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Profile

Melissa Mahle is a senior advisor* in Bradley’s Strategic Advisory Group. Melissa is a risk professional with public and private sector experience in intelligence collection and analysis, risk management and investigations. Using skills, experience and contacts developed in her career as a U.S. intelligence officer, she advises clients on political and security risks, crisis management, incident response, after-action reviews and business continuity.

Melissa conducts due diligence and compliance investigations and provides bespoke threat analysis, security briefings and scenario development for tabletop and other training exercises. She also advises clients on best practices and formulation of company security policies tailored to the client’s operational environment and corporate culture.

Her professional experience as a former U.S. intelligence officer has afforded her with two decades of on-the-ground knowledge of the Middle East and global national security challenges, which she now leverages to provide informed analysis of key regional and global developments to clients in private industry and foreign governments. 

Melissa is a member of the editorial team for the Bradley Intelligence Report, a global business and geopolitical risk newsletter. Melissa has published papers in Arab and U.S. policy journals and speaks publicly on national security, energy security and political risk. She is the author of Denial and Deception: An Insider's View of the CIA from Iran-Contra to 9/11 (Nation Books, 2003) and, on the lighter side, she has authored children's books and served as a Hollywood film consultant.

A native of California, Melissa has a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an M.A. in International Affairs and a Certificate from the Middle East Institute at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She joined the CIA in 1988, working in clandestine operations with the Near East Division, Directorate of Operations. In 2003, she joined C&O Resources, a political consulting company focused on the Middle East.

Melissa previously served as a senior analyst at Dentons.

*Melissa Mahle is not an attorney.

Bar Admissions

  • Tennessee, 1977

Education

  • Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, M.A. Certificate from the Middle Eastern Institute, 1989
  • Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, M.I.A. International Affairs, 1989
  • University of California, Berkeley, B.A. Near Eastern Studies, 1983, summa cum laude

Areas of Practice

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