Admiral James Stavridis is Partner and Vice Chairman of Carlyle and Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Rockefeller Foundation, following five years as the 12th Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.  A retired 4-star officer in the U.S. Navy, he led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as Supreme Allied Commander with responsibility for Afghanistan, Libya, the Balkans, Syria, counter piracy, and cyber security.  He also served as Commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America from 2006-2009.  He earned more than 50 medals, including 28 from foreign nations in his 37-year military career.

Earlier in his military career he commanded the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet, winning the Battenberg Cup, as well as a squadron of destroyers and a carrier strike group – all in combat.  In 2016, he was vetted for Vice President by Hillary Clinton and subsequently invited to Trump Tower to discuss a cabinet position in the Trump Administration.

Admiral Stavridis earned a PhD in international relations and has published sixteen books and hundreds of articles in leading journals around the world, including the recent novel “2034: A Novel of the Next World War,” which was a New York Times bestseller and “To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and The Crucible of Decision.” His most recent novel "2084: A Novel of Future War" was published in May 2026, and “The Admiral’s Bookshelf” was published in March 2025. His 2012 TED talk on global security has close to one million views. Admiral Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and Senior Military Analyst for CNN.