Vice President, Legislative Strategy, BSA
Craig Albright leads BSA's engagement with the US Congress.
Prior to joining BSA, he spent four years as the World Bank Group's Special Representative for the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, managing relations with government officials, private sector executives, think tank academics, civil society leaders and others. Before that, Mr. Albright spent more than 12 years in the US government. He served in the White House as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Legislative Affairs and Deputy Assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for Legislative Affairs. In Congress, his positions included Legislative Director and Chief of Staff for former Congressman Joe Knollenberg of Michigan and Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas.
Mr. Albright is a graduate of Michigan State University.
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gates Corporation
Matthew R. A. Heiman joined the Company in May 2026 and has served as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since June 2026. As Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Heiman is responsible for all legal functions for Gates, including securities and corporate governance, M&A, litigation, commercial, regulatory, compliance, patents and trademarks, real estate, employment and labor, sustainability and environmental matters. Prior to joining Gates, Mr. Heiman held senior legal leadership roles at Waystar, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that, he was with Johnson Controls, where he served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Heiman has been a Senior Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law since 2018.
Founder, Culper Partners
David Kris is a founder of Culper Partners LLC. An expert in intelligence, law enforcement and security issues, he has more than 25 years of experience in government, the private sector, and academia.
Prior to forming Culper, Mr. Kris was for six years the General Counsel of Intellectual Ventures, a privately held invention investment company with more than $6B under management and offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. He was also the Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance officer of Time Warner, Inc., the network and media company.
In government, Mr. Kris was the Presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, with responsibility for all federal espionage and terrorism investigations and prosecutions and use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; a senior advisor to Republican and Democratic Attorneys General and Deputy Attorneys General; and a federal prosecutor for more than eight years. He currently advises two elements of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serves as an amicus curiae to the two Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts.
An authority on U.S. foreign intelligence surveillance, Mr. Kris is co-author of the leading treatise in the field, National Security Investigations and Prosecutions, as well as the author of several other articles and blog posts. He is a member of the board of directors and a Contributing Editor of the Lawfareblog, adjunct professor at the University of Washington Law School, and a University Affiliate at Georgetown University.
Mr. Kris is the recipient of numerous awards and medals, including the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, the CIA Agency Seal Medal, the Department of Justice Edmund J. Randolph Award, and on two occasions the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department of Justice’s highest honor.
He is a 1988 graduate of Haverford College and a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School, and a former law clerk to Judge Stephen S. Trott of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Stewart Baker is a partner in the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. From 2005 to 2009, he was the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security. His law practice covers cybersecurity, data protection, homeland security, and travel and foreign investment regulation; he has been awarded one patent.
Mr. Baker has been General Counsel of the National Security Agency and General Counsel of the commission that investigated WMD intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war. He is the author of Skating on Stilts, a book on terrorism, cybersecurity, and other technology issues; he also hosts the weekly Cyberlaw Podcast.
Partner, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP
Mark Champoux helps clients resolve significant disputes arising in litigation, government enforcement, and regulatory actions in forums across the country. He rejoined Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in July 2020 after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, where he was a primary policy advisor to the Attorney General and coordinated major initiatives relating to regulations, emerging technologies, data privacy, national security, and law enforcement. Mr. Champoux also supervised DOJ’s work in supporting federal judicial nominations, personally preparing over 100 nominees for confirmation by the Senate and overseeing DOJ’s work to secure the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, an undertaking that earned him the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Mr. Champoux has an extensive record of experience in private practice. He has successfully defended both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, obtaining complete defense judgments through dispositive motions and trial and leveraging favorable settlements by winning key motions and defeating class certification. In recognition of his litigation work, Benchmark Litigation named Mr. Champoux to the nationwide 40 & Under Hot List in 2016-2017. Mr. Champoux was also named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine in 2014-2017 and a “Future Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation in 2015.
Mr. Champoux’s practice includes disputes involving emerging technologies, data privacy, natural resources, oil and gas, environmental liabilities, government enforcement, and regulations. He also has substantial experience in a broad range of other litigation areas, including contracts, business torts, real estate, securities fraud, shareholder actions, civil RICO, products liability, and special districts.
Mr. Champoux has also handled numerous pro bono criminal matters, including a successful petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court with subsequent reversal of conviction for an indigent criminal defendant.
Mr. Champoux received his J.D. in 2007 from Harvard Law School, where he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and his B.A. in 2004 from Brigham Young University, graduating magna cum laude and as valedictorian. Before first joining DGS in 2012, Mr. Champoux was a trial attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C. and clerked for then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Vice President of Legal Operations, PAE
Founder and CEO, Lexpat Global Services
Adam Pearlman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lexpat Global Services. He is a National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Before founding Lexpat, Mr. Pearlman served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. There, he counseled senior officials on matters covering the entire spectrum of programs and operations to counter terrorism and violent extremism. While participating in sensitive diplomatic engagements and helping to coordinate military operations, he also advised in the development of sanctions policy and initiatives to build legal and operational capacity in partner nations. Mr. Pearlman also managed the Bureau’s participation in federal litigation and led U.S. delegations in multilateral forums concerning criminal justice and rule of law. Separately, Mr. Pearlman supported the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) as the contracted Senior Justice and Rule of Law Advisor in Cabo Verde, Africa. There he was the chief implementer of a Foreign Assistance program that grew eight-fold during his tenure, building host nation capacity across the law enforcement, justice sector, rule of law, anti-money laundering, and corrections disciplines.
A former Associate Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Pearlman was agency counsel for complex civil and criminal national security matters in federal and military courts. He also led the Supreme Court and appellate unit of the team dedicated to litigating classified counterterrorism cases. His earlier service in the Department of Justice spanned four litigating divisions and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. His diverse experience included reviewing complex international transactions and mergers, and advising on immigration removal proceedings, human rights abuses, and terrorist financing investigations. Mr. Pearlman also served with distinction in Iraq as an early advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam Hussein. He was a law clerk for The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee on Law and National Security, and the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook. Previously, he has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, member of the ABA’s Africa Law Initiative Council and of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Intelligence & National Security, The Foreign Service Journal, Lawfare, and many other outlets.
Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A., with honors, from UCLA, and his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the International Law Review. He also earned a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Kornblum Award for national security law and ethics. Mr. Pearlman is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in anti-corruption law from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the State Bars of California and Virginia, as well as to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level.
Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker is dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University – a position from which he had taken a leave of absence to serve as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.
His is also the James Schlesinger Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia. Prior to resuming his position as dean, Ambassador Crocker was a Kissinger Senior Fellow at Yale University. His 37-year career in the Foreign Service included service as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Trustees of Whitman College. Ambassador Crocker is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. He earned a B.A. from Whitman College.
Crocker served on the Special Committee on the Future of Shortwave Broadcasting, which on August 1, 2014, issued its report, To Be Where the Audience Is; The Future of Shortwave.
He was confirmed as member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors on August 1, 2013.
Partner, Artus Wise Partners
Salli A. Swartz, who is a dual national (France and United States) has practiced international business law in Paris since 1979. In July 2011 she created Artus Wise with a team of French attorneys specialized in litigation, arbitration, mediation, French labor and employment law, transnational business deals such as joint ventures and consortia particularly in the extractive industries and French, European and international mergers, acquisitions and corporate and commercial law. The firm prides itself on its pro bono work and Salli A. Swartz has particular expertise in advising African Governments regarding the negotiation of their extractive industry permits and agreements.
She is a Member of the Pennsylvania and Paris Bars, with specializations in the Law of International Relations and Commercial Law, is admitted to practice before the French Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the past Chair of the International Section of the ABA and served on the Board of Directors of the Rule of Law Institute (“ROLI”). She is a member of “Femmes Business Angels” and Arbitral Women (an association of women arbitrators), Co Chair of the International Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, a contributor to the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Advisory Board of the ABA Center for Human Rights, is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Legal Assistance Consortium and the ABA delegate to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Senior Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Executive Chairma, The Chertoff Group
Michael Chertoff concentrates in the area of White Collar Defense and Investigations. In recent years, he has handled a series of federal investigations, including complex criminal and civil regulatory matters. He has advised major clients on SEC and Justice Department investigations and successfully served as the independent monitor of a major national healthcare company under criminal and civil investigation.
In addition to his legal work, Mr. Chertoff is Founder and Chairman of The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management firm, where he provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.
In April of 2012, Mr. Chertoff was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of companies and nonprofits.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion. Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
Mr. Chertoff’s career includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, including service as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff investigated and personally prosecuted significant cases of political corruption, organized crime, and corporate fraud.
From 1994-2001, Mr. Chertoff represented major corporations and individuals in numerous white collar investigations and trials. Among other matters, he successfully represented the nation’s largest hospital company in a four year, multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigation, represented major corporations in corruption scandals, and obtained acquittals at trial for individual criminal defendants.
Mr. Chertoff has received numerous awards including the Department of Justice Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award (2006); the Department of Justice John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation (1987); NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Award for Distinguished Service (2007); European Institute Transatlantic Leadership Award (2008); and two honorary doctorates. His trial experiences have been featured in over half a dozen books and many news articles.
Partner, Supreme Court Attorney, Cabinet Briard LLP
François-Henri Briard is a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an Officer of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Palmes Académiques.
He was a member of the Governing Board of the Bar of the French Supreme Courts (2003-2005).
François-Henri Briard was a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College in New York for eight years. He is President of the Institut Vergennes, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also an expert with the Federalist Society, a U.S. think tank that focuses on constitutional and judicial issues.
He is a member of the Institute of Consulting Tax Attorneys (IACF) and an associate member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, Letters and Arts of Versailles and Ile de France.
He is a member of the French Navy civilian reserve with the rank of frigate captain and has been awarded a medal by the voluntary military services. On behalf of the Firm, he received the Military Reserve Prize (2011).
Panel 2 — The Tech Titans' Duties to Assist the Government
Craig Albright, Matthew R. A. Heiman, David Kris, Stewart A. Baker, Mark Champoux, F. Scott Kieff
It is difficult to imagine any criminal acts, espionage, or terrorism that does not leave...
Foreign Government Partnerships - Podcast
William K. Lietzau, Adam R. Pearlman, Ryan C. Crocker, Salli A. Swartz
Historically, protecting national security meant protecting one’s own citizens and sovereign territory from the threats...
Developing The International Response To The Paris Attacks - Podcast
Michael Chertoff, François-Henri Briard
The attacks by ISIS on the citizens of Paris and the world have again focused...