CFR Welcomes Laura Taylor-Kale as Senior Fellow for Geoeconomics and Defense

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome back Laura Taylor-Kale to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as of April 14.  

Dr. Taylor-Kale has extensive expertise in economics and defense as a former senior official within the Department of Defense and Department of Commerce. Prior to her time in the government, she worked for CFR as a fellow for innovation and economic competitiveness from 2021 to 2023 and the deputy director of the Task Force on the U.S. workforce and coauthor of the corresponding Task Force report, The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century, from 2017 to 2018. As a senior fellow for geoeconomics and defense, Dr. Taylor-Kale will conduct research on economic security, defense industrial policy and investments, and the reauthorization of the Defense Production Act. She will also help launch a working group on critical minerals. 

“I am delighted to welcome Laura back to our Studies Program,” said CFR President Michael Froman. “Laura’s deep expertise at the nexus of economics and national security will strengthen CFR’s ability to produce high-impact research on the U.S. defense industrial base and a wide array of challenges to U.S. economic security.”  

Dr. Taylor-Kale most recently served as the first presidentially-appointed, senate-confirmed assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy from 2023 to 2025. In her role, she led all defense industrial strategy, investments, and planning, including the Defense Production Act, industrial base investments, supply chain resilience, economic security, and more alongside the review of domestic mergers, acquisitions, and foreign investments. She led the DOD in developing and publishing the first National Defense Industrial Strategy and Implementation Plan. During her tenure, she led the expansion of strategic investments in rare earth elements, critical and strategic materials, solid rocket motors, and other upstream supply chain materials. To accelerate investment in the defense industrial base, Dr. Taylor-Kale launched the DOD’s largest other transaction contracting vehicle, the Defense Industrial Base Consortium. During her tenure, she led a record of $3.3 billion in grants to manufacturing and defense industrial supply chain businesses through the Defense Production Act and the Industrial Base Fund. Additionally, she established the first board of directors for the strategic and critical materials for the National Defense Stockpile. 

Dr. Taylor-Kale has extensive experience in finance, business, economic policy, and management. As deputy assistant secretary for manufacturing in the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, she led a team of trade policy professionals in breaking barriers regarding the export of U.S. manufactured goods around the world. She has also held positions at the World Bank and the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Dr. Taylor-Kale began her career in the Department of State serving as a career foreign service officer in Afghanistan, Cote D’Ivoire, India, the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and the executive board of the World Bank. 

Dr. Taylor-Kale is the founder of Strategic Capital Advisory LLC, an advisory firm working with venture capital firm, defense, and deep technology companies. She holds a BA in economics from Smith College, an MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and an MBA in finance and management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Honored as an Engineer of the Future in 2021, she has a PhD in management science and engineering from Stanford University’s School of Engineering.