Alexander Benard is an American private equity investor and lawyer.

Early life and education

Benard grew up in the U.S. and in Austria. He holds a BA from

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. CMC is a member of the Claremont Colleges c ...

and a JD from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

Career

Benard is a Senior Managing Director at

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing ...

, where he serves as Co-Head of Frontier Markets. Prior to that he was Managing Partner of SGI Frontier Capital, a private equity firm focused on frontier markets (which was acquired by Cerberus in 2018). He used to be managing director of Gryphon Partners, a consulting and investment firm focused on the Middle East and Central Asia. Prior to that, he was a corporate lawyer at

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (known as Cleary Gottlieb) is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide. History The ...

LLP, an international law firm, where he focused on cross-border transactions. Cleary Gottlieb - Law Firm Bi
''Alexander Benard''
/ref> He has written columns on U.S. foreign policy, domestic policy, and investing in emerging and frontier markets for ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'', ''

World Affairs ''World Affairs'' is an American quarterly journal covering international relations. At one time, it was an official publication of the American Peace Society. The magazine has been published since 1837 and was re-launched in January 2008 as a new ...

'', the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', '' Policy Review'', the ''

Journal of Strategic Studies The ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering military and diplomatic strategic studies. It was established in 1978 by Frank Cass & Co. with John Gooch ( University of Leeds) as founding editor-in-chief. The ...

'', '' Foreign Policy Digest'', ''

Foreign Policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

'', and '' World Politics Review''. Many of his writings have centered around commercial diplomacy, and U.S.-China competition for strategic assets. This includes a piece in

in 2012 about strategic ports and resources across Asia and Africa. He has also spoken about frontier markets at numerous conferences including the annual BCA Conference and the IFC/EMPEA Global Private Equity Conference. Benard has appeared on CNN's ''No Bias, No Bull'' with Campbell Brown. CNN - CNN Websit
''Transcript of CNN debate''
/ref> He has worked at the

Washington Institute for Near East Policy The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP or TWI, also known simply as The Washington Institute) is a pro-Israel American think tank based in Washington, D.C., focused on the foreign policy of the United States in the Near East. WINE ...

, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Department of Defense. He has also worked in the office of Senator

Chuck Hagel Charles Timothy Hagel ( born October 4, 1946)Larry Diamond Larry Jay Diamond (born October 2, 1951) is an American political sociologist and leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. Diamond is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanf ...

's ''The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World'';

Larry Diamond Larry Jay Diamond (born October 2, 1951) is an American political sociologist and leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. Diamond is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanf ...

''Book Acknowledgements''
/ref> and

Dennis Ross Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill C ...

's ''The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace''. He has been awarded several fellowships, including the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, the

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wi ...

Religious Freedom Fellowship, and the

Foreign Policy Association The Foreign Policy Association (formerly known as the League of Free Nations Association) is a non-profit organization founded in 1918 dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. The Foreign Policy Association aims to ...

John C. Whitehead John Cunningham Whitehead (April 2, 1922 – February 7, 2015) was an American banker and civil servant, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation (WTC Memorial Foundation), and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman o ...

Fellowship. He has also been named a Future Leader in Foreign Policy by the Foreign Policy Initiative and was also named to the Diplomatic Courier's Top 99 Under 33. He was a visiting fellow at the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes Economic liberty, personal and economic liberty, Free ...

and is an Adjunct Fellow at the

Hudson Institute The Hudson Institute is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Co ...

Personal

Alexander Benard is the son of

Zalmay Khalilzad Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad ( ps, ځلمی خلیل زاد, prs, زلمی خلیل‌زاد; born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Spec ...

and

Cheryl Benard Cheryl Benard (born in 1953) is an academic scholar, writer, political scientist and novelist. She is the wife of Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Afghanistan and Iraq. She and Khalilzad have two sons, Alexander Be ...

NNDB The Notable Names Database (NNDB) is an online database of biographical details of over 40,000 people. Soylent Communications, a sole proprietorship that also hosted the now-defunct Rotten.com, describes NNDB as an "intelligence aggregator" o ...

''Profile of Amb. Khalilzad''
/ref>

is an

Afghan American Afghan Americans ( prs, آمریکایی‌های افغان‌تبار ''Amrikāyi-hāye Afghān tabar'', ps, د امريکا افغانان ''Da Amrīka Afghanan'') are Americans of Afghan descent or Americans who originated from Afghanistan. ...

foreign policy scholar and diplomat who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

is an author and political scientist at the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financ ...

and the founder of the Bamiyan Project, a non-profit organization seeking to rebuild the

Bamiyan Buddhas The Buddhas of Bamiyan (or Bamyan) were two 6th-century monumental statues carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of Hazarajat region in central Afghanistan, northwest of Kabul at an elevation of . Carbon dating of the structural ...

Early life and education

Career

Personal

References

External links