Pete Hoekstra

The Honorable Rep. Pete Hoekstra stands among the few former U.S. Congressmen with experience as a Fortune 500 business executive. Pete brings a unique blend of expertise and perspective to the intersection of global markets and public policy. His specialties include national security, international relations, countering global Islamist terror and cyber security.

He serves as the Shillman Senior Fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), the world’s most comprehensive data center on radical Islamist terror. Pete is a Senior Director at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where he provides business consulting on intelligence and national security issues. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Gentex, Inc. and West Michigan Community Bank, as well as the Advisory Boards of Newsmax Media, Inc. and TransCertain.

Pete served in Congress for 18 years, representing Michigan’s Second Congressional District from 1993 to 2011. Prior to his election, he worked for 15 years at office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc., where he rose through the ranks to become Vice President of Marketing.

Congressional leadership appointed Pete as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2004 through January 2007, and as the top Republican on the Committee until January 2011. He was responsible for leading Congressional oversight of U.S. Intelligence during its modernization to confront the threats of the 21st Century such as global Islamist terror and cyber warfare, including restructuring the intelligence community with landmark legislation following the 9-11 Commission report.

Pete served as Chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in the 104th, 105th and 106th sessions of Congress, and authored a variety of studies and reports, including Education at a Crossroads, Crossroads 2000 and the American Worker Project. The Subcommittee additionally conducted several investigations, including examining the financial failures at the Department of Education, the corrupted 1996 Teamsters election, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps).

Pete has been featured in a variety of media, including appearances on Fox News Channel’s Fox News Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, Fox & Friends, On the Recordand Hannity; NBC’s Meet the Press and Dateline; CBS’s Face the Nation and Evening News; CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer; ABC’s This Week and Nightline; C-SPAN’s Washington Journal; PBS’s News Hour and countless radio and online networks. He has also written opinion pieces published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Foxnews.com, CNBC.com and National Review Online among several others.

In 2008, Pete was appointed as an Officer in the Order of the Orange-Nassau, a royal honor from the Dutch government. In December 2010, the CIA awarded Pete with its “Agency Seal Medal.” In January 2011, the Director of National Intelligence awarded him with the “National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal.”

Pete holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Hope College and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.