Chief Executive Officer, Center for a New American Security
Richard Fontaine is the chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He served as president of CNAS from 2012–19 and as senior fellow from 2009–12. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council (NSC), and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Fontaine served as foreign policy advisor to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently as the minority deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prior to that, he served as associate director for Near Eastern affairs at the NSC from 2003–04. He also worked on Southeast Asian issues in the NSC’s Asian Affairs directorate.
At the State Department, Fontaine worked for the deputy secretary and in the department’s South Asia bureau. Fontaine began his foreign policy career as a staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focusing on the Middle East and South Asia. He also spent a year teaching English in Japan.
Fontaine currently serves as executive director of the Trilateral Commission and was a member of the Defense Policy Board from 2021 to 2025. He has been an adjunct professor in the security studies program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
A native of New Orleans, Fontaine graduated summa cum laude with a BA in international relations from Tulane University. He also holds an MA in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, and he attended Oxford University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and their four children.
Chief Legal + Administrative Officer, Waystar Health
Matthew R. A. Heiman leads all legal and corporate governance matters for Waystar. Over the last two decades, he has worked in corporate and government sectors, gaining deep experience in the areas of corporate governance, litigation, risk management, security, and compliance.
Most recently, Matthew was Vice President, Corporate Secretary & Associate General Counsel at Johnson Controls where he helped establish a new corporate secretary department and led the integration of legal departments following the company’s merger with Tyco International. Prior to its merger with Johnson Controls, Matthew held a number of positions with Tyco International including Vice President, Chief Compliance & Audit Officer. Before Tyco, Matthew was a lawyer with the National Security Division at the U.S Department of Justice. He was a legal advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq and practiced as a trial lawyer with the law firm of McGuireWoods.
Matthew holds a BA and JD from Indiana University and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is a Senior Fellow at George Mason University’s National Security Institute.
Senior Director for Research, Institute for Indo-Pacific Security
Michael Mazza is the senior director for research at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security. Mike analyzes U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific region, cross-Strait relations, and Asian security issues. He is concurrently a senior non-resident fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute and previously spent 15 years at the American Enterprise Institute, where he contributed to studies on American grand strategy in Asia, US defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific, and Taiwanese defense strategy. His published work includes pieces in The Wall Street Journal Asia, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.
Mike has a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. He previously lived and studied in China.
Principal, The Marathon Initiative
Dr. Ely Ratner is a Principal at The Marathon Initiative, a bipartisan think tank dedicated to preparing the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. He served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs from 2021-2025. Prior to confirmation, he was the Director of the DoD China Task Force and a Senior Advisor to China to the Secretary of Defense. Before arriving at the Department of Defense, Dr. Ratner was the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he was a member of the executive team and responsible for managing the Center’s research agenda and staff.
Dr. Ratner served from 2015 to 2017 as the Deputy National Security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, and from 2011 to 2012 in the office of Chinese and Mongolian affairs at the State Department. He also previously worked in the U.S. Senate as a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the office of Senator Joe Biden. Outside of government, Dr. Ratner has worked as a Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at CNAS, and as an Associate Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation.
Dr. Ratner received his B.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Director, China Policy Initiative, America First Policy Institute
Panel I: Bolstering the Alliance System: America's Strategic Edge in the China Competition
Richard Fontaine, Matthew R. A. Heiman, Michael Mazza, Ely Ratner, Adam Savit
2025 AI and National Security Symposium
Featuring: Richard Fontaine, CEO, Center for a New American Security Mike Mazza, Senior Director, Institute...