CEO of The Intelligence Community LLC moderating the largest LinkedIn group for National Security professionals (http://goo.gl/fPo45) as well as www.TheIntelligenceCommunity.com, a peer-to-peer marketplace for freelance work in national security

Also serve as Adviser at the Defense Language and National Security Education Office as an expert in Language, Regional Expertise and Culture (LREC) programs (on contract).

Honors
+ Personally requested by DIA Director to be Aide de Camp
+ Board Member for the FAO Association, the Cold War Museum, National Military Intelligence Association National Captial Region Chapter, and the Editorial Board for the Journal of Mediterranean and Balkan Intelligence
+ Editor in Chief for the Foreign Area Officer Association Journal, "International Affairs"
+ Selected in Young Professionals in Foreign Policy “Top 99 Leaders under 33”
+ Delphi Fellow, BigThink.com
+ Malone Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies

Books:
+ "In the Shadow of Greatness" Tom Brokaw calls it a "must read for all Americans" | 2x Bestseller - http://usna2002.org/shadowofgreatness
+ "Hacking the Job Search" on Amazon

Articles:
+ “Using Social Media to Network and Curate Information” FAO Journal, Feb 2011
+ "Digital Diplomacy" FAO Journal, May 2013

Lectures:
+ "Putting Community Back in the Intelligence Community" GOVSEC, May 2014
+ "Implications of the De Facto Intelligence Community" Panasonic Federal Security Symposium, Sep 2013
+ "Beyond Intelligence: Wisdom in the Information Age" GOV 2.0 LA 2013
+ “The Arab Spring and Social Media” US Naval Academy Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Oct 2011
+ “The Persian Blogging Phenomenon” US Naval Academy, Jan 2009

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

As a startup CEO, there are a number of events that I would like to attend across the country that strain the company budget. If I can meet new people in the area who have similar interests, and save a few dollars, it will help me to scale the business and be successful.

Interests

poetry, philosophy, the internet of things, futurism, transhumanism, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, startups and entrepreneurship, wine and beer, family, theology, politics

• culture
• books
• poetry
• education
• wine
• beer
• politics
• blogging
• camping
• muslim
• business
• communications
• divinity
• teaching
• entrepreneurship
• freelancing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music
Coldplay, U2, Gungor

Movies
Her, Ex Machina, Black Mirror

Books
Aristotle's Politics, Aesthetics
Good to Great
Anything CS Lewis

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Since I graduated from the Naval Academy in 2002, I have had 4 children, driven across the country 7 times, moved 10 times, traveled throughout the Middle East and launched a social network for intelligence professionals with over 80,000 members. One amazing thing I have done during that time is to fall more deeply in love with my wife every day for the past 14 years. There have been a lot of trials, but we are an amazing team.

Teach, Learn, Share

I teach classes and have written on a number of topics. You can get a glimpse here:

www.theintellcomm.com

and here

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamplaster

What I Can Share with Hosts

- advice on parenting, managing stress and leading in complex environments including startups, the military, and government

- advice on getting hired by the government

- discussions about world events, big ideas and the future

- advice about the future of work, freelancing and the on-demand economy

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Panama

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States