Michael Morell
Feb. 27, 2020—Michael Morell, the former acting director and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will be the featured speaker at the 27th annual R. Dan Boulware Convocation on Critical Issues at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1 in the M.O. Looney Complex Arena on the campus of Missouri Western State University. Morell’s talk, “National Security, Populism, and American Leadership in the World,” will be free and open to the public.
Morell will also be the guest of honor and participate in a question-and-answer session during the annual Convocation Luncheon at noon Oct. 1. Ticketing information for the luncheon will be announced at a later date.
Morell is one of our nation’s leading national security professionals, with extensive experience in intelligence and foreign policy. During his 33-year career at CIA, he served as deputy director for over three years, a job in which he managed the agency’s day-to-day operations and analysis, represented the agency at the White House and Congress and maintained the agency’s relationships with intelligence services and foreign leaders around the world. Morell also served twice as acting director, leading CIA when Leon Panetta was confirmed as Secretary of Defense and again after David Petraeus left government.
Morell’s senior assignments at CIA also included serving for two years as the director of intelligence, the agency’s top analyst, and for two years as executive director, the CIA’s top administrator—managing human resources, the budget, security, and information technology for an agency the size of a Fortune 200 firm.
Today, Morell is involved in a wide range of activities. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Fortress Investment Group; senior counselor and global chairman of the Geopolitical Risk Practice at Washington’s fastest growing consulting firm, Beacon Global Strategies; and an advisor to a large number of private sector entities. He is also the Chairman of the National Security Task Force at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Morell is a senior national security contributor for CBS News, the host of the national security podcast Intelligence Matters, an expert voice on Axios and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Great War of Our Time: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism – From al Qaida to ISIS.”
Missouri Western inaugurated the R. Dan Boulware Convocation on Critical Issues program in 1993. The program was started as part of an overall commitment to offer enriching experiences to students while bringing together the college and community. The Convocation is held in honor of R. Dan Boulware, former president of the Board of Regents.
Previous Convocation speakers include: Bill Bradley, Douglas Brinkley, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Sam Donaldson, Steve Forbes, Thomas Friedman, David Gergen, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Newt Gingrich, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Martin Luther King III, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jerry Linenger, David McCullough, Jon Meacham, Joseph Nye, T. Boone Pickens, Colin Powell, Tom Ridge, Cokie Roberts, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Daniel Schorr, Patricia Schroeder, Chris Wallace, J. C. Watts and Bob Woodward.
Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit www.missouriwestern.edu.