National security and foreign policy challenges of 2021
Feb 23, 2021
Fmr US Senator Chuck Hagel / Evening Meeting
National security and foreign policy challenges of 2021

Chuck Hagel was the 24th Secretary of Defense, serving from February 2013 to
February 2015. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to
serve as Secretary of Defense.


Some of Hagel’s current commitments include service on the Board of Trustees of
RAND; Advisory Board of Corsair Capital; Senior Advisor to GALLUP and to the McCarthy
Group; Centennial Scholar, Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service; Distinguished
Scholar, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Distinguished Statesman at the Atlantic Council;
Board of Directors of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); Director and Founding Member of
the American Security Project; and Advisory Board Chairman of the HillVets Veterans
Organization.


Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate (1997-2009) representing the
state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He Chaired the Foreign Relations
International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the
Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees.
Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.


Previously, Secretary Hagel was a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown
University, Co- Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, Chairman of the
Atlantic Council. He served as a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board,
Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Power, Systemic
Risk Council Board of Directors; and as a member of the Board of Directors of Chevron.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company,
an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska. In the mid-1980’s, Hagel co-founded
VANGUARD Cellular Systems, Inc., a publicly traded corporation. He was President and CEO
of the World USO, Private Sector Council (PSC), and Chief Operating Officer of the 1990
Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit). Hagel also served as Deputy
Administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy
Commissioner General of the 1982 World’s Fair.


He is the author of the book, America: Our Next Chapter and was the subject of a
2018 book by General Daniel Bolger entitled, Our Year of War, and a 2006 book by Charlyne
Berens entitled, Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward. He is a graduate of the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, have a daughter (Allyn) and son (Ziller).

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