The Stimson Center announced today that Brian Finlay, who has served the Center for a decade developing innovative government responses and public-private partnerships to transnational security threats, has been promoted to Vice President. Finlay will help oversee the strategic vision of the Center as well as continue his role directing the Managing Across Boundaries initiative.  

“Brian is an innovator,” said Stimson President and CEO Ellen Laipson. “For the past decade his strategic vision has brought exciting new projects to Stimson, applying creative ideas to achieve effective outcomes in international security. Brian makes connections across communities and across conceptual boundaries. I am delighted to have him as my partner in leading Stimson and expanding our impact.”

During his ten-year tenure at Stimson, Finlay pioneered the interdisciplinary Managing Across Boundaries initiative linking diverse threats — the drug trade, conventional arms and human trafficking, WMD proliferation, counterfeiting — to common solutions. He co-developed and led the Cooperative Nonproliferation Program, working with two administrations and dozens of private companies to cooperatively address the post-Soviet Union weapons of mass destruction threat. He also led the Center’s work to connect non-state actors — most notably private industry — into sustainable global security efforts.

“It’s an honor to partner with Ellen Laipson to lead the Center and our extraordinary team of researchers,” said Brian Finlay. “Stimson is a unique hub for bold thinking and pragmatic action to solve the most serious security challenges of our time. As we celebrate Stimson’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the future is bright for the Center.”

Prior to joining Stimson, Finlay served as Director of the Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign at Veterans for America, a Researcher at the Brookings Institution, and a Program Officer at the Century Foundation. He was a Project Manager for the Laboratory Center for Disease Control/Health Canada, and worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa.

The Stimson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to enhancing international peace and security through a unique combination of rigorous analysis and outreach. Founded in 1989, Stimson is celebrating a quarter-century of building effective security solutions through pragmatic research and innovative analysis.