Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel (1946-) is Chairman of the Atlantic Council; Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University and University of Nebraska at Omaha, co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and a member of the Defense Policy Board. He is on the Advisory Boards of Deutsche Bank Americas; Corsair Capital; Pfizer; America Abroad Media, Center for the Study of the Presidency, Council on Foreign Relations and is a Director of Wolfensohn and Company.

Senate

He is a retired U.S. Senator (R-Nebraska) (1997-2009), considered a moderate Republican. Before the Iraq War, he worked with Senators Joe Biden, Richard Lugar to draft legislation to limit the President's authority to go to war. He supported the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.

Partisanship

He declined to endorse John McCain or Barack Obama for President. On an October 2009 speech at the University of Michigan, said that healthcare reform was the wrong place to attack Democrats: "If your attitude is wrong, if your intention is to use healthcare to destroy the other party, or to destroy the presidency of Barack Obama, then it's very unlikely you're going to find much consensus from people who want to use healthcare,"

Middle East

President Barack Obama named him co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, which raised criticism from the Zionist Organization of America that he was another "anti-Israel" appointee. Earlier, he had said “Let me clear something up here if there’s any doubt in your mind. I’m a United States Senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel”

Early career

His first job was as a newscaster and talk show host in Omaha 1969-1971, aftr which he moved to Washington as administrative assistant to Representative John Y. McCollister (R-Neb.) 1971-1977. He moved to manager of government affairs for Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Washington, D.C. 1977-1980, and then became deputy administrator, United States Veterans Administration, 1981-1982.

Returning to business, he was director and president of Collins, Hagel and Clarke Inc 1982-1985; ; director and executive vice president, Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc 1984-1987; president and chief executive officer (CEO) of World United Service Organizations from 1987 to 1990; president and CEO of the Private Sector Council of Washington, D.C., 1990-1992; president of McCarthy and Co., an Omaha-based investment-banking firm, from 1992 to 1996; deputy director and chief executive officer of the Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7) in 1990.