Michèle Flournoy is cofounder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors, and a cofounder, former CEO, and now chair of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Flournoy served as the undersecretary of defense for policy from February 2009 to February 2012. She was the principal advisor to the secretary of defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. She led the development of the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2012 Strategic Guidance and represented the department in dozens of foreign engagements, in the media and before Congress.

Prior to confirmation, Flournoy co-led President Obama’s transition team at the Defense Department. In January 2007, Flournoy cofounded CNAS, a bipartisan think tank dedicated to developing strong, pragmatic, and principled national security policies. She served as CNAS’s president until 2009 and returned as CEO in 2014. In 2017, she cofounded WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm.

Flournoy serves on the boards of CNAS, Booz Allen Hamilton, Amida Technology Solutions, The Mission Continues, and CARE. She is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, and a former member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the CIA Director’s External Advisory Board, and the Defense Policy Board.

Flournoy earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from Balliol College, Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar. She is based in Washington, DC.