FORA.tv Speaker - William S. Cohen

William S. Cohen, a counselor at CSIS, is chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group, a strategic business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., 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. He is also a codirector at Empower America, a prominent public policy advocacy group, and chairman of the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce at the University of Maine in Orono. He served as 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 half; 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. As a three-term U.S. senator (1979-1997), 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 (1975-1979), and as mayor of Bangor, Maine (1971-1972). He was born in Bangor and received a B.A. in Latin from Bowdoin College (1962), and a law degree from Boston University Law School (1965). During his 24 years in Congress, he found time to write or coauthor eight books-three nonfiction works, three novels, and two books of poetry.