The IDP Team

Michael Marks, Managing Partner is a senior Washington-based executive, with over 30 years of public and private sector experience in international affairs and national security issues, technology competitiveness, innovative open source intelligence methodologies, and business development in the federal government marketplace.

He is a seasoned businessperson, international negotiator and interlocutor with the highest levels of the U.S. government and industry, as well as a corporate strategic planner and decision-maker.  He served as staff director and primary author for several Presidential and USG Agency-level reports and studies.

Michael was a founder of Synthesis Partners, a leading innovative open source decision intelligence firm.  Prior to that he was President, Michael B. Marks and Associates and an Adjunct Staff Member with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA).  Michael also served as Executive Vice President, Projectavision, Inc., Vice President for Corporate Development, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Vice President for Strategic and Government Operations, Reality Mobile, LLC.

He held a number of high-level government policy positions in the Executive and Legislative branches, including Senior Policy Advisor to the Office of Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Assistant Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Executive Office of the President; Senior Policy Advisor to the Under Secretary for Security Assistance, Science and Technology, U.S. Department of State; and Legislative Assistant for Foreign Affairs and National Security for Senator Jake Garn.

He holds a Masters degree in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Eric Levy-Myers, Partner, brings over twenty years of extensive strategic, management, Information Communications Technology (ICT) and national security experience from multiple industries and government organizations.  He has a proven record of success in helping clients analyze complex business problems and develop customer-centric capabilities especially in entrepreneurial environments.  His particular expertise is in leveraging the relationship between technology and strategy to create business value, competitive advantage and risk reduction.  He has spoken at numerous conferences and is published.

His professional experience includes commercial and government consulting as well as executive responsibilities.  In the government sector, Eric has supported various agencies including Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force, the US Marine Corps, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and the US Department of State Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), on projects that generally involve the threats from and the opportunities from disruptive and innovative technology.  Eric also was an Adjunct Consultant for the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI), the Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) for the Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP), Executive Office of the White House and the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), the FFRDC for OSD.

During his career, his topics of analysis have been as diverse as military logistics, nuclear proliferation indicators, Internet suppression and circumvention technology to inform US government activities to support Internet freedom, rare earth elements, chemical warfare defense, IED detection and defeat, rail guns, the relationship of innovation to job creation, landmines, high efficiency air filters, future military political environments, alternative materials for making shipping pallets, Sense and Respond military logistics (including writing the Sense and Respond Logistics Technology Roadmap for AT&L (OSD), intelligent agent software, battlefield robotics, national industrial base analysis and DOD technology rapid acquisition policy.

As a commercial consultant, his experience includes developing federal market entry strategies, creating business strategies, performing due diligence for VC investments, technology discovery and analysis, writing business cases, requirements analysis, and producing product development roadmaps.  Over his consulting career, he has provided services to AT&T, AT&T WorldNet, Concert, Bell South, Bell South.Net, SNET, Swiss PTT, Dutch PTT, WinStar, Stentor, InterPay, Reliant Energy, PSE&G, Citibank, UUnet, Telia, Sprint, Intelliven, Synthesis Partners, Boeing, Cable and Wireless, Bell Canada, the Flywheel Group, Financial Times, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and American Institute of Architects and several anonymous companies and VCs.  Eric has also consulted on sensors and intelligent sensor networks, with an emphasis on Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and supports the MEMS Industry Group (MIG).  He is currently writing a book on MEMS commercialization with industry experts.

Eric pursued a PhD the Fletcher School at Tufts and Harvard Universities and has a BA from Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska. He has also studied at Institute Universitaire De Hautes Études Internationale, Geneva, Switzerland and the University of Chicago.

Rich Rattan, Partner, has 37 years experience in all-source intelligence analysis, intelligence collection, due diligence and risk mitigation studies, competitive intelligence, biometrics analysis, operational testing and market research, and program management.  For the last twelve years, he has been the senior intelligence officer and market survey expert for a test agency of the Department of Defense, specializing in finding commercial off-the-shelf technologies that meet warfighter requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as security assessments of specialized military units.  He has extensively studied international terrorist organizations and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and has produced numerous studies and assessments of their use of social media for communications, armor-piercing ammunition, and techniques for employing improvised explosive devices (IED).  He has developed extensive analytical and business relationships with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other members of the Intelligence Community (IC) for developing strategic analyses of biometrics, open and closed source analysis for counter-terrorism issues, and risk management studies. His intelligence analysis and collection expertise evolved from over 30 years working directly in support of U.S. Army, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), unified commands, NATO units in Germany and Turkey as a tactical/strategic intelligence officer, Soviet/Russian and Warsaw Pact analyst, and U.S. Army Attaché in Bulgaria.

Fluent in Spanish and Bulgarian, Rich can conduct original research in several Romance and Slavic languages and is an expert at finding source material on the Deep Web, Grey Area literature, commercial databases, and social networks.  He was a career intelligence officer in the US Army for 25 years and served numerous tours in Europe and the Middle East.

Rich holds a Masters degree in International Relations from Boston University, a Masters degree in Spanish Literature, Ohio State University, and a Bachelors degree in Spanish, St. Bonaventure University.

Dwight Rider, Partner, has more than 30 years military-civilian service as a weapons of mass destruction analyst (WMD), Measurements and Signals Intelligence (MASINT), targeting intelligence specialist, national level electronic warfare threat officer, electric power analyst, advanced technologies development, analyst studying underground facilities, counter-terrorism, counterinsurgency, asymmetric and unconventional warfare and geospatial intelligence analysis. Dwight possesses extensive experience in all areas of infrastructure and defensive analysis and is intimately familiar with imagery analysis, targeting, and the use of all-source intelligence materials to solve existing and long-term problem sets.

He has extensive experience with the culture, sociology, geography and history of the Middle East, Northeast and Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent and backs this up with a Master of Science Degree in Strategic Intelligence. Mr. Rider has been continuously successful in locating and identifying adversarial enigmatic facilities above- and below-ground to include those involved in nuclear, chemical, biological and illegal drug production from all-source research and historical references. A targeteer specializing in infrastructure and systems analysis: Dwight has the ability to identify the critical nodes in any system or facility the loss of which…eliminates the threat.  Some of his recent accomplishments have included identifying and characterizing biological warfare facilities of a specific threat nation against historic and current all-source reporting. He also developed specific methodologies and recommended the use of singular assets that aided the locating and release of U.S. nationals held by insurgents in foreign countries.

Dwight is also responsible for the creation of several specialized methodologies to include the use of secondary and tertiary signatures enabling the location and identification of suspect nuclear, chemical and biological weapons materials production facilities to include the identification of several thousand underground facilities across Asia and the Middle East. He has worked across agency and internal offices to locate and isolate conventional weapons caches and other materials used in counterinsurgency operations against US forces. Additionally, Dwight has worked directly with US Special Operations units developing small unit attack plans to shut down or otherwise eliminate large-scale underground facilities.

He is fluent in Hangul (Korean) to a level allowing independent travel and some level of research. He is also familiar with Tagalog, the national language of the Republic of the Philippines, and written Chinese.

He holds a Master of Science, Strategic Intelligence, Defense Intelligence College and has completed the Post-Graduate Intelligence Program, Joint Military Intelligence College.  He also holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science and History, University of Nebraska and received an Associate of Applied Science degree in Intelligence and Imagery Analysis, Community College of the Air Force, Maxwell AFB.

Other Resources

IDP has nearly 40 fully vetted Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and researchers on call including those stationed outside the US.  All of our partners, managers, and staff are senior-level professionals.  Each has 20+ years of expertise in government, industry, technical areas, research, and country knowledge.

Advisory Group

Michael A. Daniels, is former chairman of Network Solutions, former chairman and CEO of Mobile365 and former chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (largest technology council in the United States).

Mr. Daniels rose to national industry prominence with SAIC where he served as a member of the senior management team (senior vice president and sector vice president).

Mr. Daniels has served on the board of directors of Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore) and VeriSign.

Daniels has served with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense, on numerous international commissions and advisory boards, on the United States Trade Representatives International Investment Policy Advisory Commission, as a U.S. National Commissioner to UNESCO, as a senior White House advisor on international technology and as a senior advisor to the National Security Council.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the Virginia Chamber of Commerce (Past Chairman), the Boy Scouts of America National Capital Area Council (past president and chairman), GlobalLogic (chairman), the Logistics Management Institute (chairman), Invincea (chairman) and Mercury Systems.

Dr. Mark Lowenthal is the President and CEO of the Intelligence & Security Academy.  Dr. Lowenthal has served as the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and as the Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council.  He was the staff director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 104th Congress (1995-97), where he directed the committee’s study on the future of the Intelligence Community, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century.  He has also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as both an office director and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.  He was also the Senior Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.  In 2011-2012, Dr. Lowenthal led the Defense Intelligence Analysis Review for the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI).  Dr. Lowenthal has written extensively on intelligence and national security issues, including six books and over 90 articles or studies.  His most recent book, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy (Sage/CQ Press, 5th ed., 2011) has become the standard college and graduate school textbook on the subject.  Two of his books are novels:  Crispan Magicker (1797); and The Great God Pan (a Kindle e-book). Dr. Lowenthal received his B.A. from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.  He is an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University; he was an adjunct at Columbia University from 1993-2007.  In 2005, Dr. Lowenthal was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.  In 1988, Dr. Lowenthal was the Grand Champion on Jeopardy!, the television quiz show.

The Hon. Tidal W. McCoy, Chairman of the Cyber and Space Transportation Association and former Managing Partner and Chairman at Washington Capital Partners, LLC which he founded in 1998. Hon. McCoy was the Founder and Vice Chairman of the George Washington National Bank. Prior to that, he was a Senior Vice President for Government Relations at Thiokol. Hon. McCoy held several Presidential-appointed positions within the government as Acting Under Secretary and Acting Secretary of the Air Force. He also served as an Assistant Secretary of the USAF for Readiness Support and an Assistant Secretary for Manpower Reserve Affairs and Installations and Assistant for National Security Affairs to Senator Jake Garn of Utah, Scientific Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Engineering, and Systems, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He was a Member of the National Security Council Member of the Long-Range Planning and Net Assessment Group in the office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. McCoy serves on several corporate and non-profit Boards of Directors and is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Space Transportation Association of the United States. Hon. McCoy served as a Combat Unit Commander in Germany and Vietnam and as an Intelligence Officer at DIA, CIA, and NSA.

Major General William R. Usher, USAF (Ret.) has consulted for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, US Combatant Commands (USEUCOM, USPACOM, USSOUTHCOM, USCENTCOM, USTRATCOM, USSPACECOM, and USTRANSCOM) and intelligence agencies on military operations, intelligence and technology transition. He also served on a Defense Science Board study. He also advises commercial information technology companies on conducting business with US defense and intelligence agencies.

Upon retirement from the U.S. Air Force, General Usher joined Lockheed Martin Corporation.  His area of concentration was the national and Defense intelligence and command and control communities, especially those elements involved with US classified space imaging and SIGINT systems. He was closely involved in providing integrated information management capabilities to support national intelligence and military C4ISR mission needs. In this capacity, he interacted regularly with the senior leadership and program managers of NIMA (now NGA), DIA, NSA, CIA and the NRO, as well as with representatives of the OSD and Service intelligence and C4ISR organizations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Combatant Commands.

Later, he established a consulting practice to provide strategic assistance to information technology companies seeking to conduct business with the DoD and agencies of the US Intelligence Community. He also served on a number of panels to advise military commands and agencies on military operations, intelligence and information technology. His clients included Auspex Systems, Autometric, Inc., Core Software Technology, Eastman Kodak, and Welkin Associates.