Printable Biography of James Woolsey

R. James Woolsey joined Booz Allen Hamilton in July 2002 as a Vice President and officer. He is with the firm's Energy practice, located in McLean, Virginia. Previously Mr. Woolsey served in the U.S. Government on five different occasions, where he held Presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations. He was also previously a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington, DC, where he practiced for 22 years in the fields of civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution.

During his 12 years of government service Mr. Woolsey was: Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995; Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Vienna, 1989-1991; Under Secretary of the Navy, 1977-1979; and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, 1970-1973. He was also appointed by the President as Delegate at Large to the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks (NST), and served in that capacity on a part-time basis in Geneva, Switzerland, 1983-1986. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he was an adviser on the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), Helsinki and Vienna, 1969-1970.

Mr. Woolsey is currently Co-Chairman (with former Secretary of State George Shultz) of the Committee on the Present Danger. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Boards of the Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council, and a Trustee of the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. He also serves on the National Commission on Energy Policy. Previously, he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, and a trustee of Stanford University, The Goldwater Scholarship Foundation, and the Aerospace Corporation. He has also been a member of The National Commission on Terrorism, 1999-2000; The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S. (Rumsfeld Commission), 1998; The President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, 1989; The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (Packard Commission), 1985-1986; and The President's Commission on Strategic Forces (Scowcroft Commission), 1983.

Mr. Woolsey is presently a managing director of the Homeland Security Fund of Paladin Capital Group and a member of VantagePoint Management, Inc.'s Cleantech Advisory Council. He has served in the past as a member of boards of directors of a number of other publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security, including Martin Marietta; British Aerospace, Inc.; Fairchild Industries; Yurie Systems, Inc.; and USF&G. He also served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Mr. Woolsey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and attended Tulsa public schools, graduating from Tulsa Central High School. He received his B.A. degree from Stanford University (1963, With Great Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. from Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar 1963-1965), and an LL.B from Yale Law School (1968, Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal).

Mr. Woolsey is a frequent contributor of articles to major publications, and from time to time gives public speeches and media interviews on the subjects of foreign affairs, defense, energy, critical infrastructure protection and resilience, and intelligence. He is married to Suzanne Haley Woolsey and they have three sons, Robert, Daniel, and Benjamin.

Programs:

The War on Terror: Why We Are In It and How We Should Fight It James Woolsey speaks about the groups/nations at war with us and the reason we were attacked on September 11th, as well as the key issues involved in homeland defense and the war abroad.

The Long War of the 21st Century: How We Must Fight It In this presentation, James Woolsey addresses how the assault on Israel relates to the assault on the United States, and how our strategies can be coordinated. Woolsey outlines two key vulnerabilities in our Homeland Defense - the electricity grid and the oil supply - and what to do about them.