Check-in time and Refreshments served from 12:00-12:30
Please arrive no later than 12:30
The devastation of Hurricane Maria has shattered Puerto Rico’s already feeble economy; adding to devastation around the Caribbean and U.S. Virgin Islands this storm season. Puerto Rico faces months without power. Alone, the islands cannot bounce back. That is why the United States now must look beyond the immediate task of disaster relief, to the task of preventing a humanitarian crisis from devolving into a crisis of security and social order. Responding to the needs of 3.4 million Americans on la isla del encanto and the USVI will require urgent measures from Washington.
Join ASP for a discussion about the policy and security options for hurricane response in Puerto Rico, the USVI and Caribbean and a roadmap for how we can ensure that Puerto Ricans can Build Back Better.
Speakers
Chairman of ASP’s Business Council for American Security
Dante Disparte is the founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative, a strategy, risk and capital management firm focusing on mid-market opportunities, market expansion and equity investments on a global scale. He is the co-author of the book “Global Risk Agility and Decision Making” (Macmillan, Q2/2016).
Prior to forming Risk Cooperative, Mr. Disparte served as the Managing Director of Clements Worldwide, a leading insurance brokerage with customers in more 170 countries. Mr. Disparte is a specialist in strategy and risk reduction through the design and delivery of comprehensive risk solutions of worldwide scope. He is credited with designing the world’s first card-based life insurance program for the United Nations, a plan that has placed more than a half billion USD of risk with the markets in more than 150 countries. This innovation was heralded as one of the top product innovations of 2011 by the MENA Insurance Review. Mr. Disparte serves as the Chairman of the board of the Harvard Business School Club of Washington, D.C., and on Harvard Business School’s global alumni board. He is the Chairman of ASP’s Business Council for American Security.
Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.)
Chief Executive Officer, American Security Project
BGen Stephen Cheney USMC(Ret) is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Security Project (ASP).
He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has over 30 years experience as a Marine. His career included a wide variety of command and staff positions with the operating forces and the supporting establishment. Gen. Cheney’s primary specialty was artillery, but he focused extensively on entry-level training, commanding at every echelon at both Marine Corps Recruit Depots, to include being the Commanding General at Parris Island. He served several years in Japan and has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia.
Other selected highlights of Gen. Cheney’s military career include tours as Deputy Executive Secretary to Defense Secretaries Cheney and Aspin; ground plans officer for Drug Enforcement Policy in the Pentagon; liaison to the Congressional Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces; and Inspector General of the Marine Corps.
Following retirement from the Marines, Gen. Cheney became the Chief Operating Officer for Business Executives for National Security (BENS), in Washington, D.C., and most recently was President/CEO of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.
Director of Studies, Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate
Andrew Holland is the American Security Project’s Director of Studies and Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate. As an expert on energy, climate change, and infrastructure policy, he has worked at the center of debates about how to achieve sustainable energy security and how to effectively address climate change for the last decade.
He served as Legislative Assistant on Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure for United States Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska for three years from 2006 through 2008. He worked in the US House of Representatives for the House Ways and Means Committee and the Office of Congresswoman Roukema.
