Ben Hodges

Speaker at the St. Gallen Symposium

Lieutenant General (Retired) Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017) and Commander of NATO Allied Land Command in İzmir, Turkey (2012-2014), currently serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics and is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC. He also serves pro bono on several civic advocacy Boards, including Renew Democracy Initiative, Atlantik Bruecke, Arthur Burns Fellowship, Razom, Spirit of America, and Warsaw Security Forum. Additionally, he consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union, and he is co-author of the book, Future War and the Defence of Europe. Before his current roles, he was Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Prior to that, he held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). During his career with the US Army, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels in the 101st Airborne Division, including the First Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004). His other operational assignments include Chief of Operations for Multi-National Corps-Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2005-2006) and Director of Operations, Regional Command South in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2009-2010). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy West Point, whereafter he was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the US Army in May 1980, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbus State University. He retired from the U.S. Army in January 2018 and currently resides with his wife in Frankfurt, Germany.