Upcoming Speakers
Henry Haggard
February 10, 2025
Topic: US-Korea Relationship in Transition
Henry Haggard is the founding partner of Seekonk LLC. Following a twenty-five year career at the U.S. State Department during which he attained the rank of Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service, Henry is a Senior Advisor at WestExec, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Baker Institute, Rice University, Senior Associate of the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) and U.S. Senior Advisor at AMCHAM Korea. From 2021-2023, he served as Minister Counsellor for Political Affairs at the United States Embassy in South Korea. Prior to that, he served as Director at the National Security Council under both the Trump and Biden administrations, coordinating United States policy and engagement with Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
Previous assignments at the State Department include Director of Energy Diplomacy for Asia and the Middle East, Acting Political Minister Counsellor at the United States Mission to the European Union, Chief of Staff to the Secretary’s Special Representative for Syria Engagement, Deputy Principal Officer in Erbil, Iraq, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, three tours in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat for Secretaries Powell, Rice and Kerry, a tour in Baghdad, and one stint as political-military team lead at the United States Embassy in Paris.
Henry speaks fluent Korean and French and received a BA in International Relations from Brown University and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He is the founder of The 25 Year Apprenticeship, a resource for diplomatic tradecraft. Henry is a frequent contributor to news broadcasts and other media outlets covering the Korean peninsula and global affairs. He is the proud father of three children, Hugo, Bruno and Esmé.
Admiral Michael Rogers
March 10, 2025
Topic: Current Hot Spots of the World
Admiral Michael Rogers retired from the US Navy in 2018 after nearly 37 years of naval service rising to the rank of four-star admiral. He culminated his career with a four-year tour as Commander, US Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency. In those roles he worked with the leadership of the US government, the DoD, and the US Intelligence community as well as their international counterparts in the conduct of cyber and intelligence activity across the globe. He also assisted in the development of national and international policy with respect to cyber, intelligence and technology – including extensive work with corporate leadership in the Finance, IT, Telecommunications and Technology sectors.
During his broader service in uniform, Admiral Rogers held positions afloat and ashore around the globe focusing on cyber, intelligence, maritime operations and national security. His joint service was extensive including duty with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Indo Pacific Command and US Atlantic Command. In addition, Admiral Rogers commanded at the unit, Numbered Fleet and service component levels in the Navy.
Admiral Rogers is a graduate of Auburn University and also holds a Masters of Science in National Security. He is a distinguished graduate of the National War College and a graduate of highest distinction from the Naval War College. He is also an MIT Seminar XXI fellow and a Harvard Senior Executive in National Security alum.
Admiral Rogers is currently supporting companies in the private sector, serving as a member of various Boards or acting as a Senior Advisor. He also speaks globally to various business and academic groups and is working internationally in the cyber and national security arenas. He is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Managements’ Public Private Initiative and a member of the advisory board of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure.
Martin Mühleisen
April 14, 2025
Topic: The IMF and World Bank in the New Geopolitical Environment
Martin Mühleisen is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and a former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official with decades-long experience in economic crisis management and financial diplomacy.
Among other responsibilities, Mühleisen led the IMF’s unprecedented response to the COVID-19 crisis and oversaw work on the institution’s overall strategy and lending policies. He represented the fund in Group of Seven and Group of Twenty (G20) communiqué discussions, participating in six leaders summits before his 2021 retirement from his position as director for strategy, policy, and review. He also played a leading role in the negotiations extending the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights allocation, the New Arrangements to Borrow, and the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative and Common Framework for Debt Relief.
Mühleisen served several roles at the IMF including chief of staff and principal advisor to Managing Director Christine Lagarde from 2013 to 2017. This period included the completion of the IMF’s Fourteenth General Review of Quotas, China’s inclusion into the SDR basket, the agreement on Greece during the 2015 European Union Summit, and the IMF’s rapid response to the Ebola crisis. As an IMF staffer, Mühleisen worked on several of the major G20 countries, focusing on fiscal- and financial-policy issues. He coordinated the IMF’s work on advanced economies during the global financial crisis, with personal sign-off responsibility for the Euro area programs with Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. He also drove innovations in risk management, knowledge management, and information-technology applications.
A German national and Konrad Adenauer scholar, Mühleisen holds a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University and a PhD summa cum laude in economics from the University of Munich. He has published and overseen work on macro-financial analysis, the international monetary system and digital currencies, economic linkages, fiscal policy, aging, saving, and inequality.