Beacon Global Strategies (BGS), a leading strategic advisory firm focusing on global public policy, government procurement, and geopolitical risk analysis, today announced it will be expanding its growing team by adding Mr. Klon Kitchen as Managing Director and Mr. Jon Darby as Senior Advisor. In these roles, Mr. Kitchen will lead the firm’s Global Technology Policy Practice and Mr. Darby will provide invaluable insight to the firm’s Intelligence Practice. Additionally, BGS is pleased to announce the promotions of Mr. Barry King, Ms. Kaitlyn Garman, and Ms. Whitney McNamara.
“We are thrilled to have Klon and Jon join BGS, where they will contribute directly to the ongoing work of the firm,” said Andrew Shapiro, Managing Director at Beacon. “Additionally, we congratulate Barry, Kaitlyn and Whitney on their recent promotions, which are well deserved.”
Mr. Klon Kitchen recently joined BGS as Managing Director. Mr. Kitchen is a proven national security practitioner, scholar, and advisor, with more than two decades of experience helping government and industry leaders to anticipate and navigate geopolitical risk challenges. Before joining BGS, he was national security adviser to former Senator Ben Sasse and worked on the creation of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a blue-ribbon commission tasked with developing an American grand strategy for cyber. While working for Senator Sasse, Mr. Kitchen also served as the Staff Director of the National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee for the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Prior to his service in the Senate, Mr. Kitchen spent more than 15 years as an intelligence officer working on counterterrorism, counterproliferation, covert action, cyber, and other issues. During this time, he deployed to multiple combat zones and was awarded several honors, including the civilian combat support medal, the civilian expeditionary medal, and a special commendation from the Commander of Joint Special Operations Command. Mr. Kitchen is a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and has an MA in strategy and security studies from the College of International Security Affairs and a War College Diploma in security strategy and irregular warfare from the National War College, both from National Defense University.
Mr. Jon Darby recently joined BGS as Senior Advisor. Mr. Darby is a nearly 39-year veteran of the U.S. Intelligence Community, primarily in the National Security Agency (NSA)/Central Security Service (CSS), culminating in serving over four years as the NSA/CSS Director of Operations (DO). Prior to assuming the DO position, which oversees all of NSA’s collection, code-breaking, analysis and production of signals intelligence (SIGINT), he led some of NSA’s most difficult missions, including Counterterrorism, Cybersecurity Operations, and SIGINT analysis and production on all geographic and transnational missions. Mr. Darby managed a budget in the billions, drove development and use of advanced technologies, and in multiple positions led thousands of globally distributed civilian and military personnel providing intelligence support for military, diplomatic, cybersecurity and law enforcement operations. Mr. Darby served in a variety of field and operations management positions at NSA and abroad and spent over a decade following 9/11 in various leadership positions in NSA’s counterterrorism and counterproliferation missions, to include serving as NSA’s Chief of Counterterrorism during the Osama bin Laden operation. Other key senior leadership assignments include serving as NSA’s Chief of SIGINT Analysis and Production and the Deputy Chief of Cybersecurity Operations.
Mr. Barry King has assumed the role of Senior Vice President. Mr. King advises a range of clients with key national security and technology capabilities on go-to-market strategy, stakeholder engagement, as well as policy and budgetary matters. Before joining Beacon, Mr. King served as the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In this role he advised IC leadership on the allocation of the $60B+ National Intelligence Program budget against U.S. intelligence priorities, leveraging strong working relationships with colleagues across the IC, the Department of Defense, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Capitol Hill. Mr. King previously served in several senior White House roles, including as Chief of OMB’s Defense Operations, Personnel, and Support Branch; Special Assistant to the OMB Director; and Director of Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff. Prior to his government service, Mr. King was an international contract negotiator at Raytheon Company.
Ms. Kaitlyn Garman has assumed the role of Vice President. In this role, Ms. Garman will continue to support clients on issues at the intersection of global tech policy and national security. She joined BGS in 2017 as a Senior Associate. Prior to joining BGS, Ms. Garman worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Confidential Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and his Chief of Staff. For both roles, she prepared and presented daily briefing materials, and provided research in support of implementing the strategic initiatives of the Secretary. Before her work with the Secretary of Defense, Ms. Garman worked as a research analyst at a major defense contractor, focusing on international security and legislative affairs. She received her M.A in International Affairs from Georgetown University.
Ms. Whitney McNamara has assumed the role of Vice President. In this role, Ms. McNamara will continue to contribute to the ongoing work of the National Security Technology Practice. She is currently a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. She also supports the Atlantic Council’s Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption where she is the lead author on assessing critical technologies and their barriers to adoption in the Department. Prior to joining BGS, Ms. McNamara served as the Director of Science & Technology within the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Board (DIB). Previously, she was an emerging technologies policy subject matter expert supporting the Department’s CIO. Prior to that, she was a Senior Analyst at the national security think tank Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, focusing on emerging technologies, future operating concepts, informationized warfare and great power competition. She is a former a National Security Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and worked in the Political-Military Bureau at the Department of State and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy. She received her M.A. in Strategic Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies where she was a Bradley Fellow and a Presidential Management Fellowship Finalist. Prior to that, she spent four years working in the Middle East as a project manager and consultant.
About Beacon Global Strategies
Founded in 2013, Beacon Global Strategies is a bipartisan strategic advisory firm that provides clients an in-depth understanding of national security decision-making to advance objectives and solve problems in Washington and abroad. The Beacon team brings experience informed by their years of service in the White House, State Department, Defense Department, CIA, Justice Department, on Capitol Hill, and in the private sector.
