Plenary Session: Addressing Foreign Investment Into & Out of The U.S.

JOHN M. B. O’CONNOR, 69, is CEO of J.H. Whitney Investment Management, LLC. Previously, Mr. O’Connor was Chairman of JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management. Mr. O’Connor is also CEO of Whitney Strategic Services and Whitney Data Services. Mr. O’Connor serves on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Oceus Networks, LLC., Sequoia Holdings, Inc., Boon Logic,Inc., SixGen Inc., And Global Guardian LLC., Mr. O’Connor is a Senior Fellow at the USMA West Point where he lectures on the Economics of National Security. He served as a member of the US Department of Defense Business Board from 2005 to 2021 and as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for New York from 2014 to 2019. He is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Air Force Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

Mr. Evanina currently serves as Founder and CEO of the Evanina Group advising CEOs and Board of Directors on strategic corporate risk. Mr. Evanina provides a wide array of elite strategic risk consultation services to Boards of Directors, CEOs, and senior decision makers operating within a very complex and competitive global economy and with nefarious nation state actors. Clients include corporations within energy, financial services, telecommunications, biomedical, technology, private equity, national security, and retail sectors. 

Mr. Evanina currently serves on multiple advisory boards and is an instructor at the University of Chicago’s distinguished Graham School. 

Mr. Evanina frequently appear in national news outlets (television, print, op-eds) advising on threats, vulnerability and mitigating strategies. 

Previously, Mr. Evanina was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 6, 2020, to be the first Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC). Mr. Evanina served as the Director of NCSC since June 2, 2014. In this position, he was the head of Counterintelligence (CI) for the U.S. Government.  

Mr. Evanina was responsible for leading and supporting the CI and security activities of the US Intelligence Community, the U.S. Government, and U.S. private sector entities at risk from intelligence collection or attack by foreign adversaries. Under NCSC, he oversaw national-level programs and activities such as the National Insider Threat Task Force; personnel security and background investigations; information technology protection standards and compliance; CI cyber operations; supply chain risk management; threat awareness to sectors of the US critical infrastructure; national-level damage assessments from espionage or unauthorized disclosures, CI mission management, and national CI and security training programs. 

Under Mr. Evanina’s leadership, NCSC produced the President’s National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 2020, which has been instrumental in raising foreign intelligence threat awareness to critical infrastructure sectors and the private sector executives regarding supply chain, economic security, cyber, and malign foreign influence. 

Mr. Evanina chaired the National Counterintelligence Policy Board, and the Allied Security and Counterintelligence Forum comprised of senior CI and security leaders from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. Mr. Evanina also served as Chair of the NATO Counterintelligence Panel.  

Prior to his selection as the Director of NCSC, Mr. Evanina served as the Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counterespionage Group.

Mr. Evanina previously served as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, where he led operations in both the Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Divisions. 

Mr. Evanina served over 31 years of distinguished federal service, 24 of which as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the start of his law enforcement career in 1996, he investigated organized crime and violent crimes through the FBI’s Newark Field Office. He then served on an FBI SWAT unit for 10 years, ultimately supervising this unit. He led some of the highest profile terrorism investigations in our nation’s history including the 9/11 attacks, the anthrax attacks, and the Daniel Pearl kidnapping. During his tenure with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Mr. Evanina was selected as a Supervisory Special Agent and received the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence for his leadership in the investigation into convicted spy Leandro Argoncillo. 

Mr. Evanina’s government career began in 1989 as a Project Manager with the General Services Administration, in Philadelphia. 

Mr. Evanina was born and raised in Peckville, PA. He holds an Associate’s Degree in History from Keystone College in LaPlume, PA, a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, PA, and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Arcadia University in Philadelphia. Mr. Evanina was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Keystone College. 

Mr. Evanina is married to his wife JulieAnne and has two sons, Dominic and Will.

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Marshall S. Billingslea is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, focusing on illicit finance and arms control with the Kleptocracy Initiative.

Prior to joining Hudson Institute, Mr. Billingslea was the special presidential envoy for arms control at the US Department of State, holding the rank of ambassador. In this capacity, he led arms control negotiations and worked with partners and allies in Europe and Asia on the development and deployment of defensive capabilities.

Before joining the State Department, Mr. Billingslea served as the assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the US Department of the Treasury, where he built international coalitions and led US efforts to counter illicit financial activities around the globe. In 2018, he was selected as president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing body—and co-chaired the global Counter-ISIS Finance Group and multiple bilateral negotiating fora with friendly and allied nations. Earlier in his career, he served for more than six years as the senior professional staff member for national security affairs on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Before rejoining the US government in 2017, Mr. Billingslea spent more than eight years in the private sector. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in several senior roles within the Department of Defense and at NATO, including as deputy undersecretary of the Navy and assistant secretary general for defense investment at NATO.

Mr. Billingslea holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MA in law and diplomacy from Tufts University. He has been awarded the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by the US Secretary of Defense and decorated by the US secretary of the navy with the Distinguished Public Service medal, and received the Treasury Medal in recognition of his work at the Department of the Treasury.

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