Tom Sanderson

Founder and Principal @ Tom Sanderson Consulting, LLC

About

www.tomsandersonconsulting.com • International conflict consultant & adjunct professor with expertise in global trends, litigation support, link charts & POI biographies, due diligence, political risk, intelligence, terrorism, organized crime; extensive experience with media commentary and public speaking. Recent field work: Ukraine, Somalia, Kenya, Taiwan, Georgia, Poland, Morocco, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, and Lithuania • Consultant to law firms, PR and communications firms, Fortune 500 corporations, risk advisory firms, U.S. intelligence community, government contractors, academia, trade associations • "Global Disruptive Forces" presentation delivered to US DoD, State Department, FedEx, Google, Marriott, Boeing, YPO, Airbus, JSOC, SOCOM, 82nd Airborne, US Foreign Service Institute; and at Tufts, Yale, Colgate, Claremont McKenna, Georgetown, West Point, and Johns Hopkins. • 30 years of counterterrorism and global affairs field work in hostile environments across 80+ countries • Interviews with insurgents, violent extremists, traffickers, refugees, NGOs, journalists, foreign and U.S. government officials, war-fighters, academics, clergy, private sector • Testimony before U.S. Congress and courts of law • Co-founder and former Director, CSIS Transnational Threats Project • Member, Hostage US Board of Directors • Senior Adviser and Representative - Washington, DC, Cambrian Futures • Co-Chair, Atlantic Council Councilors Program • Counterterrorism Advisory Council, Middle East Institute • Extensive media interviews, public presentations, and academic course instruction • Publications: opinion pieces in NY Times, Washington Post, The Economist, West Point Counterterrorism Center Sentinel, Harvard Asia Pacific Review • Directed and published numerous CSIS reports, commentaries, and briefings • Field work briefings to U.S. and foreign national security communities • Research fellowships in Berlin, Germany and Shanghai, China

Country

United States

City

Washington DC-Baltimore Area

Industry

Think Tanks

Skill

Report Writing, Expert Commentary, Private Sector Engagement, National Security Community Engagement, Threat Analysis, Foreign Terrorist Organization Threat Analysis, Hostile Terrain and Austere Environment Field Work, Classroom Instruction, Intelligence Analysis, Primary Source Engagement, Person and Entity of Interest Backgrounders and Link Charting, Open Source Intelligence, Global Mobility, Global Sources, Risk Assessment, Frontier Market Evaluation, Geopolitical Research, Strategic Planning, Strategic Partnerships, Fundraising

Experience

Founder and Principal

Tom Sanderson Consulting, LLC

2002-6 - Present · 24 yrs 3 mos

Washington, DC and Global

• Consulting to U.S. Government (State Dept, Defense Dept, IC), private sector, academia, think tanks • Keynote presenter for a wide range of audiences • Litigation support to US and overseas law firms • Lead an international team of 20 analysts, writers, and linguists in global risk research and field-based engagement with a full spectrum of sources • Products: Global Disruptive Forces (presentation); Key actor and entity profiles and network link charts; field visit briefings to aviation, energy, tech, finance, hospitality, and shipping industries • Team languages: English, Arabic, French, Mandarin • Website: www.tomsandersonconsulting.com

Senior Adviser and Representative, Washington DC

Cambrian Futures & Labs

2023-8 - Present · 3 yrs 1 mo

Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Member, Board of Advisers, and Senior Adviser and Washington Representative to Berkeley, California-based Cambrian Futures. Clarity & strategy for the edge of the emerging tech economy. Helping our clients with smart, clean, and secure approaches to the AI-driven transformation of their organizations, industries, and economies.

Board Member

Hostage US

2023-7 - Present · 3 yrs 2 mos

Washington DC

Member of Board of Directors serving families of hostages taken by foreign terrorist organizations, organized criminal groups, and nation states such as Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.

Advisory Council, Countering Terrorism & Extremism Program

Middle East Institute

2021-5 - Present · 5 yrs 4 mos

Washington, DC

Co-Chair, Councillors Program

Atlantic Council

2020-3 - Present · 6 yrs 6 mos

Washington, DC

Strategic Planning, Event Development, Fundraising, and Subject Matter Expertise contributions to The Atlantic Council's mid-career membership program.

Course Instructor

National Security Agency

2003-4 - 2021-7 · 18 yrs 4 mos

Washington DC-Baltimore Area, Germany, Georgia, Colorado, Hawaii, Texas

Via L3 and CACI, I taught on-site and off-site, open-source intelligence and field work-based courses to analysts, cryptologists, and linguists serving at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). 75 two- to four-day courses conducted over 18 years included: Global Threats and Trends; Jihadi Global Strategies; Hezbollah; Issues in Global Terrorism; al-Qaeda and Related Groups; China People’s Liberation Army.

Cofounder, Director and Senior Fellow, Transnational Threats Project

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

2002-2 - 2018-4 · 16 yrs 3 mos

Washington, DC

Research, analysis, and field work with a full spectrum of human sources across conflict zones and austere environments to determine the degree and nature of global terrorism and insurgency threats.

Director, Transnational Threats Project

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

2002 - 2017-12 · 16 yrs

Bosch Public Policy Fellow (Berlin Prize)

American Academy in Berlin

2005-1 - 2005-3 · 3 mos

Berlin, Germany

Served in the Winter of 2005 as the Public Policy Fellow. Primary focus: U.S. and German terrorist threat perception and cooperation. Research entailed numerous meetings with German think tanks and institutes (stiftung), German intelligence and law enforcement agencies (BND, BKA, BfV, BMI), academics, and journalists.

Defense Analyst

SAIC

1998-11 - 2002-2 · 3 yrs 4 mos

McLean, Virginia

Served as a Defense Analyst for the Weapons Proliferation and Strategic Planning Operation Primary client: U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Core assignment: identified & analyzed factors leading to terrorist acquisition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Henry Stimson Fellow in China

The Stimson Center

2001-10 - 2001-12 · 3 mos

Shanghai City, China (Fudan University)

Served as the Henry Stimson Fellow at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Primary research focus: China's response to the impending (December 2001) U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and the planned establishment of ballistic missile capabilities. Secondary research focus: China's reaction to the September 11 attacks (which occurred two weeks before my arrival in Shanghai). Research included 40 interviews with professors, physicists, officers of the People's Liberation Army, think tank scholars, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations-CICIR (Ministry of State Security). Additional work: presentations at Johns Hopkins SAIS-Nanjing Center, Tongji University, and the Shanghai University of Science and Technology