David Gordon

David Gordon Speaker Biography

Geopolitical Expert on Global Macro Analysis

David F. Gordon is Eurasia Group’s chairman, head of research, and director of global macro analysis. He is a member of the firm’s management committee, and is based in Washington, DC. David’s latest book is Managing Strategic Surprise: Lessons from Risk Management and Risk Assessment, co-edited with Ian Bremmer and Paul Bracken.

US State Department

Before joining Eurasia Group, David spent more than ten years working at the highest levels of US foreign and national security policy processes. From June 2007 to January 2009, David served as the director of policy planning under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He played a leading role in developing policy ideas for Rice on issues ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan to US engagement in East Asia to the multilateral response to the international financial crisis. He also led the department’s strategic policy dialogues with more than 20 countries around the globe.

National Intelligence Council

Prior to his work with the US State Department, David served in a top management role at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from 2004 to 2007, during which time he led the NIC’s integration into the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its reemergence as the preeminent analytic center in the US government through enhancing analytic quality and integrity in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq National Intelligence Estimate. He provided analytic leadership for the NIC’s groundbreaking reports, Global Trends 2015 and Global Trends 2020.

CIA

Other positions held by David include director of CIA’s Office of Transnational Issues, an office that covers issues including global economics and energy, illicit finance, insurgency and counterinsurgency, and global health; and national intelligence officer for economics and global issues at the NIC. For six years, David represented the intelligence community on the senior White House interagency body responsible for coordinating international economic policy.

Early Career

Earlier in his career, David was a senior fellow and director at the Overseas Development Council, a senior staff member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, and the regional economic policy and democracy/governance adviser for the US Agency for International Development based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Education

In the 1980s, David pursued an academic career with a joint appointment at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. He has also taught at the College of William and Mary, Princeton University, Georgetown University, and the University of Nairobi. David is a graduate of Bowdoin College and undertook graduate studies in both political science and economics at the University of Michigan, where he received his PhD in 1981.