At A Glance:

Michael R. Pompeo is a distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute. His work focuses on promoting US national security, technological leadership, and global engagement.

Biography

Michael R. Pompeo is a distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute and the chair of the China Center Advisory Board. At Hudson, his work focuses on promoting US national security, technological leadership, and global engagement. He served as the seventieth United States secretary of state from April 2018 through January 2021. He previously served from January 2017 to April 2018 as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

As our nation’s most senior diplomat, Secretary Pompeo helped craft US foreign policy based on our nation’s founding ideals, putting America first. America became a massive energy exporter and a force for good in the Middle East, cementing real peace through the work of the Abraham Accords. He placed particular emphasis on renewing alliances with key allies, including India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea.

Secretary Pompeo’s time at the State Department marked the end of naïve engagement with the Chinese Communist Party, pulling back the curtain shielding the egregious acts of the CCP that threaten American jobs and freedoms. He focused efforts on calling out and punishing perpetrators of attacks on basic human dignity in places like Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, Nigeria, China, and elsewhere. Secretary Pompeo also led a team that executed America’s largest-ever global repatriation effort in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to joining the Trump administration, Secretary Pompeo was serving in his fourth term as congressman from Kansas’ 4th District. He served on the House Intelligence Committee, Energy and Commerce Committee, and the House Select Benghazi Committee.

Before serving in Congress, Secretary Pompeo spent a decade leading two manufacturing businesses in Wichita, Kansas. He founded Thayer Aerospace, a global supplier to the world’s leading commercial and military aircraft builders, serving as CEO. He later became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturing, distribution, and service company.

After graduating first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986, Secretary Pompeo served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division.

Once completing his active duty, Secretary Pompeo graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as an attorney at Williams & Connolly immediately following Harvard.

In 2021, he founded Champion American Values PAC, supporting political candidates across the country who will champion the US and its founding principles first.

Secretary Pompeo is originally from Orange, California. He is married to Susan Pompeo and has one son, Nick.

17
September 2024
Past Event
Taiwan’s Democracy in the International Community
Featured Speakers:
Miles Yu
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Tsai
Tom McDevitt
Ngalim Tiunn
Harper Chen
Decorations for celebrating Taiwanese National Day are seen on the Presidential Office Building on October 12, 2023, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Alex Wong via Getty Images)
17
September 2024
Past Event
Taiwan’s Democracy in the International Community

Hudson’s China Center, with representatives from the Taiwan United Nations Alliance and the Washington Times, will explore Taiwan’s role on the international stage and discuss how to combat the PRC’s efforts and enhance United States–Taiwan military and diplomatic cooperation.

Decorations for celebrating Taiwanese National Day are seen on the Presidential Office Building on October 12, 2023, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Alex Wong via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Miles Yu
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Tsai
Tom McDevitt
Ngalim Tiunn
Harper Chen
15
May 2024
Past Event
The Pernicious Impact of China’s Anti-Secession Law
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Senator Tom Cotton
Robert Tsao
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Scott Morrison
Vincent Chao
Yu-Jie Chen
Margaret Lewis
Donald C. Clarke
Heino Klinck
Bonny Lin
Moderator:
Miles Yu
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian participates in a rally to protest against the Anti-Secession Law on March 26, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Photo by Andrew Wong/Getty Images)
15
May 2024
Past Event
The Pernicious Impact of China’s Anti-Secession Law

Hudson Institute’s China Center and United Microelectronics Corporation founder Robert Tsao will host a conference with experts and policymakers to analyze China’s 2005 anti-secession law.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian participates in a rally to protest against the Anti-Secession Law on March 26, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Photo by Andrew Wong/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Senator Tom Cotton
Robert Tsao
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Scott Morrison
Vincent Chao
Yu-Jie Chen
Margaret Lewis
Donald C. Clarke
Heino Klinck
Bonny Lin
Moderator:
Miles Yu
07
March 2024
Past Event
Aiding America’s Frontline Allies: The View from Israel and Ukraine with Secretary Mike Pompeo
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Doran
The Israeli flag flies in front of the Lviv Regional State Administration building as a sign of solidarity with the Israeli people on October 13, 2023, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Photo by Les Kasyanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
07
March 2024
Past Event
Aiding America’s Frontline Allies: The View from Israel and Ukraine with Secretary Mike Pompeo

Mike Pompeo will sit down with Michael Doran to discuss how America return to a position of global strength.

The Israeli flag flies in front of the Lviv Regional State Administration building as a sign of solidarity with the Israeli people on October 13, 2023, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Photo by Les Kasyanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Doran
09
November 2023
Past Event
The Israel-Hamas War: A Conversation with Seventieth Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Doran
An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
09
November 2023
Past Event
The Israel-Hamas War: A Conversation with Seventieth Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Join Hudson for a discussion with Distinguished Fellow Michael R. Pompeo on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war’s place in the Iranian strategy to undermine the United States.

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Michael Doran
31
May 2023
Past Event
Partnership of Freedom: AUKUS Viewed by Its Architects
Featured Speakers:
Hon. Boris Johnson
Hon. Scott Morrison
Michael R. Pompeo
Bryan Clark
John Lee
Moderator:
Miles Yu
.
31
May 2023
Past Event
Partnership of Freedom: AUKUS Viewed by Its Architects

Please join Hudson’s China Center for a panel discussion with the architects of the AUKUS agreement—former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Seventieth US Secretary of State and Distinguished Fellow Michael R. Pompeo—on this monumental diplomatic and security achievement.

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Featured Speakers:
Hon. Boris Johnson
Hon. Scott Morrison
Michael R. Pompeo
Bryan Clark
John Lee
Moderator:
Miles Yu
17
May 2023
Past Event
The Next Move in Ukraine: A Conversation with Michael R. Pompeo
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Peter Rough
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 4, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
17
May 2023
Past Event
The Next Move in Ukraine: A Conversation with Michael R. Pompeo
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 4, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Michael R. Pompeo
Peter Rough
11
October 2022
Past Event
Dragon in the North: Assessing the Growing Chinese Threat to the Arctic Region
Featured Speakers:
Miles Yu
Michael R. Pompeo
Arthur Herman
Roslyn Layton
Liselotte Odgaard
Members of China's research team set up an ocean profiling float at a short-term data acquisition location near the icebreaker Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon," in the Arctic Ocean, on August 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Wu Yue via Getty Images)
11
October 2022
Past Event
Dragon in the North: Assessing the Growing Chinese Threat to the Arctic Region

The China Center will host a conference, entitled “The Dragon in the North: Assessing the Growing Chinese Threat to the Arctic Region,” organized by Hudson Senior Fellow Dr. Arthur Herman.

Members of China's research team set up an ocean profiling float at a short-term data acquisition location near the icebreaker Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon," in the Arctic Ocean, on August 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Wu Yue via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Miles Yu
Michael R. Pompeo
Arthur Herman
Roslyn Layton
Liselotte Odgaard