Board of Trustees Events

Major General (Ret.) James A. “Spider” Marks is Head of Geopolitical Strategy and Academy Securities’ Senior Advisory Board Member.

General Marks is the Founder and President of The Marks Collaborative, an advisory for corporate leader development, education and training and has led entrepreneurial efforts in global primary research and national security. He served over 30 years in the Army holding every command position from infantry platoon leader to commanding general and was the senior intelligence officer in the LA Riots, the Balkans, Korea, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He culminated his career as the Commanding General of the US Army Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf cluster, Bronze Star, and multiple combat, expeditionary and service ribbons. General Marks is a Master parachutist, authorized to wear Korean and Canadian Airborne wings, Air Assault qualified, and Honor Graduate of the US Army Ranger School. General Marks is a national security contributor to CNN and member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

Danny Lutkus leads Palantir's Midwest Commercial Business.  He is responsible for sales, delivery and technical success for our major customers in the Midwest private sector.  Danny has been at Palantir for 11 years — the first 5 years focused on engagements with our largest US government engagements (Department of Justice, US Special Operations, CIA and National Counterterrorism Center), the last 6 years Danny switched to the Commercial side of Palantir's business to return to his industrial midwestern roots to grow Palantir's presence in the region.  A University of Notre Dame and University of Chicago alumnus with a focus on Economics, Danny's expertise has been crucial in establishing strong partnerships in region and helping to deliver outsized value for our partners.  He resides in Chicago, IL with his wife and 4 children.

Chris Cillizza spent four years as an editor at large at CNN and regularly appeared as a political analyst on the network’s airwaves. Prior to CNN, Cillizza worked for a decade at The Washington Post, where he founded The Fix political blog and built a reputation as the authority on fast, incisive analysis of the day's events. A frequent TV guest across networks, Cillizza was an MSNBC political contributor for eight years. Prior to The Washington Post, Cillizza reported on campaign politics for Roll Call, where he served as their White House Correspondent. He also previously reported for The Cook Political Report, where he covered gubernatorial and House races. A graduate of Georgetown University, he lives in Virginia with his wife and two sons and is a diehard Hoyas basketball fan.

Jeffrey Passel is a senior demographer at Pew Research Center. He is a nationally known expert on immigration to the United States and the demography of racial and ethnic groups. Passel formerly served as principal research associate at the Urban Institute’s Labor, Human Services and Population Center. Passel has authored numerous studies on immigrant populations in America, focusing on such topics as undocumented immigration, the economic and fiscal impact of the foreign born, and the impact of welfare reform on immigrant populations. Passel regularly discusses the Center’s findings in print and broadcast media.

Jenn spent the first decade of her career with Illinois Tool Works (ITW). During that tenure, she undertook progressive business leadership roles across several divisions— including functional responsibility for sales, marketing, product management, operations, and corporate strategy.

Jenn specializes in strategy creation and execution. During the consolidation of multiple ITW operating units, she led the business segmentation into focused markets and products. She guided her team through value proposition definition and developed growth strategies. She restructured the commercial organization and built a product management function to drive the growth strategies. Using 80/20, Jenn eliminated complexity through customer and product line simplification. This resulted in cost reduction, bottom-line growth, and improved satisfaction of top customers.

Since joining Strategex, Jenn has consulted with more than 20 companies across various industries. She has helped her clients achieve profitable margin expansion and cash flow growth through revenue increases, overhead reductions, working capital reductions, and more.

She also has a track record of successfully leading turnarounds for failing manufacturing businesses. In 2021 she coached a tier 1 automotive client to overcome significant operational challenges. The results were a 25% increase in EBITDA, increased on-time delivery, and increased wallet share with the world’s largest automotive manufacturers.

Jenn has a BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Tech. She received her Executive MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School during which she earned The Entrepreneurship Award, and The Core Value Award for Rigor, among other recognitions. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband and two children.