Fisk Returns to IRI as Chief Operations Officer

Washington, DC – IRI today announced that Daniel W. Fisk is returning to the Institute to serve as its chief operations officer.  Fisk had previously served as the Institute’s vice president for policy and strategic planning from 2010-2014.

“When I first joined IRI, Dan’s counsel was invaluable and I am glad he will be able to rejoin the Institute,” said Ambassador Mark Green, president of IRI.  “His experience and expertise are well known throughout DC and are an asset to IRI as it enters its fourth decade of work.”  

Fisk departed IRI to join the George W. Bush Institute as director of its economic growth initiative.  While he will be returning to IRI, Fisk will remain a fellow and senior advisor at the Bush Institute, strengthening the relationship between the two organizations.

Prior to joining IRI in 2009, Fisk served in a number of positions in the U.S. government, including as special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the National Security Council (NSC) from October 2005 to January 2009.  He joined the NSC from the U.S. State Department, where he was deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. 

His experience in the U.S. government also includes service as the senior foreign policy and national security advisor to then-Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL); as a senior staff member and associate counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; as a staff member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; as deputy director for international counternarcotics matters in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; as special advisor to the assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs at the State Department; and as the deputy coordinator for Central American public diplomacy in the White House Office of Communications.  Fisk began his work in government as a research associate on the staff of the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition to his government service, Fisk was on the staff of the Heritage Foundation, having served as the deputy director of the Davis Institute for International Studies. 

Fisk holds a juris doctor and master’s degree in government from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa.  He is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations.