Outstanding Alumnus Award
John Brewer
Special Adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture
for Intelligence Issues
John Brewer is currently Special Adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture for Intelligence Issues where he advises the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on intelligence-related policies and planning and represents the Agriculture Department (USDA) to the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities. From 2009-2011, John was Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the USDA’s lead international agency.
As head of FAS, John was responsible for a 1300-staff organization with over 98 overseas offices and a $186 million budget to open foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products and to provide small and medium sized businesses greater export opportunities. During his tenure, John approved millions of dollars in research funds and matching grants to HBCU’s and minority-serving institutions, partnered with USDA’s Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business to identify export opportunities for minority farmers and small businesses, contributed to the Obama Administration’s National Export Initiative designed to double total U.S. exports by 2014, reorganized and consolidated FAS into a single space at USDA Headquarters to increase efficiency and morale, and was an outspoken proponent for diversity within FAS and the USDA as a whole.
In an environment where organizational stove-piping is commonplace, John collaborated closely with his counterparts in other USDA agencies such as the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service and Food Safety & Inspection Service, and government partners, most notably the Food & Drug Administration, EPA, USAID, USTR and the Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Treasury and Energy. Additionally, he traveled to nations around the globe advocating for greater international acceptance of new technologies including biotechnology and cloning in agriculture production.
From 2008 to 2009, John worked at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where he was an associate on the Global Security/Threat Finance Team. While at Booz Allen, he worked on a variety of intelligence and finance-related projects for clients, including the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, Homeland Security, and Treasury, and private-sector financial institutions such as Bank of America and Wachovia. John also served as a senior analyst in the Office of Global Risk Assessments at the American International Group (AIG), where he was responsible for providing analysis on business risks and global threats (i.e., terrorism, political and economic crises, etc.) that could affect AIG’s businesses in Latin America, Eastern Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East.
He served as assistant editor for the Executive Briefing Book (EBB), a strategic analysis of global risk provided to the CEOs and risk managers of leading AIG customers, and led the working group that developed the company’s Threat Assessment Center (TAC), which received, validated, and distributed information regarding a threat or incident involving any AIG facility worldwide.
John is a native of Florence, South Carolina. He earned bachelor's degrees in history and English from Morehouse and a master's degree in diplomatic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science. John has served in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Pentagon's Office of Counternarcotics and Global Threats, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the Department of the Treasury.
John is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is married and has two children.