Ronald “Ron” Marks III is a 40 plus-year veteran of the U.S. National Security Community and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Marks is currently a Visiting Professor at George Mason University, Schar School of Politics and Government where he has developed classes on National Security Technology and Policy and Congress and Intelligence Oversight. He is also a Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University – Krieger School of Arts and Sciences – Advanced Academic Programs where he lectures on Homeland Security Intelligence and The Challenges of Ethics in Intelligence. Marks also lectures on national security for the Road Scholars Group.
In a non-academic role, as Managing Partner of ZPN Strategies, Marks and a team of advisors guide private firms in the challenges of dealing with the DC market place. Ron is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a member of INSA’s Cyber Council, a Senior Advisor to the Global Techno-Politics Forum and a member of the Intelligence Professional Strategic Studies Group.
A former CIA official, Ron was a Clandestine Service officer and a Congressional Senate Liaison for five DCI’s. He went on to serve on Capitol Hill as Intelligence Council to Senate Majority Leaders Robert Dole and Trent Lott. Returning to the Executive Branch, Ron served as a Senior Budget Director at the National Reconnaissance Office, the Senior Director of Russia/Central Asia/East Europe desk of State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and as Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support.
After leaving government, Ron became a defense company executive and a software firm owner. He was picked to re-open British Telecom’s IT Federal Practice. And was then hired to re-establish the Washington, D.C. office of Oxford Analytica, a UK based international consultancy firm, leading it for six years.
In 2011, Ron was selected to be Director of Battelle Memorial Institute’s Cyber Doctrine Program where he worked to delineate a United States Government Cyber Doctrine that frames the uses and limits of America’s cyber activities both domestically and internationally. From 2016-19, Marks served as Chairman of the Intelligence and Cyber Program for the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security (now Texas A&M DC Campus) where he was invited to build its Intelligence and Cyber M.A. program.
In the Spring of 2020 Ron was appointed the Robert J. Dole Fellow at the University of Kansas’ Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. There, he conducted a series of seminars entitled “Spying in the Cyber Age.”
In addition to many journal articles and media appearances, Ron is author of the book: Spying in America in the Post 9/11 World: Domestic Threat and the Need for Change—a book that focuses on the challenges and legalities of U.S. Domestic Intelligence collection in the Internet age. https://www.amazon.com/Spying-America-Post-World-International/dp/0313391416
Accomplishments
Elected, Member, Council on Foreign Relations
Selected, Member, The Intelligence Community Professional Strategic Studies Group
Appointed, Member, Intelligence and National Security Alliance, Cyber Council
Re-appointed, Board of Advisors, Global Techno-Political Forum
Re-appointed, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center, The Atlantic Council
Selected, Fellow and Faculty Member, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia School, GMU
Appointed, Member, Lewis and Clark College Global Advisory Board (Alma Mater)
Appointed, Founding National Cabinet Member, Elizabeth Dole Foundation
Recent Lectures:
Cambridge University, Intelligence Seminar, “Intelligence in the 21st Century”
Lecture, University of Southern California, Spatial Sciences Institute, “The Newest Domain: Cyber Space – Its Benefits and Challenges”
Lecture, Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, “The Effects of AI on the Intelligence Cycle”
Lecture, Global Techno-Policy Institute, “The Road Ahead for U.S. National Security Technology and Policy”
Lecturer, Road Scholar Group, Lectures on Intelligence and the Role of 21st Century Technologies
Lecturer, The True Story of Espionage -Intelligence in the 21st Century, GMU Osher Life Long Learning Institute
Other Relevant Experience:
Dole Fellow, Spring 2020
University of Kansas, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics January-April 2020
- Conducted a series of seven seminars with internationally recognized intelligence and information experts looking at the challenges and new developments effecting “Spying in the Cyber Age.
Chairman of the Intelligence and Cyber Program, Professor
Texas A&M Bush Center, DC, (formerly The Daniel Morgan Academy for National Security Studies,) December 2016 – June 2019
- Developed for the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation an M.A. level program in Intelligence and Cyber
- Managing the Intelligence Program
- Overseeing staff and program for one of four main teaching pillars
- Managing five adjunct professors and 40 plus program students
- Teaching classes in Cyber Security
Adjunct for Intelligence, The George Washington University, College of Professional Studies, Fall 2012- Spring 2014.
Adjunct Professor of National Security, National Defense University, College of International Security Affairs, January 2006-June 2012
- Course on Homeland Security Intelligence, Cyber, and Critical Infrastructures
Senior Faculty
Intelligence and Security Academy, March 2009 – December 2020
- Lectures on the history and structure of the U.S. Intelligence Community and Cyber Issues
- Lectures on the budget building and execution process of the National Security Community
President/Senior Partner
Intelligence Enterprises, LLC, November 2010—December 2016
- Advising companies on potential mergers and acquisitions opportunities in the national security and cyber arena
Major Clients included:
- Battelle Memorial Institute, served as Director, Cyber Doctrine Program (2011-14)
- Oracle Corporation, served as Senior Director, National Security Group (2010-11)
- COLSA Corporation, Advisor, National Security Operations (2013-16)
- Senior Advisor to CEO, Zeta Associates (National Security software (2000-16)
Publications:
The Flawed Reality of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurityintelligence.com October 2024
Nowhere to Run – Drones as the New Vengeance Weapons, Cybersecurityintelligence.com, October 2024
Beware Cyber Ghost Stories, Cybersecurityintelligence.com, July 2024
Hamlet’s IP and AI, Cybersecurityintelligence.com, June 2024
Time for a Cyber Force, Cybersecurityintelligence.com, June 2024
Twenty Years Later – Does the DNI Work, The SCIF, May 2024
TikTok and a Pack of Smokes, Cybersecurityintelligence.com, May 2024
Our Classified Leaks – Need to Know versus Need to Share, 23 April 2023, The Hill
Congress and Split Intelligence Decisions, The Hill, 12 March 2023
Spying By Balloon, sometimes the Old Ways are the Best Ways, The Hill, 8 Feb 2023
Espionage Reform Act of 2023, The Hill, 15 January 2023
For more of Ronald Marks’ media hits, click here.