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SPEAKER ROSTER
SPEAKER ROSTER
Michael Vaiani - Founder
Mike Vaiani is the founder of the NYC Anti-Terrorism Symposium is 2002. He is a (Ret.) Special Agent, USSS assigned to the New York Field Office located at #7 World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. His life experiences to include a degree in nursing, uniform police officer and a special agent with DEA has helped him build relationships through out his career and understands the importance of it. During the events of 9/11, Mike realized relationships established could form a networking opportunity through training for not only law enforcement, first responders, military and private sector. This mixing of dynamic individuals from the various sectors along with an expertise of speakers makes the Symposium a truly unique experience. Mikes love for the military comes from his dad's career in the Navy as a (Ret.) Navy Chief.
Diane Barton - Event Coordinator
When you think of the MTU NYC Anti Terrorism Symposium, you can’t help but think of Diane. As the Symposium Coordinator since 2007, Diane has handled everything from flights to food to schedules and accommodations. Diane takes the stresses of managing many diverse requests & requirements, let alone dealing with many military and law enforcement divisions, & turns them into interesting, informative and fun events with a family like feel. Initially working with USSS Special Agent Mike Vaiani at Camp Smith in 2001, Diane became interested in learning about the Symposium. Soon, she enthusiastically volunteered to help
Diane currently is Housing and Logistics Billeting Manager at Camp Smith Training Site for DMNA where she is responsible for the management, administration, & technical & professional direction of lodging operations as well as coordinating major activities for lodging projects & soldier training. Her work ensures measurable standards of service performance & accountability to ensure a uniform system that provides cost-effective service to all service members.
Diane and her husband Kevin love spending time with their large, boisterous family, especially their three grandkids and three grand fur babies who keep them on their toes!
OUR SPEAKERS
Dee Smith - CEO, Strategic Insight Group
Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Gordon Dee Smith is Founder and CEO of Strategic Insight Group, a private intelligence and research firm that serves a client base of large investors, operating companies, and law firms, and works in more than 100 countries. He has advised on over US $120 billion in investment transactions and has conducted projects in areas ranging from geopolitical and global change risk analysis to enhanced due diligence and transactional and market intelligence for the finance, technology, defense, energy, retail, transportation, and healthcare industries, among others. His clients include several of the world’s largest institutional investors.
He has led projects in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Russia, North America, Central and South America, and Australia and the Pacific. Prior to founding SIG, he headed a venture capital firm bringing European investment into Latin America, was an intelligence contractor for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) working in the area of counter-terrorism, and was a founder and president of an international NGO, InterCultura, which conducted international exchange projects in 14 countries. He is active in the international relations and geopolitical policy communities.
John Franchi - CIA Retired
John Franchi is a former senior executive of the Central Intelligence Agency, retiring after 29 years of distinguished service holding numerous high-level positions internationally and in Washington DC, as well as with the U.S. military and U.S. Department of State
His assignments took him throughout the Middle East and Africa, along with extensive experience in Europe. John is a fluent Arabist who developed an expertise in geopolitical and transnational issues related to the Middle East, Islam, transnational issues, counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber.
Throughout, John oversaw and led all facets of intelligence and operations, to include interfacing with the senior most levels of the U.S. and foreign governments, as well as the private sector. As such, he maintains deep and broad relationships across the business community and governments in the U.S., Middle East, Africa, Europe and parts of South America and Asia.
Since leaving the government John founded two strategic consulting firms – which support a diverse client base in the U.S., Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and across Africa. The firms provide a full range of advisory services, to include risk assessment/mitigation, deal sourcing, as well as relationship access and development services to domestic and international clientele. He is married and has three sons.
Ben Pappas - Marine LtCol retired (Force Recon & MARSOC)
Ben Pappas is the CEO and Founder of Ben Pappas Leadership and Life Coaching. He has over 25 years of leadership experience in some of the most demanding positions and environments on earth. Ben has led, mentored, and coached thousands of people, including highly successful business founders, and C-suite executives in Fortune 500 companies, from across the US and world.
Ben’s leadership experience spans commanding precision raids in direct combat, promoting foreign relations in Europe and Asia, coaching people to achieve personal and business success, teaching graduate-level leadership courses, and even leadership on the football field. His expertise includes leading organizational change, and helping people make breakthroughs to achieve peak performance, intervention, negotiation, communication, change management, building teams, and improving decision-making skills. He is a former Marine special operations leader who can assess, develop, and create strategies to achieve individual, and organizational goals.
Ben commanded the elite 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, one of only three Special Operations Forces battalions in the Marine Corps. He also served as a platoon commander with 1st Force Recon and designed and built the Recon Training Company, which included the Basic Recon Course and Scout Sniper School.
Michèle Stuart - JAG Investigations, Inc.
With over thirty years of investigative experience and twenty-six years of running her own company, Ms. Stuart is an expert in a range of investigative fields, including OSINT, counterintelligence, insurance fraud investigations, financial investigations, threat assessments, due diligence, organized retail crime, corporate and competitive intelligence.
Ms. Stuart consults and trains a variety of clients, including federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, military intelligence communities, Fortune 500 companies, as well as financial and insurance industries. Her focus is on open source intelligence, social media, and threat assessments and mitigation. She has also served as an Instructor at Quantico (FBI Academy), teaching international training in OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence).
In 2017, Ms. Stuart collaborated with the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security to create a program called “Keeping Kids Safe.” This program provides training to administrators, principals, teachers, SRO’s, and parents on the dangers of online and social media activity, predator grooming, as well as the dangers of applications and cellular security.
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