in 1989 to support domestic and global efforts that strengthen democracy. Jill, a philanthropic leader, formerly served as a trustee of numerous boards, and was founding co-chair of City Year New York and currently serves on its board of advisors as well as on the President’s Council of Teachers College at Columbia University, the advisory boards of the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development at Cornell University, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Fine Arts at Cornell University, and the Acumen Fund, a global philanthropic organization. Jill is a trustee of Vital Voices Global Partnership and is currently chairing its newly launched New York Leadership Council. She was recently appointed to the New York State Commission on National and Community Service and the board of trustees of Horizons National. Jill received a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh, a master of philosophy from Yale, and a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Marc Lasry  is the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Avenue Capital Group. Avenue, founded in 1995 and headquartered in New York City, focuses on distressed and undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the United States, Asia and Europe. Marc also co-founded Amroc Investments, LLC in 1989 and was co-director of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department at Cowen & Company. He also clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former chief bankruptcy judge of the Southern District of New York. He graduated with a B.A. in history from Clark University and received a J.D. from New York Law School.  Marc serves on the board of directors and advisors for several profit and not-for-profit public and private companies, including Mount Sinai Medical Center, The Clinton Foundation, and the 92nd Street Y.