Ambassador David Miller – President

Ambassador David C. Miller, Jr. is a partner and founding investor of Torch Hill Capital, LLC, a private equity firm. In his private sector career, he worked for a decade in international positions for the Westinghouse Electric Corp. In addition, he provided international business advisory services to several major US corporations and has managed investments for high-net-worth individuals in privately held companies. Ambassador Miller was special assistant to the president for national security affairs on the National Security Council staff at the White House from January 23, 1989, to December 31, 1990. His NSC accounts included Africa as well as counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, and hostage rescue. He served as the United States ambassador to Tanzania from 1981 to 1984 and to Zimbabwe from 1984 to 1986. During his Zimbabwe tour, he was asked to run the South Africa Working Group in addition to his bilateral responsibilities in Harare.

Following a year in Vietnam working on projects primarily for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, he was selected as a White House fellow for 1968 to 1969. He served as a fellow with the attorney general and the following year became his confidential assistant. In 1970–1971, he was the director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellows while also working with the counsel to the president. He founded and serves as chairman emeritus of the Special Operations Fund, which provides scholarships for the widows and children of deceased members of special operations military units.

He has lectured and written on foreign policy management, including chapters in three volumes on low-intensity conflict: Low-Intensity Conflict: Old Threats in a New World; Gray Area Phenomena: Confronting the New World Disorder; and Managing Contemporary Conflict: Pillars of Success. Ambassador Miller also co-authored, with David Gordon and Howard Wolpe, The United States and Africa: A Post-Cold War Perspective, an American Assembly book published by W. W. Norton & Co. Ambassador Miller graduated with honors from Harvard College, received a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and an honorary Doctor of Law from Lewis and Clark. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the District of Columbia Bar.