Michael H. Herson is President and Chief Executive Officer of American Defense International, Inc (ADI).
Michael Herson was raised in New Jersey and has a Bachelor’s Degree in American Government from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor from Rutgers University School of Law, and a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.
While a student at Georgetown, Michael Herson was selected to be a White House Intern where he served in the Executive Office of President Ronald Reagan and in the speech writing office of Vice President George Bush. After returning to Washington in 1990, Herson was appointed as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management and Personnel, the Pentagon’s senior manpower official responsible for all personnel policy and oversight of the recruiting, training, compensation, support, and management of the Department’s military and civilian personnel. In 1993, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
After leaving the Department of Defense, Michael Herson joined the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution as a Visiting Fellow for National Security Affairs. From April 1993 to June 1993, Herson was part of the team that successfully defended the Great Lakes Naval Training Center before the Base Closure Commission. From August 1993 through September 1994, Michael Herson was the Assistant Vice President of HealthCare Imaging Services, Inc. in Middletown, New Jersey, a health care company which specializes in magnetic resonance imaging. On June 7, 1994, Michael Herson won the Republican primary election becoming his party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in New Jersey’s Sixth District and received national recognition as one of the youngest candidates in the country.
He has been quoted as a political and defense expert in many national and Washington publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Businessweek, Investor’s Business Daily, The Huffington Post, Politico, The Hill, and Roll Call and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, XM Talk Radio 168, and Defense & Aerospace Report. Defense News has recognized him as one of the top 100 influential people in US Defense, and the Hill newspaper named him as one of the top lobbyists in Washington and one of the top “Hired Guns” in the nation’s capital.
Herson serves on the board of many national security and defense-related organizations, as well as charitable organizations. He is a member of the American Security Project’s Consensus for American Security, a group of influential military and national security leaders who have come together to highlight growing support for a new, sustainable and comprehensive national security policy. He serves on the Board of Trustees at the Lexington Institute, a non-profit public-policy think tank that focuses on national security, education reform, and U.S. relations with Cuba. Herson is an honorary Member of the Board of Surprise Lake Camp, which provides high quality Jewish camping experiences for underprivileged children and young adults from the greater New York City area, and he served on the board of the Bronx Freedom Fund, which helped indigent defendants meet their bail obligations. Herson has also passed the Court of Master Sommeliers Level One examination and has his own wine label.