John Clarke is a multilingual former U.S. diplomat with 20 years of experience in international affairs, global risk, economics and trade policy, resilience, trade policy, and security. He has provided advisory support on worldwide risk, disaster preparedness, crisis management, and international cooperation in Americas, Africa, and Middle East. At the State Department, John arranged logistics and supported multiple Congressional, private sector, and military delegation trips to Latin America. Following his departure from the Department of State, he organized trade missions to Colombia on behalf of U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board Members and a business investment conference hosted by (EY) Ernst & Young and the U.S. Embassy in Havana with a subsequent trade mission to Cuba. In addition to work with the federal government and quasi-government agencies, John has worked in the private sector leading teams that provide advisory support and strategic insights to Fortune 500 firms, including Amazon, Apple, Walt Disney, the Gates Foundation, Google, Merck & Co., Meta, the NFL, as well as U.S. Members of Congress, USAID, and HMG (His Majesty’s Government). In 2017, he began work with a California-based security firm supporting Silicon Valley technology firms. In that role, he led a multilingual team that supported strategic and tactical operations centers in both the US and overseas to provide real-time actionable analysis at large events, including the NFL Super Bowl. Throughout his career, John has maintained relationships with local authorities globally, U.S. and EU embassies, law enforcement agencies, and foreign militaries to provide white glove services to corporate clients. At International SOS, he managed a team of 32 security professionals who supported global evacuations and furnished security assessments and predictive security analyses for the Fortune 500. Throughout his career, he has supported global travel security, risk management, and crisis management for both private and public sector firms. Most recently he was the lead advisor for a $600M USAID portfolio advancing agriculture, economic development, energy trade, investment, and finance, throughout the Americas on crisis resilience, preparedness and security providing strategic insights and analysis to the business stakeholders and USG counterparts. Committed to community engagement and working with stakeholders to build wealth and skills in traditionally excluded communities, he has experience both overseas and in the US. In Colombia, he created and led a volunteer program for U.S. Embassy employees and expatriates to teach English and technology skills to youth internally displaced by the Colombian Civil War. Working as a Community Relations Advisor for the Mayor of Washington, he reviewed over $3 million USD worth of grants to reduce gang violence and support youth development programs. He has also consulted on several projects concerning business investment, skills, and training in the Caribbean that received funding from the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. John has a BA in Economics from Morehouse College and an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University. He speaks Spanish, French, Italian, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese.