5 Questions with the CEO - BENS.org

In this episode, President and CEO General Joseph Votel (ret.) interviews BENS Boston member Ed Davis. Mr. Davis is the President and CEO of the Edward Davis Company; a business strategy and security services firm. He leads a team of former federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, military officials, researchers, and attorneys who lend their interdisciplinary expertise to crisis response, risk management, and much more. Prior to starting his company, he had a 35-year career in law enforcement, culminating as Police Commissioner for the City of Boston from 2006 to 2013. His oversight of law enforcement operations over six world championships and the Boston Marathon bombing served as a model of inter-agency collaboration, cooperation, and communication. The conversation covers his personal background, his experience operating the Boston Marathon bombing response, the physical and cybersecurity challenges his clients face, improving resiliency and response to different kinds of disasters, and what brought him to BENS. 

General Votel interviews BENS Chicago member Dr. Suzet McKinney, Principal and Director of Life Sciences for commercial real estate developer Sterling Bay. In this role, McKinney helps create urban campus labs and research environments optimized for quality of life. She shares perspectives from her work as a former public health official and educator who literally wrote the book about emergency response (Public Health Emergency Preparedness: A Practical Approach for the Real World.) Votel and McKinney discuss lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic response, decompressing the health care system in Illinois through alternative care facilities, and the intersection of national security and commercial real estate.

In this episode of the Business Executives for National Security podcast, President and CEO General Joseph Votel (ret.) speaks with Nate Morris, founder and CEO of Rubicon, a software company focused on waste and recycling. The conversation highlights the innovative approach Morris and his company have used to disrupt the waste management industry, the national security implications of tech hardware disposal, and Morris’s efforts to promote education and entrepreneurism in the state of Kentucky.

In this episode of the Business Executives for National Security podcast, President and CEO General Joseph Votel (ret.) speaks with California member Raj Shah, the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Resilience, which provides insurance, risk-sharing, and tools to help mid-market companies manage cybersecurity threats and recovery. The conversation explores Shah’s perspectives from the private and public sectors, his time at the helm of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), and his experience as an Air Force F-16 pilot and reserve pilot.

In the first episode of the Business Executives for National Security podcast, President and CEO General Joseph Votel (ret.) speaks with BENS Director and longtime member, Hank Greenberg. The conversation recalls Mr. Greenberg's experience as a young soldier at the D-Day landing of WWII, his career leading financial services firm C.V. Starr, and insights on business in Asia.