Admiral Samuel Paparo, USN

Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

INTRODUCTION: David Santoro, President & CEO, Pacific Forum

The Honorable Michael DeSombre

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State

CLOSING: Kimberly Lehn, Senior Director, Honolulu Defense Forum, Pacific Forum

Kimberly Lehn

Senior Director, Honolulu Defense Forum, Pacific Forum

Admiral Samuel Paparo, USN

Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

CHAIR: Dr. David Santoro, President & CEO, Pacific Forum

The Honorable Surangel Whipps Jr.

President, Republic of Palau

CHAIR: Ralph Cossa, Chairman, Pacific Forum

CHAIR: Admiral John C. Aquilino (Ret.), 26th Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

• Admiral Stephen Koehler, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet
• General Ronald Clark, Commander, U.S. Army Pacific
• Lieutenant General James Glynn, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific
• Lieutenant General Laura Lenderman, Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Air Forces
• Brigadier General Brian A. Denaro, Commander, U.S. Space Forces - Indo-Pacific

CHAIR: Chris Murphy, AI Technical Director, Defense Innovation Unit, U.S. Department of War

• Erin Biggers, Executive Vice President, Vannevar Labs
• Steve Escaravage, President, Defense Technology Group, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Aki Jain, Chief Technology Officer and President, U.S. Government, Palantir
• Rear Admiral (Ret.) Yuki Sekiguchi, Vice President, Cognitive Research Labs
• Dan Tadross, Head of Public Sector, Scale AI

General Stephen Whiting

Commander, U.S. Space Command

CHAIR: The Honorable Kari Bingen, Director of Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies & former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security

CHAIR: Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, USN, CCTI Senior Director and Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Jim Leary, Executive Director, Weapons Business Development, Boeing
• Rob Morrison, Special Advisor, Requirements and Resources Directorate, J8, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
• Major General Wolfgang Ohl, Deputy Director General for the Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence, Germany
• Brigadier General (Ret.) Kenneth Todorov, Vice President and General Manager, C2 & Weapons Integration, Northrop Grumman & former Deputy Director of the Missile Defense Agency

CHAIR: Colonel (Ret.) Ray Powell, Founder and Executive Director, SeaLight Foundation

• Rear Admiral Joseph Buzzella, Acting Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific
• Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan, Commandant, Philippine Coast Guard
• Rear Admiral Guillaume Pinget, Joint Forces Commander, French Armed Forces in French Polynesia
• Vice Admiral (Ret.) Kenneth Whitesell, Vice President Indo-Pacific Strategy and Growth, Parsons Corporation

ES 1: Industry Solutions for Contested Logistics 

CHAIR: Dr. Tom Mahnken, President, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments

• Will Bruey, CEO, Varda
• Akhil Iyer, CEO, Watchtower Labs
• Lieutenant General (Ret.) Leo Kosinski, Chief Strategy Officer, Air Space Intelligence
• Colonel (Ret.) John Sattely, Executive Director for Contested Logistics, ManTech International

ES 2: Building Resilient Allied Defense Networks

CHAIR: The Honorable Ely Ratner, Principal, Marathon Initiative & former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs

• Colonel Michael Hlad, Commander, Defense Information Systems Agency Pacific
• Steve Robles, Vice President, Coalition Solutions, SOSi
• Mik Wimbrow, General Manager, U.S. Department of War, Microsoft

ES 3: Hardening Cross-Strait Resolve

CHAIR: The Honorable Randy Schriver, Chairman of the Board at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs

• Heather Fortuna Bush, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Abby Freeman, Vice President International Strategy, Sierra Nevada Corporation
• Lieutenant General Jih-Sheng Hsieh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence, Ministry of National Defence, Taiwan
• Commodore (Ret.) Pete Olive, Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute, United Kingdom
• Dr. Vaidotas Urbelis, Undersecretary for Defence Policy (Defence Policy Director), Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence

ES 4: Accelerating Autonomous Systems Integration

CHAIR: Mike Brown, Partner, Shield Capital and former Director, Defense Innovation Unit

• Brian Burton, Senior Director of Growth, Saronic Technologies
• Debra Durham, Senior Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer, Serco North America
• Rear Admiral Jens Grimm, Commandant, German Naval Academy, Career Submariner Officer
• Anastacia MacAllister, Technical Director, Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
• Greg Simer, Corporate Chief Technology Officer, Northrop Grumman

The Honorable George E. Glass

U.S. Ambassador to Japan

Minister Shinjirō Koizumi

Minister of Defense of Japan

Gaining the Advantage in Asymmetric Warfare

CHAIR: Rear Admiral (Ret.) Robert P. Girrier, President Emeritus, Pacific Forum

• General (Ret.) Brian Fenton, former Commander, U.S. Special Opperations Command
• General (Ret.) Paul Nakasone, former Director of the National Security Agency and Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
• The Honorable Mac Thornberry, former Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

Kimberly Lehn

Senior Director, Honolulu Defense Forum, Pacific Forum

CHAIR: Major General (Ret.) Suzy Vares-Lum, Director, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies

• General Romeo Brawner Jr., Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines
• Admiral Samuel Paparo, USN, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
• General Hiroaki Uchikura, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Japan Self-Defense Forces

The Honorable Mike Cadenazzi

Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, U.S. Department of War

CHAIR: Dr. John Hemmings, Senior Advisor, Pacific Forum

CHAIR: Jen Stewart, Executive Vice President, National Defense Industrial Association

• Wendy Hadwen, Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy-Industry), Department of National Defence, Canada
• David Nockels, First Assistant Secretary, Defence Trade, Regulation, and Industrial Cooperation, Australia
• Jedidiah P. Royal, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Department of War, United States
• Vice Admiral (Ret.) Joe Rixey, Vice President, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, Lockheed Martin Government Affairs

CHAIR: Alexander Gray, Nonresident Senior Fellow, GeoStrategy Initiative, Atlantic Council, and CEO, American Global Strategies

• Todd Borkey, Chief Technology Officer, Peraton
• Kendall Collins, President & CEO, GovCloud, Salesforce
• Matt Spence, Global Head of Venture Capital Banking and Managing Director of Technology Investment, Barclays
• Tyler Sweatt, CEO, Second Front

CHAIR: Michael Gordon, National Security Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal

• Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce
• Dr. Eric Schmidt, former Chairman and CEO of Google & Executive Chairman and CEO of Relativity Space

ES 1: Building Resilient Energy Nodes 

CHAIR: Admiral (Ret.) Thomas Fargo, Chairman of the Board, Hawaiian Electric Industries and 20th Commander, U.S. Pacific Command

• Joe Miller, President of Government Operations, BWXT
• Andrew Stewart, Senior Advisor for Global Energy Security, U.S. Department of Energy
• Dr. Jeff Waksman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, U.S. Department of War

ES 2: Mobilizing Shipbuilding and Sustainment

CHAIR: Brent Sadler, Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

• Rear Admiral (Ret.) Jungil Kim, Senior Vice President, Hyundai Heavy Industries
• Al Puchala, Chief Executive Officer, CapZone Impact Investments
• Erik Raven, Managing Director, Beacon Global Strategies
• Alex Wong, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Hanwha Group

ES 3: Activating Technology Delivery

CHAIR: Courtney Stewart, Deputy Director of the Defence Strategy Program, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

• Corey Johnston, Executive Vice President, Strider
• Mark Newton, Minister Defence, British Embassy Washington, United Kingdom
• Matt Steinhelfer, Senior Advisor, U.S. State Department
• Greg Wilcock, Consul General, Australian Consulate-General in Honolulu

CHAIR: Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times

• Alexander Benard, Senior Managing Director, Cerberus
• Frank Finelli, Senior Advisor, Two-Six Technologies and the Carlyle Group
• Allison Iannarino, Managing Director, Asia, ICT, and Infrastructure, U.S. Development and Finance Corporation
• Ryan Lindner, Chief Investment Officer, Office of Strategic Capital, U.S. Department of War

CHAIR: Eric Sayers, Board Member, Pacific Forum

• The Honorable Josh Green, M.D., Governor, State of Hawaii
• The Honorable Michael DeSombre, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, U.S. Department of State
• The Honorable S. Paul Kapur, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State
• The Honorable Harry Harris, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and Admiral (Ret.), USN, 24th Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

Ralph Cossa, Chairman, Pacific Forum

Kimberly Lehn, Senior Director, Honolulu Defense Forum, Pacific Forum