Nicoletta Giordani

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Nicoletta Giordani is the Principal Director of Global Investment and Economic Security (GIES) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment), Industrial Base Policy. Ms. Giordani has been a member of the Senior Executive Service at the Department of Defense (DoD) since June 2019. In her role as Principal Director of GIES, she is responsible for safeguarding the U.S. industrial base from investment and economic risks. Ms. Giordani oversees DoD’s representation to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (Team Telecom), and the Information and Communications Technology Services (ICTS) Committee; outbound investment; DoD’s review of defense-related mergers and acquisitions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act; the 1260H list of Entities Identified as Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States; market and investment trends analysis of foreign and adversarial capital; economic security and wargames, cybersecurity and intelligence research.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Giordani served as the Chief Strategy Officer for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) where 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.

In 2018, Ms. Giordani was selected for the White House Leadership Fellows program and was detailed to the National Security Division of the Office of Management and Budget where she managed a $75 billion annual portfolio. Prior to her fellowship, Ms. Giordani was the Assistant Director for Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) at DCSA, advising DoD senior leadership on opportunities and challenges to the industrial base stemming from foreign direct investment, global market trends, and technology transfers.

Ms. Giordani 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, 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.

Ms. Giordani received a Master of Arts in International Economics and Strategic Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration 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 of the University of Pennsylvania. She has been awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service and she has received the DoD award for excellence for exceptionally meritorious service in developing a set of near- and long-term options to address supply chain risks.

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