CENSA NY Event

Tuesday June 21st

6:00-9:00 PM 

Fran Townsend

National Security Threat Challenges Facing the Next President

Fran Townsend

Executive Vice President of Worldwide Government, Legal, and Business Affairs

MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings Inc.

The Lotos Club

5 E 66st Street

New York, NY 10065

Members $30

Cocktails & Light H’orderves

Introduction by John Fenzel

The Council for Emerging National Security Affairs is very pleased to announce an  evening with special guest Fran Townsend on Tuesday, June 21st at 6PM at the Lotos Club of New York.  Ms. Townsend will offer her insights into the varied and constantly evolving set of national security threats America’s next President will face. We hope you can join us for this opportunity to learn from a leading expert and policymaker in the intimate setting of the Lotus Club. This event will have a very limited number of available seats. To ensure your participation please be sure to register promptly. 

Ms. Townsend will be introduced by John Fenzel. A Q&A session to follow will be moderated by CENSA’s Rob DuBois. Chatham House Rules apply, as always.Cocktails and light h’orderves will be provided. 

About the Speaker: Fran Townsend

Frances Fragos Townsend is an Executive Vice President at MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, LLC. Prior to Joining MacAndrews and Forbes in 2010, Ms. Townsend was a corporate partner with the law firm Baker Botts, LLC. Ms. Townsend has spent more than 20 years in public service. She served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council from May 2004 until January 2008. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from May 2003 to May 2004. Ms. Townsend has regularly appeared on network and cable television as a counterterrorism, national, and homeland security expert. She has received numerous awards for her public service accomplishments. Ms. Townsend is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Ms. Townsend also serves on three private company boards, one of which she chairs the board and on all she chairs the compensation committees. Ms. Townsend also serves on several U.S. government advisory boards and numerous nonprofit boards.

Ms. Townsend came to the White House from the U.S. Coast Guard, where she served as the first Assistant Commandant for Intelligence. Prior to that, Ms. Townsend spent 13 years at the U.S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush. She served in a variety of senior positions, including as Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy. Ms. Townsend began her prosecutorial career in 1985, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York.
 
In 1988, she joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York where she focused on international organized crime and white-collar crime investigations and litigation. In 1991, she worked in the Office of the Attorney General to assist in establishing the newly created Office of International Programs, the predecessor to the Executive Office for National Security. In December 1993, she joined the Criminal Division where she served as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General and played a critical part in establishing the Division’s international training and rule of law programs.
 
From November of 1995 to November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was Director of the Office of International Affairs in the Criminal Division, which serves as the U.S. Central Authority for extradition and mutual legal assistance, and works with the Department of State in the negotiation of international law enforcement treaties. In November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was appointed as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, where she oversaw international law enforcement and training matters in the Criminal Division, and acted as an advisor to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on international law enforcement policy.
 
In March of 1998, Ms. Townsend was appointed Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy, managing matters related to national security policy and operations for the Department of Justice. In this capacity she headed the office of Intelligence Policy and Review, an office that provides legal advice and recommendations to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice regarding national security matters, reviews executive orders, directives, and procedures relating to the intelligence community, and approves certain intelligence-gathering activities, especially those matters related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
After three years of study, Ms. Townsend graduated cum laude from the American University in 1982, where she received a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Psychology. Ms. Townsend received her J.D. from the University of San Diego, School of Law in 1984. In 1986, she attended the Institute on International and Comparative Law in London, England. In 2001, she attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she completed the Senior Managers in Government course. Ms.Townsend has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and Pace University Law School.  She has two sons.About the Moderator: John Fenzel

John Fenzel is a senior Army Special Forces officer who has served on our nation’s battlefields throughout Europe and the Middle East. He has served as a military assistant on the personal staff of the Secretary of Defense, as a Special Assistant to the Vice President, and as a White House Fellow during the Clinton and Bush administrations.

He commanded the Special Forces Training Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and an Army brigade at Fort Knox, Kentucky. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, he served as Staff Director for Tom Ridge in the Homeland Security Council. He was the principal architect of The Homeland Security Advisory System, our nation’s color-coded alert system.

In his 25 years of military service, John has served in numerous command and staff positions around the world. During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, he commanded a Special Forces “A-Team,” training, equipping and advising a Kuwaiti Battalion and accompanying them during the liberation of Kuwait. He has commanded three Special Forces companies, leading the first Army deployments to Pakistan and the Baltic States. In Bosnia, he commanded the special operations teams in the U.S. and British sectors, working closely with the United Nations to secure the indictments and convictions of those responsible for war crimes in Srebrenica. He is the only active duty American military officer to testify at The Hague in support of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

John is a graduate of the Naval War College and the National War College. Born in Iowa and raised outside Chicago, John lives with his wife and three children in Washington, D.C. The Lazarus Covenant is his first novel.