Board of Trustees

Dov Zakheim

Dov S. Zakheim is Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Senior Fellow at CNA, a federally-funded research and development center. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton, supporting U.S. Combatant Commanders worldwide.

From 2001 to 2004, he was under secretary of defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense (DOD). From 2002 to 2004, he was DOD’s coordinator of civilian programs in Afghanistan and he also helped organize the 2003 New York (UN) and Madrid donors’ conferences for Iraq reconstruction. From 1987 to 2001, he was both corporate vice president of System Planning Corporation, a technology and analysis firm based in Arlington, VA; and chief executive officer of its subsidiary, SPC International Corp.

During the 2016 presidential campaign he was senior national security advisor to former governor Jeb Bush, and was a foreign policy advisor to former Governor Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign. In the 2000 presidential campaign, he served as senior foreign policy advisor to then-Governor George W.Bush. From 1985 to 1987, Zakheim served as deputy under secretary of defense for planning and resources. Earlier, he was principal analyst in the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office.

Zakheim has served on numerous government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. His membership of government panels includes the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (1991-93); the Task Force on Defense Reform (1997); the Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools (1998-2001); Defense Science Board task forces on "The Impact of DOD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry" (2000) and “Urgent Operational Needs” (2009); the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Board (2008-2010); the International Business Practices Advisory Panel, which he chaired (2008-2010); the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008-2011); Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (2013-2015); and the Defense Business Board (2004-2010, 2013-2018), which he helped to establish. He was a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel (2004-16), and is now Executive Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations. Dr. Zakheim is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House/the Royal Institute of International Affairs and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.

A 1970 graduate of Columbia University, Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He holds a doctorate in economics and politics from the University of Oxford. Zakheim is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a former adjunct senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct scholar of the Heritage Foundation. He has also been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College (CT).  He is the recipient of the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award in 1986, 1987 and 2004.