Nate Fick is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an independent non-profit dedicated to developing strong, centrist national security policies. He is concurrently an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm.
At CNAS, Nate has led the Center’s transition from start-up to recognition as one of the most dynamic and influential foreign policy research organizations in the country. CNAS contributes to a wide range of defense and national security issues, while also providing a convening forum for senior military and civilian officials and training the nation’s next generation of national security leaders. During Nate’s tenure, CNAS has built an array of partners ranging from the Fortune 100, to major foundations, to high-growth companies in industries that are changing international relations, such as telecommunications, alternative energy, and biotechnology.
Nate is a 1999 graduate of Dartmouth, where he double-majored in Government and Ancient History and won a national title in cycling. After graduation, he served in the United States Marine Corps from 1999 to 2004 as an infantry officer, including operational deployments to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Nate graduated from the Harvard Business School with an MBA in 2008, and also received a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
He is the author of the 2005 New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away, recognized as one of the “Best Books of the Year” by The Washington Post and one of the "Best Military Books of the Decade" by The Military Times. The Commanding General of U.S. Marines in the Middle East made it required reading for officers deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq, and it has been assigned to every student in Stanford University’s Class of 2015. Nate’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Forbes. He is a frequent public speaker, including having delivered the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Lectures at the University of California at Berkeley and the Secretary James V. Forrestal Lecture at the United States Naval Academy.
Nate serves on the boards of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, dedicated to funding the college educations of the children of Marines killed in action, and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth, which encourages graduates to dedicate at least a portion of their careers to public service. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.
Nate is an avid fly fisherman and a certified sailboat charter captain. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.