Ronald Marks III

Ronald “Ron” Marks III is a 38-year veteran of the U.S. national security community. A former CIA official, Ron was a Clandestine Service officer, Special Assistant to the ADCI for Military Affairs, and a Senate Liaison for five DCI’s. He went on to serve on Capitol Hill as Intelligence Council to Senate Majority Leaders Robert Dole and Trent Lott. Appointed a 2021 Visiting Professor of Cyber and Intelligence at George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government, Marks designed a unique course devoted to the crucial intersection of national security policy and advancing technology. Ron is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security where he provides thought leadership on specific programs and projects. As President of ZPN National Security and Cyber Strategies, he advises public and private entities on issues of national security and provides problem-solving strategies.

After 20 years of successfully managing and owning both information and cyber-related businesses, Ron now sits on several corporate Defense/Intelligence and think tank boards including the Global Techno-Politics Forum and Silicon Valley-based Informatica Federal Operations Corp. In Spring 2020, Ron was selected Dole Fellow at the University of Kansas, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics where he conducted seminars focused on 21st-century information challenges entitled “Spying in the Cyber Age.” A nationally recognized lecturer on Intelligence/Cyber issues, Marks also serves as an Instructor at Johns Hopkins University, Global Security Studies Program.

From 2016-19, Marks served as Chairman of the Intelligence and Cyber Program at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security (now Texas A&M) in Washington, D.C. In addition to national security journal articles and media appearances, Ron is author of the book: Spying in America in the Post 9/11 World: Domestic Threat and the Need for Change – focusing on the challenges and legalities of U.S. Domestic Intelligence collection in the Cyberage.