The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Please join the Intelligence Project for the second seminar in our Intelligence Entrepreneurs series, where we explore how intelligence veterans have taken their skills into the private sector to create value for all sorts of organizations.
In this seminar Meredith Wilson, Founder and CEO of Emergent Risk International, will be speaking on her journey into private sector intelligence, the challenges of building a start-up intel provider, and the difference between government vs private sector intelligence.
Meredith Wilson is the Founder and CEO of Emergent Risk International, LLC, which empowers companies to understand and address the impact of geopolitical events on their business. The company specializes in addressing risks and opportunities in emerging markets, political and security risk, and building strategic risk intelligence programs for multi-national companies and organizations. ERI provides consulting, training and advice to some of the largest multi-national companies in the US.
Ms. Wilson serves as a political risk and intelligence advisor to executive management and government and has 19 years experience in international environments, the energy sector, major corporations and the US intelligence community. Before founding Emergent Risk International, Ms. Wilson worked at the Pentagon for the US Defense Intelligence Agency. In 2007 she moved to the private sector to build a strategic intelligence program at ConocoPhillips. Subsequently she worked in regulatory affairs before moving on to Kosmos Energy to develop a political risk program. She served as a business intelligence advisor to the National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology and provides briefings to executives and members of the USG and US military.
She is a cofounder of the Private Sector Intelligence Council (PSIC), a member of the Board of Directors for the Association for International Risk and Intelligence Professionals (AIRIP), and an Advisory Board member for the Southeastern Analysts’ Roundtable. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and a Masters Degree in History. Ms. Wilson has lived and worked in Australia, the UK, Ireland, Vietnam and Malaysia. She also has extensive experience working in the Middle East and Africa.
