The Honorable William S. Cohen

 William S. Cohen is the chairman and CEO of The Cohen Group, a strategic business advisory firm based in Washington, DC, which assists multinational clients from all sectors of the economy to develop and implement strategic plans, identify and pursue business opportunities, identify and manage risks, and overcome problems in quickly changing markets around the world.  The Cohen Group has a strategic alliance with Piper Rudnick LLP, a national business law firm.  He also chairs TCG Financial Partners, a New York-based merchant-banking firm.

Secretary Cohen currently serves on the corporate boards of Viacom, AIG, and Head Sports  and on the advisory boards of Barrick Gold International, Harmony Airways and Intel Corp.  He is also the current chairman of the United States-Taiwan Business Council and is a senior counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Secretary Cohen is a weekly World Affairs Contributor for CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports and CNN International. 

Secretary Cohen served as the 20th U.S. Secretary of Defense, from January 1997 to January 2001, and was responsible for: reversing a decade-and-a-half of continuous decline in the defense budget and the defense procurement budget, which he increased by nearly 50 percent; the largest military pay raise in a generation; and adoption of electronic commerce and other best business practices in the defense department, the largest business enterprise in the world.  In addition, under his leadership, the United States Military conducted the largest air warfare campaign (Bosnia/Kosovo) since World War II and conducted other military operations on every continent. His term as Secretary of Defense marked the first time in modern U.S. history that a President has chosen an elected official from the other party to be a member of his cabinet.

As a three-term United States Senator (1979 to 1997), he was a recognized expert on defense and international issues, health care, and government procurement.  He also served in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms (1973 to 1979), and as mayor of Bangor, Maine (1971 to 1972).  While in Congress, he served on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings in 1974 and the Iran-Contra Committee in 1987.

He was born in Bangor, Maine and received a B.A. in Latin from Bowdoin College (1962), and a law degree from Boston University Law School (1965).  He has written or co-authored ten books – four non-fiction works, four novels, and two books of poetry.