Navigating Risk: Lessons from National Security and the Private Sector
In-person, Members-only
Wednesday, May 14, 2025| 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET
In today’s complex and fast-moving world, both governments and businesses are constantly navigating high-stakes risks—from geopolitical tensions and cyber threats to economic shocks and emerging technologies. While the stakes may differ, the challenge of anticipating and managing uncertainty is universal. How do national security agencies plan for the unknown, and how does that compare to the way corporations protect their assets and plan for the future? This conversation will explore what these two worlds can learn from each other—and why their approaches to risk matter more than ever.
Join us on Wednesday, May 14, from 6:30 – 8:30 PM EDT for an in-person discussion with Dr. Scott Sarlin, National Intelligence Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations & recent Deputy Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Mission Performance, Analysis, and Collection (MPAC) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In this conversation, Dr. Sarlin will draw on his extensive experience to connect how national security and the private sector approach risk.
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SPEAKER:
Dr. Scott Sarlin
Dr. Scott Sarlin is a visiting fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He most recently served as the deputy assistant director of national intelligence for Mission Performance, Analysis, and Collection (MPAC) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). His office measures the performance of the intelligence community; facilitates the determination of intelligence priorities; represents mission equities in the intelligence community’s budget, acquisition, and requirements processes; and leads functional management, collections, and analytic communities’ interactions with the ODNI.
Sarlin joined MPAC after serving as the senior technical director for the National Counter Proliferation Center. His previous positions include serving in senior leadership and technical roles for advanced technology development at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and leading several groups at the CIA within the Directorate of Science and Technology, the Office of Global Access, and the Office of the Chief Scientist.
Sarlin was previously the deputy director and acting director of Science &Technology within the ODNI, leading the intelligence community’s research and development activities, cochairing the National Intelligence Science and Technology Council, and conducting oversight of science and technology throughout the U.S. intelligence community. He led the transition effort to stand-up the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
Before joining the government, Sarlin worked in industry at the Boeing Company and at SAIC. He also spent a year as an NRO technology fellow and had earlier been awarded a NASA fellowship in graduate school. He has served as a commissioned officer in both the U.S. Army and Air Force Reserves, with his last assignment being to the Air Force Research Lab.
Sarlin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in astrophysics and later earned an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a PhD in experimental astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
THIS SESSION IS FREE FOR NETWORK 20/20’s MEMBERS
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Image credit: Flickr
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