Mark Cowan

Mark Cowan is an Investor/Partner in The Americas Group Financial Services and a Member of the Board of Advisors of The Americas Group. Mr. Cowan is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cowan Strategies (www.cowanstrategies.net/)   a prominent Washington, D.C. public policy advisory firm. Mark draws on more than 35 years' experience working on complex domestic and international public policy issues as counsel for a broad range of clients. He advises corporations, government entities, and foreign sovereigns on a wide array of business, regulatory, and trade issues.

Mr. Cowan, a lawyer, has headed three companies of his own, been a senior partner at Patton Boggs, LLP, an AM Law 100 firm, wherein he both created and directed the firm’s Business Development Department and effort for over 500 lawyers. Having founded The Jefferson Group in 1987, Mr. Cowan grew that public affairs firm to become the second largest in its class in six years before selling the company. Thereafter, he was Vice Chairman of Cassidy & Associates, Washington’s largest public affairs company, C.E.O. of the Columbus Group, C.E.O. of Newmyer Associates and a Senior Vice President at Hill and Knowlton, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, where he counseled numerous domestic and international clients.

Before entering the private sector, Mr. Cowan held Presidential appointments in three administrations. During the first Reagan administration, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health until his appointment as Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Secretary of Labor in 1982. Later, President George H.W. Bush appointed him as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Employment Policy. More recently, President George W. Bush appointed him as a Member of the President’s Council on the 21st Century Work Force.

Mr. Cowan has also held several other government posts. He was Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (ethics) of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an operations officer, serving abroad and as a country desk chief in the agency’s Directorate of Operations, and later held the position of Assistant Legislative Counsel to the Director of Central Intelligence. In the U.S. Air Force, Captain Cowan flew in the back seat of the F-101 fighter interceptor.

Professional Affiliations

•Board of Visitors, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law 

•Vice-Chairman of the Board, Center on Congress, Indiana University

•Chairman, Board of Advisors, Virginia Military-Institute’s International Studies Program

•Senior Counsel and Director, American – Libyan – Chamber of Commerce & Industry

•Board of Directors, Duluth Metals

•Board of Directors, Americans in Wartime Museum

•Board of Directors, United for D.C. Foundation 

•Board of Directors, Suntrak Energy

•Board of Directors, Empowering Americ