Robert Bell, a security and defense specialist with 45 years of experience in the United States government, will bolster the School’s focus on and reputation for scholarship on national defense. 

Bell retired from the U.S. Government in 2017 following service across many fields in international relations and security. Some career highlights include working for three years with NATO as the assistant secretary general for defense investment, seven years at the White House as former President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council senior director for defense policy and arms control, and 12 years as a professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Bell also spent seven years in Brussels, Belgium, as the senior civilian representative in Europe under four different secretaries of defense. 

John G. Rice will contribute to the Nunn School’s expertise in the private sector thanks to his many years working at General Electric. 

Rice retired as vice chairman of the General Electric Company in April 2018. He
began his GE career in 1978 and has held several leadership positions in the United States, Canada, and Singapore.

Beginning in 2010, he led the company’s global operations based in Hong Kong. Immediately prior to that, he worked as vice chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure. He has also served as vice chairman of GE’s Industrial and Infrastructure businesses, president and CEO of GE Energy, and as president and CEO of GE Transportation.

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is a unit of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.