Leadership

David S. Abraham is Senior Fellow at IAGS and oversees TREM Center.

David is a strategist in the natural resource sector with vast experience in business, non-profit and government. He is a sought-after speaker on rare metals. His book on critical materials entitled, The Elements of Power (Yale University Press) will be published in 2015.

Previously, David provided economic and geopolitical risk analysis at an energy trading and on Wall Street. He also oversaw natural resource programs, including the Office of Surface Mining, and international assistance programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget and worked inside Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry in 2010-11. David also led the nonprofit, ClearWater Initiative, establishing permanent offices in the US, Japan and Uganda.

He has held several fellowships including at the Council on Foreign Relations and Tokyo University and received numerous leadership distinctions from the American Council on Germany, the US-Japan Foundation and American Swiss Foundation.

His writing has appeared frequently in publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal Asia, and The International Herald Tribune, and he has appeared in numerous media outlets. He holds degrees from Tufts University and Boston College and splits time between Indonesia and New York.

You can reach him at abraham@iags.org.


Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is an international network of experts who have agreed to give the TREM Center meaningful help on a regular basis in many different areas, including geology, law, organizational development, technology, policy, geopolitics and outreach. Their abilities, experience, and knowledge were selected for how they complement a particular TREM Center project, or the organization as a whole.

Keith Delaney – Executive Director, Rare Earth Industry & Technology Association USA

For more than twenty-five years Mr. Delaney has specialized in the creation and management of strategic business alliances and technology partnerships focused on the commercialization of new technologies. At Engelhard Corporation (now BASF) and Molycorp Minerals LLC he has been at the center of such relationships in the petrochemical, industrial chemical, water treatment and food industries. His education includes a BS in Marketing and a MBA from Northern Illinois University.


Daniel Jammer – Chairman, Nation-E

Mr. Jammer is a senior expert for metals and their applications in the aerospace, defense and auto-mobile industries. He was a director of the world´s largest titanium producer VSMPO and headed several subsidiaries. Mr. Jammer is the owner of Maccabi Netanya FC and previously owned Slovak First Division team FC Senec. Mr. Jammer has been busily occupied with forming Microfinance Investment AG since 2006. Mr. Jammer holds several board positions in companies and is a respected philanthropist.


Major General (USAF-Ret) Dr. Robert H. Latiff – Director of the Intelligence and Security Research Center, George Mason University

Dr. Robert H. Latiff retired from the Air Force as a Major General in 2006. He is currently a Research Professor and Director of the Intelligence and Security Research Center, George Mason University, and is also a private consultant. Most recently, Dr. Latiff was Vice President and Chief Technology Officer in the Space and Geospatial Intelligence Business of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He is Chairman of the National Materials Advisory Board of the National Academies and serves on the Intelligence Committee of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). General Latiff’s last active duty assignment was at the National Reconnaissance Office where he was Deputy Director for Systems Engineering and previously Director, Advanced Systems and Technology. He has served as Vice Commander, Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air force Base, Massachusetts and as Commander of the US Space Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Joint Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. General Latiff received his commission from the Army ROTC program at the University of Notre Dame. He entered active service in the Army and later transferred to the Air Force. General Latiff has served on the staffs of Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Secretary of the Air Force. He received his Ph.D. and his M.S. in materials science and his B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame, where he now also holds an appointment as a Visiting Scholar in the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. General Latiff is a graduate of the National Security Fellows Program at Harvard’s JFK School of Government and is currently enrolled at Georgetown University, pursuing a masters degree in the Humanities. He is a recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.


Dr. Gal Luft – Co-Director, IAGS

Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security and senior adviser to the U.S. Energy Security Council (USESC). He specializes in strategy, geopolitics, terrorism, energy security, natural resources and economic warfare. Newsweek Magazine called him a “tireless and independent advocate of energy security,” the business magazine Poder called him “one of the most recognizable figures in modern energy and security issues,” and Esquire Magazine included him in its 2007 list of America’s Best and Brightest. Dr. Luft has published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, Commentary Magazine, Middle East Quarterly, LA Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009), Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice (2009), and Petropoly: the Collapse of America’s Energy Security Paradigm (2012). He is author of Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq. He appears frequently in the media and consults to various think tanks and news organizations worldwide. Dr. Luft testified before committees of the U.S. Congress, including Senate Foreign Relations, House International Relations, House Science and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is a founding member of the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy, The International Lithium Alliance, OurEnergyPolicy.org and Citizens for Energy Freedom as well as a member of the Society of Industry Leaders, the Committee on the Present Danger and other non-profit groups. He holds degrees in international relations, international economics, Middle East studies and strategic studies and a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University.