Stephen J. Hadley
Stephen Hadley is a principal of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC (RHGM), an international strategic consulting firm founded with Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. RHGM assists senior executives of major corporations in overcoming the challenges to doing business successfully in major emerging markets like China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and the Middle East.
He is the former Board Chair of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where he continues to serve on the Board of Directors and he is the Executive Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council. He has co-chaired a series of senior bipartisan working groups on topics such as Arab-Israeli peace, U.S. political strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S./Turkey relations, and US policy on Iraq and Egypt.
Mr. Hadley served for four years as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2005 to 2009. In that capacity he was the principal White House foreign policy advisor to then President George W. Bush, directed the National Security Council staff, and ran the interagency national security policy development and execution process. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley was the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, serving under then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. In addition to covering the full range of national security issues, Mr. Hadley had special responsibilities in several areas including a U.S./Russia political dialogue, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and developing a strategic relationship with India.
From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Hadley was both a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (now part of Goodwin Proctor) and a principal in The Scowcroft Group (a strategic consulting firm headed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft). In his law practice, Mr. Hadley was administrative partner of the firm. He represented a range of corporate clients in transactional and international matters - including export controls, foreign investment in U.S. national security companies, and the national security responsibilities of U.S. information technology companies. In his consulting practice, Mr. Hadley represented U.S. corporate clients investing and doing business overseas.
From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Hadley served as the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy under then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Mr. Hadley represented the Defense Department on arms control and defense matters, including negotiations with the Soviet Union and then Russia, security issues involving NATO and Western Europe, and export and technology control matters.
Prior to this position, Mr. Hadley alternated between government service and law practice with Shea & Gardner. He was counsel to the Tower Commission in 1987, as it investigated U.S. arms sales to Iran, and served on the National Security Council staff under President Ford from 1974 to 1977.
During his professional career, Mr. Hadley has served on a number of corporate and advisory boards. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The Council on Foreign Relations, a member of Yale University’s Kissinger Papers Advisory Board, and a member of the Board of Managers of the John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Other positions have included past service as a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board, a member of the National Security Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence, and a member of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
Mr. Hadley graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1969. In 1972, he received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1972 to 1975 he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He is also the editor of the book Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama. He is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center.
