Brussels Forum Session: NATO at 75: Past, Present, Future – Part II

Lord (George) Robertson of Port Ellen was NATO's tenth secretary general from 1999 to 2003 and UK secretary of state for defence from 1997 to 1999. During his time at NATO, he announced the invoking of Article 5, the self-defense guarantee, for the first time in the alliance’s history.

Robertson was a member of the British House of Commons for 21 years and a member of the UK shadow cabinet from 1993 to 1997. He was named joint parliamentarian of the year in 1992 and appointed to the House of Lords in 1999. He was chief opposition spokesman on Europe for nine years.

Robertson is now chancellor of the University of Dundee; a senior counsellor with the Washington, DC-based consultancy, The Cohen Group; vice patron of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo; and a senior adviser with BP and 5654 & Company, a consultancy. He is also a special adviser to Chatham House and is on the boards of the Centre for European Reform, Trinity House, and the British Forces Foundation. He serves on the Atlantic Council’s international advisory board and is co-chair of the Responsible Energy Forum.

Robertson’s previous positions include deputy chairman of Cable and Wireless and, in Russia, TNK-BP. He was also chairman of Western Ferries and the FIA Foundation. He has held non-executive directorships with the Weir Group, Smiths Group, and Monaco Telecom.  

 Robertson’s international honors include being one of the 16 Knights of the Order of the Thistle and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He is among the few non-Americans to have received the highest US civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Brussels Forum Session: Euro-Atlantic Security Outside the Box: High Ambitions, Different Formats

US Representative Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, engineer, entrepreneur, and educator who is now the first woman to represent Pennsylvania's 6th District in Congress. She is a former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee 

Houlahan has helped lead several thriving southeastern Pennsylvania companies including AND1, a basketball apparel company, and B Lab, the organization that launched the B Corporation movement. She went on to serve in Teach for America as a chemistry teacher in North Philadelphia and then led a nonprofit helping thousands of underserved students across the United States build literacy skills.  

While serving in Congress, Houlahan has been awarded the Abraham Lincoln Leadership for America Award, presented by the US Chamber of Commerce to honor lawmakers for their work supporting a free enterprise system, and three Congressional Management Foundation Democracy awards for outstanding achievement in transparency and accountability, constituent services, and workplace environment. She is the first member of Congress to win in two categories in a single congressional term.  

Houlahan holds an engineering degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree in technology and policy from MIT.