Nicoletta Giordani is the director of Global Investment and Economic Security (GIES). She has been a member of the Senior Executive Service at the Department of Defense (DoD) since June 2019. In her role as director, she is responsible for safeguarding the US industrial base from investment and economic risks.

Nicoletta oversees the DoD’s representation to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (Team Telecom), as well as the DoD’s review of defense-related mergers and acquisitions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

Prior to GIES, Nicoletta was the principal advisor on enterprise risk management to the DoD’s director of Administration and Management (DA&M) and helped oversee DoD business-related interactions with the White House. Before that, she was the chief strategy officer for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). At DCSA, she oversaw and managed enterprise strategy and transformation efforts for the critical technology protection, insider threat, cyber, counterintelligence, and background investigation missions across a 14,000-person agency.

Prior to DCSA, Nicoletta was the deputy director of the Personnel Vetting Transformation Office, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSD I&S). In 2018, the deputy secretary of defense selected Nicoletta as a White House leadership fellow. Through the fellowship, Nicoletta was detailed to the National Security Division of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). While at OMB, she negotiated a $75 billion annual portfolio, including the counter-ISIS campaign and the Army operations and maintenance portfolio.

Prior to her fellowship with OMB, Nicoletta was the assistant director for Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) at the Defense Security Service. In this role, she advised DoD senior leadership on opportunities and challenges to the industrial base stemming from foreign direct investment, global market trends, and technology transfers. She also held various senior positions in the private sector. She worked on institutional business development for Guggenheim Partners, served as a director at UBS Wealth Management, as vice president of strategic planning and business development at Credit Suisse Private Banking, and as senior engagement manager at Accenture in the capital markets practice.

Nicoletta received a master of arts in international economics and strategic studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a bachelor’s degree and MBA from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy. She is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government senior executive fellows program, as well as the venture capital program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.