Speakers: Diverse, timely, expert perspectives

We participate in the ACFR National Speakers Program which provides prominent speakers at the ready edge of responsibility and expertise regarding timely foreign policy issues & events. We have hosted sitting Ambassadors, former Ambassadors, State Department officials, Officers of the military, policy experts & more from foreign relations organizations and consultancies in the nation.

We also feature Iowa based speakers with special expertise and experiences in foreign relations from our congressional representatives, universities, and major news outlets.

At the Committee on Foreign Relations, our monthly meetings are dedicated to advancing discourse of relevant U.S. foreign relations issues and events while supporting our non-partisan, non-profit position.  We provide a high quality personal experience with a unique intimate forum for dialogue and discussion. We support diverse, timely, well-informed perspectives that contribute to understanding concerning foreign relations.

March Speaker: Mr. Mark Simakovsky @ the Wakonda Club, Tuesday, April 14th

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, April 14th

• Location: Wakonda Club, 3915 Fleur Drive, Des Moines

• 5:30 PM: Social (Hors d’oeuvres and Conversation)

• 6:00 PM: Presentation 

• Fee: $20 for members | $10 for students

• To confirm your attendance, please email: events@gdmcfr.org

Mark Simakovsky is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, Europe Center, and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Simakovsky is also the founding partner of Heartland Global Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory firm in Washington, DC that supports companies operating in the government, development, defense, energy, banking and technology sectors to help them enhance their product offerings and secure their market positions.

Previously, Simakovsky served as the deputy assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2022 to 2025, leading the Biden administration’s top priority at USAID, the agency’s largest budget (forty billion dollars), and two
hundred employees. He led USAID’s response to the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while also leading USAID efforts in Moldova, Belarus, and Russia. Prior to USAID, Simakovsky was a senior vice president at Beacon Global Strategies from 2015 to 2021. He also served in various
roles at the US Department of Defense from 2008 to 2015, including as the Europe and NATO chief of staff, Russia director, Eurasia advisor and NATO coordinator, and as Georgia and Moldova director at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, leading the Department of Defense’s response efforts to the Russian invasion of Georgia and Ukraine in 2008 and 2014,respectively. Simakovsky is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the inaugural Ronald D. Asmus nonresident policy entrepreneur fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He has also received numerous awards from the US Department of Defense, Department of State, and USAID.

Simakovsky earned a Master of Science in Foreign Service magna cum laude from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude with honors in diplomacy and foreign affairs from Miami University. He also was a foreign language and area studies fellow in
Russian at Georgetown, studied in Russia at St. Petersburg State Technical University, and was a US Fulbright scholar in Georgia from 2005 to 2006. Simakovsky and his wife currently reside in Maryland with their children. He speaks Russian.

A three-step plan for reviving the transatlantic alliance – Atlantic Council
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/a-three-step-plan-for-reviving-thetransatlantic-alliance/

Mark Simakovsky, of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, on the future of OPEC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD41-q_tVH8

Trip to Ukraine – USAID Support
https://youtube.com/shorts/gBNsg4dt9TY?si=ebJe-T9qSSCLrVll

Mark Simakovsky on Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch v=JPXDXN0e4Nw&pp=ygUSTWFyayBELiBTaW1ha292c2t50gc
JCcUKAYcqIYzv

Service to America Award Winner…2010
“If you are looking for the next generation of great leaders, he is at the top,”
https://servicetoamericamedals.org/honorees/mark-simakovsky

Current member please email us at events@gdmcfr.org

If you would like to become a member please visit our Membership and Sponsorship page for more information

Past Speakers: