Kimberly Lehn is Senior Director at the Pacific Forum, in charge of the newly established Honolulu Defense Forum (HDF). Launched in January 2024 under the banner “Operationalizing Integration in the Indo-Pacific,” the HDF seeks to facilitate dialogue and solutions between a wide range of actors from the private and public sectors to bolster deterrence in the face of an increasingly contested regional security environment.
She is a national security professional with nearly 20 years of experience in the U.S. federal government and in the private sector. She is a Vice President at Beacon Global Strategies, a strategic advisory firm advising leading companies on national security issues; and previously served in various management and analytic roles in the Executive Branch and as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee in the Legislative Branch. There she led the committee’s oversight over Indo-Pacific issues among other areas that focused on the national security challenges facing the United States, particularly strategic competition with China and Russia, and the important role alliances and partnerships play to build collective security.
