KRISTOFER L. HARRISON
Kristofer L. Harrison is senior managing director for a leading provider of macro-economic policy intelligence to hedge funds, investment banks and asset managers. Previously, he was the chief international strategist for the Medley Macro Fund at Medley Capital, a private investment management firm based in New York.
Mr. Harrison served as an official at both the State and Defense Departments during the George W. Bush Administration. At the Department of Defense, he served as chief policy aide to the Secretary of Defense for Central Asia and the Caucasus. As part of his duties, he helped establish military bases in Central Asia and developed and managed a program to train and equip the armed forces of Georgia. He has also developed counter-terrorism programs for the Caspian region while working on US policy towards the Republic of Georgia.
At the State Department, Mr. Harrison served in a number of positions, including Chief of Staff to two successive Counselors to the Department—Messrs. Philip Zelikow and Eliot Cohen, respectively. In this position, he provided advice to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, counter-terrorism, North and South Korea, foreign assistance and the broader Middle East. He also served as Deputy Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for Iraq, a position from which he crafted key parts of the 2006-07 policy review that produced what became known as the ‘surge’ strategy. After this review, he was charged with reorganizing the State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and with arranging the so-called ‘civilian surge’ into Iraq.
Prior to government service, Mr. Harrison did graduate studies at Harvard University, where he focused on the political economy of the former Soviet Union as well as macroeconomic reform in the Baltic States and Central Asia. He speaks fluent Russian and German.