Mark Chichester is co-founder and President of Atlas Research, and brings more than 15 years of executive and board service experience to the firm.  Mr. Chichester plays an active role in developing and directing corporate growth strategy; oversees the Atlas strategic advisory, strategic communications, and federal advisory committee teams; and manages the firm’s corporate advisory board and the recently established Atlas Institute, providing client solutions for organizational learning, performance, and assessment.  Mr. Chichester holds a faculty appointment in the Health Systems Administration Department at Georgetown University, where he has lectured on global health and public-private partnerships in public health.

Before Atlas, Mr. Chichester was a Vice President and the Executive Director of the Socrates Society at The Aspen Institute, where he developed and oversaw a portfolio of programs and seminars on contemporary leadership issues, including bioethics and health care, climate change and energy sustainability, international security, media, religion, leadership, democracy, technology, and innovation.  Participants included entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, private equity and hedge fund managers, journalists, new media executives, congressional staffers, military officers and NGO leaders.  During his tenure with The Aspen Institute, Mr. Chichester collaborated with private and public sector thought leaders, and worked with senior officials who have served in the Obama, Clinton, Bush, and Reagan Administrations.  He conceived and led the development of the Socrates Society Salon Series, inaugurated in Silicon Valley in 2008, and served on the Institute's Venture Fund Committee.

Prior to joining The Aspen Institute, Mr. Chichester was Director of the Division of Policy Studies and Research at UNCF Special Programs Corporation, where he provided leadership of the Institute for International Public Policy and the Center for Assessment, Planning and Accountability.  Before serving as division director, Mr. Chichester was Executive Director of the Institute for International Public Policy, where he was responsible for developing and managing $20 million in portfolio projects and initiatives.

Mr. Chichester was an Associate in the General Instrument Corporation government affairs office, where he was responsible for open-source business intelligence projects related to high-definition television technical standard adoption; and, prior to that, while a law student in Foggy Bottom, served on the Director General’s Policy Coordination Staff at the U.S. Department of State.

Mr. Chichester has been a member of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff’s Eisenhower National Security Series Working Group, where he organized programs on the impacts and role culture on national security; a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he co-chaired the Washington Term Member Advisory Committee; and a District of Columbia Human Rights Commissioner.  He is also a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and of the Institute of International Strategic Studies.  Mr. Chichester was appointed to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, and serves on a variety of nonprofit and corporate boards, including the Forum on Education Abroad and the National Education Association Foundation, where he serves as Vice Chair.  Mr. Chichester holds degrees in business and law from The George Washington University, where he received the George Washington Award, the Martin Luther King Medal for Outstanding Contributions in Human Rights, and the Baer Leadership Award.  Mr. Chichester held a Shapiro Fellowship in the Republic of Korea, and he has been an Executive Seminarian of the Aspen Institute.