Richard Falkenrath

Head of Geopolitics & Chief Security Officer
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Richard is Head of Geopolitics, where he oversees research on the challenges posed by geopolitical conflict to global investors and the sizable impact that government policy can have on economies and markets. He is also Chief Security Officer, a Partner at the firm, and a member of the firm's Operating Committee. Richard joined Bridgewater in 2014. Until 2019, as Chief Security Officer, he was responsible for all aspects of Bridgewater's security, including cybersecurity operations, physical security, internal affairs and investigations, business continuity, disaster recovery, intellectual property protection, and non-compete agreement enforcement. From 2020 until the end of 2022, Richard was Chief Administrative Officer, a role in which he directed Bridgewater’s operational risk management and administration; managed the firm's legal, regulatory, security, human resources, and real estate departments; and led Bridgewater's handling of the COVID pandemic.

From 2000 to 2004, Richard was a member of the National Security Council and White House staff, ultimately as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor. He served as Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism of the New York City Police Department from 2006 to 2010. Prior to the White House, he was Assistant Professor at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also been the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Contributing Editor to Bloomberg TV.

Outside of Bridgewater, Richard is Senior Fellow for National Security at the Council on Foreign Relations; a member of the Trilateral Commission; a member of the Aspen Strategy Group; and a member of the Mission Committee of the Board of Governors of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and author or co-author of several books. Richard is a summa cum laude graduate of Occidental College, with degrees in economics and international relations. He received a Ph.D. from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where he was a British Marshall Scholar.

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More from Richard Falkenrath
April 7, 2022
At Bloomberg’s Wealth Summit, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Falkenrath joins Erik Schatzker for a discussion on how recent events have changed the global risk landscape. Drawing on history and his vast experience in the national security realm, Richard assesses the geopolitical implications of rising conflict and offers guidance on managing operational risk in this new environment.
March 4, 2022
Richard Falkenrath, Karen Karniol-Tambour, Larry Cofsky, Jim Haskel
This podcast features Chief Administrative Officer Richard Falkenrath discussing where the Russia-Ukraine crisis stands and Co-CIO Karen Karniol-Tambour and senior investor Larry Cofsky assessing the economic and market impacts.
November 10, 2020
Larry Cofsky, Richard Falkenrath, Kiran Rao, Yusuf Jailani
On the heels of promising vaccine news, we share perspective on the news itself and its ripple across markets. Chief Administrative Officer Richard Falkenrath and Head of COVID Task Force Kiran Rao discuss how the news is significant and the broader state of the pandemic right now. Richard is a former senior White House official who was at the center of the response to the SARS outbreak, and Kiran is a medical doctor who has previously done significant epidemiology work with the Gates Foundation and World Health Organization.
February 3, 2020
Richard Falkenrath, Jason Rotenberg, Matthew Karasz, Philip Clark
A few weeks ago, most of us had never heard of a “coronavirus”—much less “2019-nCoV,” the precise term for the seventh known strain of coronavirus, which first appeared in humans late last year in Wuhan, China. Now, barely a month since it was first reported, the new virus has seized the attention of the world. It has infected thousands of people, disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions, and become a major market driver. And the outbreak appears to be accelerating.
February 26, 2020
Greg Jensen, Richard Falkenrath, Jim Haskel
With the growing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel sat down with Chief Security Officer Richard Falkenrath and Co-CIO Greg Jensen to discuss what we currently know about the coronavirus, how it compares to disease outbreaks over the last century, and its potential impact on economies and markets.
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