Ali Soufan is the Chief Executive Officer of The Soufan Group LLC. Mr. Soufan is a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who investigated and supervised highly sensitive and complex international terrorism cases, including the East Africa Embassy Bombings, the attack on the USS Cole, and the events surrounding 9/11. Mr. Soufan is regarded as a leading national security and counterterrorism expert, and continues to play a significant advisory role on today's most sensitive issues.

Mr. Soufan had a distinguished career in the FBI. He often operated out of hostile environments and carried out sensitive extra-territorial missions and high-level negotiations. Mr. Soufan also served on the Joint Terrorist Task Force, FBI New York Office, where he coordinated both domestic and international counterterrorism operations.

Mr. Soufan has received numerous awards and commendations for his counter-terrorism work. These include the Director of the FBI's Award for Excellence in Investigation, the Respect for Law Enforcement Award for "relentless pursuit of truth and bringing terrorist subjects before the bar of justice," and a commendation from the U.S. Department of Defense that labeled him "an important weapon in the ongoing war on terrorism."

Mr. Soufan's work in the FBI was noticed by the former Mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani who hired him to serve as the Chief Operations Officer of the International Division of Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, a division of Giuliani Partners LLC. Mr. Soufan was instrumental in expanding the global reach of GSS.

Mr. Soufan serves as the Executive Director of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS), and as a Visiting Senior Fellow in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, Presidential Commissions, the British Parliament's Home Affairs Committee, and appeared as an expert panelist and as a guest speaker at international security forums, both in the United States and abroad.

Mr. Soufan has been profiled, interviewed, and been a contributor to numerous publications worldwide, including 60 Minutes, Frontline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, the BBC's Hard Talk, Anderson Cooper 360, Fox and Friends, The O'Reilly Factor, Rachel Maddow, The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Straits Times, Spiegel, and Asharq Alawsat. Mr. Soufan's record has also been detailed in non-fiction books, including "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright.

Mr. Soufan is an Honors graduate from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania where he received undergraduate degrees in International Studies and Political Science. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Villanova University where he received a Master of Arts in International Relations.

He is the author of The New York Times Top 10 Bestseller, "The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al Qaeda" (Published September 12, 2011, by WW Norton and Penguin), selected as a book of the year by The Sunday Times. About the book and Mr. Soufan, Harpers Magazine wrote: "To those inside the U.S. government Soufan has long been something of a legend. He conducted the most effective and fruitful interrogations of al Qaeda suspects during the war on terrorism."

In April 2012, Ali Soufan was announced as the recipient of the ninth annual Ridenhour Book Prize, which honors acts of truth-telling and outstanding works of social significance in publishing, for The Black Banners.