HighlightsUse the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the pdf's.
Secretary Gates: New “Sense of Urgency” Needed Accepting the BENS Eisenhower Award for his decades of public service, Defense Secretary Robert Gates capped off BENS’ biggest day of the year – our annual Washington Forum and Eisenhower Award Dinner on May 15, which highlighted the critical need for public-private partnerships to secure America. Thanking BENS for new ideas and solutions that have “saved the taxpayers billions of dollars and made our military a more effective fighting force,” Secretary Gates said in his address – before a black-tie audience of hundreds of business, defense, and political leaders – that it is necessary to “upend assumptions and practices that have accumulated in a largely peacetime military establishment.” Describing some of the bureaucratic challenges he has faced in his 17 months as secretary, he said that the entire defense establishment and its industry partners must be put “on a war footing with a wartime sense of urgency.” Gates – who also was honored with a special tribute from former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft – pledged that he and other defense leaders would continue to clearly articulate their priorities because, “When we do, the bureaucracy responds, industry responds, the nation responds.” Read Gates’ full remarks at http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=124 Annual Forum: “What Needs to Be Done” Ensuring that the nation – including the private sector – indeed responds to current and emerging security challenges was also a key theme at BENS’ 19th annual Washington Forum earlier in the day. BENS members heard from, among others, CIA Director General Michael Hayden and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said that meeting 21st-century security challenges requires “intellectual power, economic strength [and] a clear understanding of what threatens America and what needs to be done.” But as former Comptroller General David Walker emphasized in closing, we must put our nation’s financial house in order or national security will become unaffordable. For more on the Forum, go to http://www.bens.org/forum-2008.html. BENS Teams with Aidmatrix Press Release: AidMatrix Announces Website for BENS: Best in Class --
A “Great Collaboration” In the aftermath of the fall’s devastating firestorms in Southern California, residents can thank the rapid response of emergency officials, firefighters and volunteers—and the BENS Business Force—for averting an even worse tragedy. In the largest response ever by the Business Force to a real-world emergency, BENS served as a crucial bridge between the public and private sectors during the blazes. For the first time in California, private-sector liaisons—from BENS’ Bay Area Business Force and Los Angeles Business Force/Homeland Security Advisory Council—worked side-by-side with federal, state and local officials inside emergency operations centers to quickly match local needs with business assets. In that role, Business Force staff helped route millions of dollars worth of food and supplies—including 200,000 bottles of water and 10,000 pillows for evacuees—to affected areas. Just as importantly, they helped prevent major duplications in requests for and delivery of emergency donations and volunteers. Praising this “great collaboration,” OES Southern Region Director Stephen Sellers used a nationally-televised press conference with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commend the “very organized fashion” in which companies assisted during the largest evacuation in California history.
BENS to Honor Rubin & Hayden As our 25th anniversary year continues, BENS is proud to announce that the next recipients of our prestigious Eisenhower Award—to be presented November 15 in New York City—will be two leaders who have dedicated their lives to ensuring our nation’s prosperity and security: former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Gen. Michael Hayden, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Rubin, now Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citigroup, Inc., served as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1995 to 1999, where he responded deftly to a series of global financial crises that threatened to upend markets and economies around the world. Gen. Hayden of the Air Force—the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the Armed Forces—became the 18th director of the CIA in May 2006, after tours as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from 2005-2006 and Director of the National Security Agency from 1999-2005. For more information on the November 15 gala, to be held at 583 Park Avenue, contact Jennie Moonis at (202) 296-2125 or jmoonis@bens.org.
BENS Takes the Hill That afternoon, the work of BENS’ Business Response Task Force featured heavily before a standing room-only crowd at the inaugural hearing of the public-private preparedness subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. To an enthusiastic reception from the senators, Task Force Chair Duane Ackerman, former chairman and CEO of BellSouth, wasted no time in driving home the central point: "The private sector must be included in the planning, practice, and execution" of any disaster response scenario. Read his full statement here. In addition, Task Force co-chair John Breaux, former senator from Louisiana, advocated creating a nationwide body of "disaster law" and argued that private-sector involvement "must be more formalized, institutionalized, and in writing." Read his full statement here. Click here to read the Task Force's report, Getting Down to Business.
On 25th Anniversary, BENS Celebrates Past Successes & Future Mission
BENS Horn of Africa Trip Report - From October 8-13, General Chuck Boyd and five BENS members, at the invitation of U.S. Central Command, visited the Horn of Africa and returned "amazed, proud, and depressed" by what they saw. Click here for Chuck Boyd's report to CENTCOM. -November 21, 2006
BENS Honors Service Chiefs Clark & Shinseki - It was a night to remember as FedEx founder, chair and CEO Fred Smith led BENS in honoring “two of the great patriots of our time” – Admiral Vern Clark and General Eric Shinseki - at our Eisenhower Award gala in New York on November 15. Click here to see more. -November 15 , 2006
-October 10, 2006
-October 5, 2006 |
