About our speakers
Gregory C. Allen
Gregory C. Allen is the founder and CEO of Decision Tree Research, an independent research firm focused on the geopolitics of strategic technologies. For more than a decade, he has led work shaping U.S. and allied policy on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and military technology.
As founding director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Allen led research on AI policy and U.S.-China technology competition. Earlier, he served as Director of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, overseeing the implementation of the DoD’s AI strategy.
Allen hosts The AI Power Podcast and writes Decision Tree, a newsletter providing timely, evidence-based analysis of the big policy debates in AI, semiconductors, and defense tech. He holds a joint MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paul Begala
Paul Begala is a political commentator, a professor of public policy, an author, and political strategist. He is a commentator for CNN, where he is part of the political team that has won both an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. In addition to appearing on-air, Begala writes commentary for CNN, and has been a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.
Begala is a scholar with the University of Virginia Center for Politics and has previously taught at three universities: The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia, and Georgetown University.
Begala served in 1992 as a senior strategist for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and as counselor to the president in the White House, helping coordinate policy, politics, and media. Before working for Clinton, Begala worked on Capitol Hill and advised campaigns across America.
Begala is a Distinguished Alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin, where he received his bachelor’s degree in government and his law degree.
Charles R. Black
Charles R. Black is the founding chairman of Prime Policy Group, and was the founder of the firm’s predecessor, BKSH & Associates Worldwide. Black is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading public affairs professionals. Serving as a principal legislative and public affairs advisor to several Fortune 500 companies and trade associations, he also leads Prime Policy Group client teams in several public policy disciplines.
Black played key roles in the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. He served as the senior political advisor and strategist to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
An attorney with more than 40 years of experience in government, public affairs, and politics, Black has managed the successful elections of several U.S. Senators and members of Congress.
Black holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Florida and a Juris Doctorate from American University, and is a member of Florida Blue Key, the honorary leadership society of the University of Florida.
Greg Cunningham
Greg Cunningham is the Republican candidate in the general election race for New Mexico’s Second Congressional District. Cunningham is a U.S. Marine veteran, career law enforcement officer and small business owner.
He served in the Marine Corps and served in combat during Desert Storm. He then spent more than two decades with the Albuquerque Police Department and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as a detective.
After leaving law enforcement, Cunningham founded a security consulting business in Albuquerque.
Jeff Flake
Jeff Flake recently served as the U.S. Ambassador to The Republic of Türkiye. Prior to his ambassadorial service, Flake represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate from 2013 to 2019. He also represented Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.
Before entering Congress, Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and he directed the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia during that nation’s transition to independence.
Flake holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University. He has guest lectured at Stanford, Princeton and Yale, and he was a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.
He currently serves as the Director of the Institute of Politics at Arizona State University, and as Chairman of the Board of World Trade Center Utah. He also serves as a visiting fellow at Brigham Young University.
David R. Hill
David R. Hill is executive vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Energy Program in Washington, D.C. He also currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors of the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. Hill’s prior positions include general counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy under then-President George W. Bush; partner and co-head of the energy practice at Sidley Austin LLP in Washington, DC; and executive vice president and general counsel of NRG Energy, Inc. and NRG Yield, Inc. Early in his career, Hill was associate counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture.
Hill received his Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural journalism from the University of Missouri, and his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law.
Greggory D. Hull
Greggory D. Hull is the Republican candidate in the general election race for New Mexico governor. He has been a New Mexico resident for more than 40 years.
Before entering public service, Hull opened and operated two successful businesses. These ventures provided invaluable experience which has influenced his approach to fostering a thriving economy in Rio Rancho.
Hull has served as mayor of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, since 2014, making him Rio Rancho's longest-serving mayor. During his tenure as mayor, Hull has focused on public safety, infrastructure improvement and economic development, earning Rio Rancho numerous national recognitions, including in 2024 Best Places to Live in the Southwest, safest place to live and most affordable place to live, as well as Livability.com’s best places to live in 2025.
Ben Ray Luján (Keynote)
Ben Ray Luján has represented New Mexico in the U.S. Senate since January 2021. He previously served as U.S. Representative for New Mexico’s Third Congressional District and House Assistant Speaker in the 116th Congress.
Luján grew up in Nambé, a small farming community north of Santa Fe, bordered by the Nambé and Pojoaque Pueblos. Since being elected to Congress in 2008, Luján has championed efforts to expand access to health care, preserve natural resources, build a clean energy economy, and create jobs in New Mexico.
Before his election to Congress, Luján served as chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, working to develop a renewable portfolio standard to increase clean energy production and overhaul the New Mexico Fire Fund.
Prior to his service on the PRC, Luján was the New Mexico Cultural Affairs Department’s director of administrative services and chief financial officer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from New Mexico Highlands University.
Stephanie Garcia Richard
Stephanie Garcia Richard is the Democrat candidate in the general election race for lieutenant governor. Garcia Richard is the first woman, the first Latina, and the first educator to serve as New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands.
Garcia Richard was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 2012. During her six years as a state representative, she championed laws to increase access to a quality education, transparency, and investments in renewable energy, job training, and economic development.
She served as chair of the House Education Committee for two years before being elected Land Commissioner in 2018.
As Land Commissioner, Garcia Richard has focused on raising funds, stewardship of lands, and preservation and conservation efforts.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.
Chase Untermeyer
Chase Untermeyer has held positions at all four levels of government – local, state, national, and international – over a period of more than 50 years, with work in journalism, academia, and business as well.
A 1968 graduate of Harvard College, he served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He was a Texas state representative; an assistant secretary of the Navy under President Reagan; director of Presidential Personnel and director of the Voice of America under the first President Bush; and U.S. ambassador to Qatar under the second President Bush. He is currently professor of practice at the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston and ambassador-in-residence in the history department at Texas Tech University.
Ambassador Untermeyer is the author of three volumes of diary-based memoirs of the Reagan-Bush era and the book How Important People Act.
Gabe Vasquez (Invited)
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez is the Democrat incumbent in the general election race for New Mexico’s Second Congressional District. Vasquez is a first-generation Mexican-American who served as a City Councilor in Las Cruces.
In 2013, after helping build a startup company in Las Cruces, Vasquez joined U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s staff in southern New Mexico. Vasquez also played a key role in the designation of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument.
In 2017, Vasquez was elected to the Las Cruces City Council with more than 70 percent of the vote. He previously served as the executive director of the Las Cruces Hispano Chamber of Commerce, worked in public lands conservation, and as a policy advocate promoting child welfare and family wellbeing at the federal level.
Vasquez was elected to represent New Mexico’s 2nd district in November 2022 and is currently serving his second term. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism from New Mexico State University and served as editor-in-chief of NMSU’s student newspaper, The Round Up.
Heather Wilson (Keynote)
Dr. Heather Wilson became president of The University of Texas at El Paso in 2019 after serving as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force. She is the former president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, and she represented New Mexico in the U.S. Congress for 10 years.
Active in community and national affairs, she serves as a board member of the Texas Space Commission, was the inaugural Chair of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, and is a member of the boards of directors of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Google GPS.
Dr. Wilson graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in the third class to admit women and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar. She is also an instrument-rated private pilot.