Private Sector Advisory Group

CSIS’ Transnational Threats Project (TNT) launched the Private-Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) to coincide with the first annual Transnational Threats Audit conference in February 2003. The PSAG is co-chaired by Robert Littlejohn, Vice President of Global Security for Avon Products, and Carol Hallett, Of Counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The PSAG is composed of 30 senior corporate security executives, representing Fortune 100 companies from a cross-section of key infrastructure sectors, and senior national security specialists. Members have impressive security and intelligence experience not only in industry but also through extensive careers with the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, DEA, NYPD, etc. Their networks reach out to local and national law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and members serve as an immediate conduit to millions of private sector employees and hundreds of other companies and associations.

The PSAG’s primary mission is to provide a forum for corporate security executives and national security specialists to regularly convene in off-the-record sessions to discuss mutual concerns of information sharing, improved national security measures, and political global security threats with ranking U.S. government officials and the intelligence community.

The PSAG also provides strategic direction to the widely recognized annual Transnational Threats Audit conference. With over 150 senior corporate security executives and national security specialists in attendance, this annual event examines the impact of transnational threats on the private/public sectors and compares perceptions and discusses strategies to move the corporate community ahead of the terror curve.

On the eve of the fifth annual Transnational Threats Assessment conference on April 27, 2007, the PSAG held a private dinner with special guest Frances Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. The following day, the PSAG hosted the Assessment conference. This year’s event discussed Looking Over the Horizon to Threats and Security at Home and AbroadSpeakers included Richard Clarke, Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting; David Paulison, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency; Charles Boyd, President and Chief executive Officer, Business Executives for National Security; Stephen Flynn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Anthony Cordesman, CSIS’ Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy; Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia Director, International Crisis Group; and Aimee Ibrahim-David, Vice President for Counterterrorism, DeticaDFI.