The Honorable Mark William Lippert

The Honorable Mark William Lippert is Executive Vice President, Head of North American Public Affairs and Chief Risk Officer for Samsung Electronics North America, based in Washington, DC. He is a senior adviser to the CSIS Korea Chair, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Halifax Forum and is on the Board of Directors of the Korea Society. Mark joined Samsung after executive positions at Google (YouTube) and The Boeing Company.

Prior to this, Mark had a distinguished career in the United States government across multiple agencies, including serving as the United States ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Korea (2014-2017). He previously held positions in the Department of Defense, including as chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (2013-2014) and as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (2012-2013), the top official in the Pentagon for all Asia issues. Lippert also worked in the White House as chief of staff to the National Security Council in 2009.

He was also an intelligence officer in the United States Navy, serving with the Naval Special Warfare (SEALs) Development Group during deployments to Afghanistan and other regions and as an intelligence officer with Seal Team One in Anbar Province, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.A. in political science and holds an M.A. in international policy studies from the same institution. He speaks Korean and also studied Mandarin Chinese at Beijing University. Lippert is married to Robyn E. Lippert who serves as a senior vice president at UnitedHealth Group and has two children, Sejun and Sahee. They live in Washington, D.C. with their basset hound, Grigsby.