Daniel Poneman

Artificial intelligence is pushing U.S. electricity demand to levels the grid was never built to handle, and energy security has become inseparable from national security. Executives across every sector are asking where reliable, carbon-free power will actually come from, and fast enough to meet the moment. Daniel B. Poneman has spent five decades at the nexus of
energy and national security, first at the highest levels of the U.S. government and then at the helm of one of the country’s most consequential nuclear fuel companies. He helps leaders evaluate which technologies can genuinely scale, with the credibility of someone who has built infrastructure critical to our energy future.

Poneman served as United States Deputy Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2014, the longest tenure in that office’s history, including a stint as Acting Secretary of Energy in 2013. He later spent eight years as President and CEO of Centrus Energy Corp., multiplying the market cap by a factor of 20, restoring the company to profitability and, in October 2023, launching the first new U.S.-owned uranium enrichment plant to begin production since 1954. Today he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, which recently named the Daniel B. Poneman Chair for Nuclear Energy Policy in recognition of his contributions to the field. He also co-chairs the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition and the Commission on Nuclear Energy and Climate Security, serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group. Poneman is the author of four books, including “Double Jeopardy: Combating Nuclear Terror and Climate Change” (MIT Press, 2019). Few people alive have stood at the intersection of energy policy, national security, and corporate execution as consistently as Poneman, and fewer can translate that experience into a clear business case for the C-suite.

Turning Energy Risk Into Competitive Advantage

Many executives treat energy strategy as a cost line or a sustainability checkbox. Poneman argues this significantly understates the stakes. As hyperscale data centers, AI training clusters, and electrified industrial operations strain grids built for a different era, energy availability is becoming a critical competitive differentiator, determining which companies can site facilities, meet growth targets, and curb emissions. Drawing on his experience as a senior government official responsible for multi-billion dollar construction contracts, overseeing the implementation of federal loan guarantees, and rebuilding a distressed public company into a profitable enterprise, Poneman gives leaders a clear framework for evaluating energy investments: what is genuinely scalable, what remains years from commercial viability, and where the real bottlenecks, including talent, permitting, and supply chains, actually sit. Audiences leave with a sharper ability to separate energy hype from energy reality and a stronger sense of how to position their organizations for a decade in which power availability may matter as much as capital availability.

Navigating the New Politics of Nuclear

Nuclear energy has moved, in the span of a few years, from the margins of climate policy to the center of bipartisan energy strategy, driven by tech giants pledging investment in small modular reactors, congressional passage of the ADVANCE Act, and a White House push to restore American nuclear leadership. Poneman has been in the room for nearly every phase of this shift, from his time crafting nonproliferation policy at the National Security Council to his work in the private sector engaging on civil nuclear cooperation with partners around the world. He gives leaders a rare, nonpartisan read on where nuclear policy is actually headed, why it now commands unusually broad bipartisan support, and what it will take, in regulation, workforce development, and public-private financing, to build the hundreds of gigawatts of new nuclear capacity the U.S. needs by 2050. For organizations weighing long-horizon infrastructure bets, this is a briefing on where policy tailwinds are forming before they show up in the headlines.

Managing the Dual-Use Dilemma: Security Without Sacrificing Growth

Every leader operating in energy, defense, technology, or critical infrastructure eventually confronts a version of the problem Poneman has spent his career solving: how to pursue growth and innovation while keeping security risk within acceptable bounds. His work on nuclear nonproliferation, including his role in shaping U.S. policy toward North Korea’s nuclear program, was chronicled in “Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis” (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), winner of the The Douglas Dillon Book Award for Books of Distinction on the Practice of American Diplomacy. Poneman’s continuing work in national security gives him a distinctive vantage point on risk management that extends well beyond the energy sector. He translates decades of experience managing existential risks into practical guidance for executives navigating cybersecurity threats, supply chain vulnerabilities, and geopolitical exposure, showing how the same discipline that keeps nuclear materials secure can inform how organizations think about resilience more broadly.

Poneman is especially well suited for energy and utility companies, technology firms grappling with data center power needs, defense and industrial clients, and any organization for which national security, climate strategy, and long-term infrastructure planning intersect. Few speakers can claim to have managed a federal agency, rebuilt a public company, and shaped nonproliferation policy across three presidential administrations, and fewer still can connect that experience directly to the questions boards are asking today. Audiences leave with a sharper strategic vocabulary for one of the decade’s defining business challenges: how to secure the power and the peace that growth requires, and any organization for which national security, climate strategy, and long-term infrastructure planning intersect.

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Daniel B. Poneman is a nuclear energy and national security expert whose career spans senior government service, corporate leadership, and academic research. As former United States Deputy Secretary of Energy and former President and CEO of Centrus Energy Corp., he brings a rare combination of policy expertise and operational experience to conversations about energy security, nuclear policy, and the infrastructure challenges reshaping global power markets.

Poneman currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where the organization recently established the Daniel B. Poneman Chair for Nuclear Energy Policy in recognition of his contributions to the field. He co-chairs the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition and the Commission on Nuclear Energy and Climate Security, serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.  

Poneman’s expertise centers on nuclear energy policy, nonproliferation, and the intersection of energy security and national security. He speaks and writes on the resurgence of nuclear power as a response to AI-driven electricity demand, the rebuilding of domestic uranium enrichment capacity, and the policy and financing tools needed to scale advanced reactor technology. He is the author of four books, including “Double Jeopardy: Combating Nuclear Terror and Climate Change” (MIT Press, 2019) and “Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis” (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), coauthored with Joel S. Wit and Robert L. Gallucci, which received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy. His commentary and interviews have appeared in New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Gazette, and on podcasts including Resources Radio and Atomically Speaking, which he hosts for the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition.

He has advised corporations, government agencies, and international organizations on nuclear policy, energy strategy, and nonproliferation, and he speaks regularly at venues including CERAWeek and others around the world. His government honors include the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan and the Bronze Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit from the Republic of Korea.

Poneman served as United States Deputy Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2014, the longest tenure in that office’s history, including a period as Acting Secretary of Energy in 2013. Earlier in his career, he served on the National Security Council staff, practiced law at Covington & Burling and Hogan & Hartson, and advised corporate clients as a principal at the Scowcroft Group. He received an A.B. and J.D. with honors from Harvard University and an M.Litt. in Politics from Oxford University.

Daniel B. Poneman is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.