General (Ret.) David H. Petraeus served over 37 years in the US military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands – five were in combat, including command of the Surge in Iraq, the US Central Command and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Following his retirement from the military and after the US Senate’s confirmation by a vote of 94-0, he served as director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the global war on terror, established important digital initiatives and made significant investments in the agency’s most important asset – its human capital.

General Petraeus is a Partner and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, which he established in 2013. He is also a member of the board of directors of Optiv and OneStream, a venture investor in some 20 start-ups and has engaged in a variety of academic endeavours.

He graduated with distinction from the US Military Academy and is the only person in the US Army’s history to be the top graduate of both the demanding US Army Ranger School and the US Army’s Command and General Staff College. He also earned a PhD from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

General Petraeus taught international relations and economics at the US Military Academy in the mid1980s, was a visiting professor of public policy at the Honors College of the City University of New York from 2013 through 2016 and for six years, he was a Judge Widney professor at the University of Southern California and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, Co-chairman of the Global Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Senior Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute, a member of the Trilateral Commission as well as a member of the boards of the Atlantic Council, the Institute for the Study of War and over a dozen veterans’ service organisations.

Over the past 15 years, General Petraeus was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by US News and World Report, a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph Man of the Year, a Time 100 selectee, Princeton University’s Madison Medalist and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals in three different years. He has also earned numerous honours, awards and decorations, including four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, two NATO Meritorious Service Medals, the Combat Action Badge, the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist and Air Assault Badges. In addition, General Petraeus has been decorated by 13 foreign countries.