Daniel Poneman most recently served as President and CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. (2015-2023), restoring the company to profitability and deploying the first U.S.-technology uranium enrichment facility to begin production since 1954. Earlier he advised on corporate transactions as a principal of The Scowcroft Group. Mr. Poneman served as Deputy Secretary of Energy from 2009 through 2014. As Chief Operating Oicer of the Department, Mr. Poneman’s responsibilities spanned all energy technology and nuclear security issues. He led 2009 negotiations to address Iran’s nuclear program, chaired the Credit Review Board approval of $30 billion in projects accelerating the widespread deployment of electric vehicles and renewable power, played an instrumental role in the Department’s response to crises from Fukushima to the Libyan civil war to Superstorm Sandy, and led eorts to strengthen emergency response and cybersecurity across the energy sector. He served six years at the National Security Council under Presidents Bush and Clinton, including three as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export
Controls.
Mr. Poneman received A.B. and J.D. degrees with honors from Harvard and an M.Litt. from Oxford. He is the author of Double Jeopardy: Combating Nuclear Terror and Climate Change, Argentina: Democracy on Trial, and Nuclear Power in the Developing World. His third book, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (co-authored with Joel Wit and Robert Gallucci), received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy. In 2020, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government.
Sasha Baker is the Head of National Security Policy at OpenAI. Previously, Sasha served as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, after being confirmed by the Senate as the Deputy Under Secretary in February 2022. In this role, she served as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for defense policy and led the Pentagon's efforts to build partnerships and enhance defense cooperation globally.
Sasha has held key roles across administrations over her nearly two decades of government service. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council, leading a team in drafting the 2022 National Security Strategy. She was the national security advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Deputy Policy Director on her 2020 presidential campaign. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, leading his efforts to accelerate innovation and build a more robust defense technology ecosystem. Sasha joined the civil service as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Office of Management and Budget, where she served in the Homeland Security and National Security divisions and later as Special Assistant to the OMB Director. She began her public service career with the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, supporting bipartisan congressional reviews on a variety of national security topics.
Sasha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal with oak leaf cluster. She resides in Washington, DC, with her husband and two sons.
Matthew Fuhrmann is the Cullen-McFadden Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University. He has been a Visiting Professor at Yale University (2023-24), Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford University (2016-17), Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (2010-11), and Research Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (2007-08). He was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow in 2016 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
His research and teaching focus on international security issues with an emphasis on nuclear weapons, diplomacy and bargaining, and alliance politics. He is the author of three books, including Influence Without Arms: The New Logic of Nuclear Deterrence (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy (Cambridge University Press, 2017, with Todd S. Sechser). His articles are published in journals such as American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, International Organization, International Security, and International Studies Quarterly.
His research has been mentioned in media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and NPR.