Mark Troutman

Dr. Mark Troutman is an economist, educator, and national security professional. He serves as Chief Operating Officer of Strategic Education International, a non-profit consulting, research and education organization that provides results, thought leadership and executive education for strategic leaders.

Mark has also been a financial planner for 25 years. He founded Fiducia Capital Partners, LLC, a boutique wealth management and financial/economic consulting firm. FCP identifies opportunities and devises solutions for clients who transition from the national security community and other public service roles so that they can care for their families and continue to serve.

Mark’s executive education and consulting experience includes lead for delivery in Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Gulf Region countries, South Korea, and Asia.  His corporate education engagements include firms in the energy, telecommunications, transportation, finance, and water sectors with industry study seminars in the finance and defense sectors.

His academic appointments include adjunct professor for business and national security economics at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and George Mason University (GMU). Mark has also served as Dean, Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (National Defense University), and as Director of the Center for Infrastructure Protection (GMU School of Business).

His national security experience includes 28 years in command and interagency level strategic plans/policy and security cooperation assignments. Service assignments include Europe, Asia, and the United States in rapid deployment units, with combat deployments to the Middle East. His security cooperation portfolios included ground, rotary wing aircraft and missile defense systems.

Mark holds a PhD in Economics (Monetary and International Economics) from George Mason University, as well as a Master of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  He holds master’s degrees from the Army War College and the School of Advanced Military Studies. Mark’s professional certifications include Certified Financial Planner® and Certified Business Economist® (in progress) with qualifications in defense and technology exports. Mark and his family reside in Virginia, where he is an avid hiker, sailor, skier and a scratch golfer.

Kaneta Sato

Kaneta SATO is Economic Counselor at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. — attached from the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. He joined the government as an economist in 1996. He has held various positions of economic research, forecasting and macroeconomic policy-making, including Director for Economic and Fiscal Projection, when he was responsible for medium- and long-term economic and fiscal projections.

He also has experience in budgeting at the Ministry of Finance in Japan during the Great Recession of 2008. In the academic field, he holds a Master degree in Economics from New York University and a B.A. from the University of Tokyo.

Ricky Chima

Rickinder (Ricky) Chima has been in DC since August 2021 covering the US economy and fiscal policy at the British Embassy, having previously worked in various roles as an economist in the UK Civil Service. He studied Economics at the University of Bristol and, later, at Master’s level at University College London.

Aparna Mathur

Board of Governors

Aparna Mathur is a Senior Research Manager in Economics at Amazon and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. At Amazon, she tracks and conducts research to help identify labor and employment related challenges faced by Amazon’s domestic and global workforce, with a view to informing best policy. At the Kennedy School she is focusing on the COVID-19 safety net response. Prior to Amazon, she spent a year as a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. She joined the Council as part of the COVID-19 response task force at the peak of the crisis in April 2020 and worked with epidemiologists on the health aspects of the crisis, while also tracking the economic downturn that came with the lockdowns. Prior to joining CEA, she was a resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. At AEI, she directed the AEI-Brookings Project on Paid Family and Medical Leave, building bipartisan momentum on paid leave, for which she was recognized in the Politico 50 list for 2017. Her academic research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses. She has published in several top scholarly journals including the Journal of Public Economics, the National Tax Journal and the Journal of Health Economics, testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance, including on her own blog at Forbes. Her work has been cited in leading news magazines such as the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. She has regularly provided commentary on prominent radio and television shows such as NPR’s Marketplace and the Diane Rehm Show, as well as CNBC and C-SPAN. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005, and is currently serving on the University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council. She is also on the Board of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Simply Green as well as the National Economists Club.