Biden Appoints Two New Members to President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

President Biden announced his intent to appoint Hamilton E. “Tony” James and Julia Santucci as members of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board is an independent element within the Executive Office of the President. The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board exists exclusively to assist the President by providing the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the Nation’s intelligence needs and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The President is able to appoint up to 16 members of the Board.

Hamilton E. “Tony” James, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Tony James is an internationally recognized investor and leader in global finance, having served for many years as President and COO of The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest alternative asset manager with approximately $1 trillion in assets under management. In that role, he oversaw businesses and operations in all major countries throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He currently is Chairman of Jefferson River Capital, a private investment group. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Costco Wholesale Corp., the world’s second largest retailer, Co-Chair of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Vice Chairman of The Wildlife Conservation Society, and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Mount Sinai Hospital System. Additionally, James is Chairman and co-founder of The Partnership for Education Advancement, which provides critical infrastructure support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), serving over 40% of all HBCU students. James also has served and continues to serve on numerous other charitable, corporate, and public sector boards. He co-authored Rescuing Retirement, a book proposing a solution to America’s looming retirement crisis, and has published articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major publications. He graduated from Harvard College as a John Harvard Scholar and from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar.

Julia Santucci, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Julia Santucci is Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies and Director of the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She is also an affiliate scholar of the University’s Institute of Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. Santucci teaches graduate-level courses centered around the U.S. intelligence community, diplomacy, and the Middle East. As Director of the Johnson Institute and Hesselbein Forum, she leads GSPIA’s research and teaching efforts to develop leadership skills in the next generation of public officials. Santucci served in the Obama-Biden Administration as a Senior Advisor in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues from 2015 to 2017, where she worked to advance gender equality as a core U.S. foreign policy priority. From 2012 to 2014, she was Director for Egypt at the National Security Council. She served for 10 years as a Middle East leadership analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Santucci holds a M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. in History from the University of Dayton.

Read more at the White House