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BIOGRAPHY

Mark R. Kennedy

  • Mark R. Kennedy is a strategist at the intersection of artificial intelligence, capital markets, infrastructure, and geopolitical competition.
  • He currently serves as Director of the Development Research Institute at New York University and leads the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition, where he convenes leaders across government, finance, technology, and energy to address the deployment of AI systems at scale in a fragmented global landscape.
  • His work focuses on a defining question of this era:
  • Can democracies align capital, infrastructure, technology, and alliances fast enough to sustain strategic advantage?

Cross-Sector Leadership

  • Kennedy’s perspective reflects leadership across business, public service, and higher education — experience rarely combined in a single career.

Business

As a senior officer of a Fortune 100 company, he operated in globally competitive markets where execution, capital discipline, and operational alignment determined performance. His private-sector experience sharpened his focus on incentives, institutional performance, and market-driven strategy.

United States Congress

As a Member of the United States Congress representing Minnesota during a period shaped by 9/11 and accelerating globalization, Kennedy engaged in national security, trade policy, and economic strategy. His legislative experience reinforced the importance of institutional credibility, bipartisan coalition-building, and disciplined decision-making under uncertainty.

University Presidencies

  • Kennedy later served as president of two flagship public research universities — the University of Colorado and the University of North Dakota. In those roles, he led strategic transformation, research expansion, industry partnerships, capital campaigns, and crisis response. University leadership deepened his understanding of innovation ecosystems, public accountability, and governance structures that shape long-term institutional performance.
  • He is the author of Shapeholders (Columbia University Press), a study of how institutions navigate stakeholder pressure and structural change in periods of systemic disruption.

AI, Capital, and Strategic Competition

  • Today, Kennedy’s work centers on AI deployment at industrial scale.
  • He examines how compute infrastructure, energy systems, sovereign capital, export controls, development finance, and alliance coordination interact to determine competitive advantage in the AI era.
  • His writing and briefings address:
  • AI stack deployment and capital bottlenecks
  • Infrastructure finance and energy constraints
  • Export controls and technology diffusion
  • Defense industrial revitalization
  • Alliance modernization in a two-bloc + interdependence world
He has addressed audiences across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, contributing to global conversations on AI governance, industrial policy, and democratic system performance.

Global Engagement

Kennedy has engaged senior leaders across more than 50 countries spanning government, business, academia, and multilateral institutions. His work bridges capital markets, policy design, and strategic execution across open and aligned systems.

Public Service & Strategic Advisory Roles

  • Kennedy serves as an appointed Civic Leader supporting the Secretary of the Air Force and is a Senior Fellow at CNA – Center for Naval Analyses. He previously served as a presidentially appointed member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.
  • He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers and is Chairman Emeritus of the Economic Club of Minnesota.

Education

Kennedy earned his MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He completed executive leadership programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Graduate School of Education, and Business School. As a first-generation college graduate, he brings a practical appreciation for opportunity, institutional access, and disciplined advancement.

Personal Perspective

  • Across business, public service, and academia, Kennedy’s leadership reflects a consistent principle:
  • Strategic advantage is sustained when institutions align purpose, capital, execution, and trust.
  • In an era defined by systems risk and technological acceleration, that alignment is both harder — and more necessary — than ever.
Short Biography
Mark R. Kennedy is Director of the Development Research Institute at New York University and leads the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition, where he focuses on artificial intelligence deployment, capital alignment, infrastructure strategy, and alliance coordination in a contested global order. A former Fortune 100 executive, U.S. Congressman, and president of two flagship public research universities, Kennedy brings rare cross-sector experience spanning business, public service, and higher education. His work examines how compute capacity, energy systems, sovereign capital, export controls, and industrial policy shape competitive advantage in the AI era. Kennedy is the author of Shapeholders (Columbia University Press), a Senior Fellow at CNA, a Civic Leader supporting the Secretary of the Air Force, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ultra-Short Biography
Mark R. Kennedy is Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute and leads the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition. A former Fortune 100 executive, U.S. Congressman, and university president, he focuses on AI deployment, capital markets, infrastructure strategy, and alliance coordination in a fragmented global order. He is a Senior Fellow at CNA and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.