The National Security Roundtable

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Colonel (ret) Dr. Steven P. Bucci served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official. Commissioned in the Infantry, Bucci served in various leadership positions in the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg, NC, as well as 5th & 7th Special Forces. As commander of 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces, he led major operational deployments to eastern Africa, South Asia and the Persian Gulf -- including Operation Desert Thunder in 1998 in response to Saddam Hussein's threats to violate the no-fly zone over Iraq. In 7th Special Forces, he conducted numerous anti-drug and development missions across Latin America.

Bucci served as defense attaché in Sarajevo and became the first resident defense attaché in Tirana, Albania. In July 2001, he assumed the duties of military assistant to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a little over nine weeks later, witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. He worked directly for Rumsfeld daily for five and a half years, and continued to serve the defense secretary in a succession of posts until retiring from the Army in 2005 with the rank of colonel. He stayed on at the Pentagon as a civilian appointee with the title of deputy assistant secretary of defense.

In his next position as deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and defense support to civil authorities, Bucci was responsible for overseeing policy issues involving the Defense Domains (cyber, air, land and maritime), National Guard domestic operational issues, domestic counterterrorism, readiness exercises and response to natural and manmade disasters. He was the primary civilian overseer of U.S. Northern Command.

Bucci also served as lead consultant to IBM on cyber security policy. As part of IBM's Public Sector Team, Bucci was a top strategist in the global computer giant's cyber security campaign, his advice sought by several major federal departments. He was a member of the Cyber Coordinating Committee and an original deputy director of the IBM Institute for Advanced Security.

Bucci is currently Director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, as well as an adjunct professor of leadership at George Mason University, and an associate professor of terrorism studies and cyber security policy at Long Island University. He serves on the advisory board of the MIT Geospatial Data Center and is an advisor to the Prince of Wales/Prince Edward Fellowship program at MIT and Harvard.