James B. Skinner is Vice President at American Global Strategies (AGS), an international strategic advisory firm co-founded by former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien and former National Security Council Chief of Staff Alexander B. Gray. Prior to this role, Mr. Skinner was Chief of Staff at the firm where he provided support to leadership on the management and day-to-day execution of key business operations.
Before joining AGS, Mr. Skinner served on the White House National Security Council (NSC) as Special Assistant to the U.S. National Security Advisor (NSA) from 2019 – 2021. He worked closely with the White House Situation Room to review and prioritize national security documents, intelligence reports, and other sensitive communications to prepare the NSA, Deputy NSA, and Chief of Staff of the NSC for meetings with domestic and foreign counterparts. During this time, Mr. Skinner traveled on several Presidential Missions with the NSA across the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South America, Indo-Pacific, and throughout the United States.
Earlier, Mr. Skinner was a Presidential Appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense as Policy Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics & Global Threats. His portfolio focused on utilizing counter threat finance to combat transnational organized crime across the Indo-Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa. He was responsible for overseeing issues of human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, money laundering, and intellectual property theft in those regions.
While in this role, Mr. Skinner was appointed to serve on the Counterterrorism Interagency Finance Cell and Iran Finance Fusion Cell at the Pentagon.
Mr. Skinner previously held positions at the Department of Defense as Advisor to the White House Liaison and Defense Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He formerly served as a White House Intern in the Executive Office of the President.
Concurrent to his role at AGS, Mr. Skinner is a Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC); a member of the Community Board of Advisors at The Knudsen Institute; serves on the Oklahoma Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC); and is a Founding Member of Oklahoma City Business Leaders for Good.
Mr. Skinner holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, cum laude, from the University of Missouri.