Our Partners
Jennifer Hendrixson White
Jennifer is the Founder and Managing Partner of Scalare Advisors. She is a leading expert on geopolitical risk, international trade and economics — with a particular focus on China, the Indo-Pacific, national security, and technology policy.
Jennifer translates more than 15 years of senior U.S. government experience — spanning the State Department, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Pentagon, the United States Indo-Pacific Command, and the National Security Council — into decision-grade analysis and strategic advice for companies, investors, and organizations operating at the intersection of policy and markets.
Her experience speaks directly to the challenges facing clients. In the Senate, she led negotiations on AUKUS, the landmark U.S.-U.K.-Australia defense and technology partnership that reshaped U.S. export controls and defense industrial cooperation. She worked to eliminate double taxation for businesses operating in Taiwan and helped facilitate investment in advanced semiconductors in the United States. From building bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill, to navigating complex policy issues in the Situation Room, to convening experts to provide timely and insightful advice to policy makers — Jennifer understands how Washington works and knows what it means for businesses, investors, and organizations outside the Beltway.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has worked closely with executives, trade associations, senior government officials, think tanks, and foreign governments to help navigate pressing policy challenges. She has studied and worked in China and Southeast Asia. Jennifer holds a Master of Arts from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with concentrations in China Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and International Economics. She is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House, an Adjunct Lecturer and Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Jennifer serves on the board of a nonprofit supporting at-risk children in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. An avid outdoor sports enthusiast, Jennifer can be found rock-climbing, kayaking, snowboarding and hiking across the lower 48 and the Italian alps.
Anka Lee
Anka is a national security expert with over two decades of experience leading large teams in the U.S. government, California state government, and in the private sector. Anka is based in Los Angeles and works closely with West Coast clients to navigate geopolitical challenges, mitigate risks, and find opportunities abroad – especially in the Asia Pacific. In between his time in public service in both Sacramento and Washington, DC, Anka was a global policy manager at WhatsApp, a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and an Asia-based journalist.
In Sacramento, he served as California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s international policy director, where he created new bilateral initiatives with the governments of Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Germany, empowering state elected officials to address shared policy challenges with foreign counterparts — from climate to cross-border water pollution to data privacy. Earlier in his career, Anka was a news producer at KTVU-TV Fox 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area, covering national, state, and local campaigns. He also served as a legislative aide to State Senators Sheila Kuehl and Carole Migden. While in high school, he led a four-year campaign that convinced voters to approve a $40 million bond to renovate public schools across the West Contra Costa Unified School District.
In Washington, his senior leadership roles included Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia at the Pentagon, where he advanced bilateral defense relations with major allies and partners in the region and pursued collective action to meet growing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to that, as USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for multilateral affairs, he rallied like-minded countries to surge financial support for pressing global issues — from addressing Ukraine’s security needs to alleviating hunger to coordinating responses to China’s corrosive development practices globally.
He has written for and appeared on The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, Just Security, Foreign Policy, NBC, Newsweek, POLITICO, Time, and San Francisco Chronicle. Born in Hong Kong, raised in California, and a first-generation college graduate, Anka received his B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.A. in East Asian studies from Harvard University. He also did graduate studies at the California State University, Sacramento, as part of the California Senate Fellows Program. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center and an External Senior Advisor at the Special Competitive Studies Project.
Elisa Ewers
Elisa a leading voice in national security and foreign policy with over 25 years of experience as a chief advisor in the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, as a scholar and professor in think tanks and academia, and as a consultant in the private sector. She has worked on policy related to the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, counterterrorism and security cooperation, multilateral economics and multilateral institutions. Elisa is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and is a regular contributor on television and in print media offering her analysis and perspectives on developments in the Middle East and their implications for businesses, organizations, and markets.
Elisa served in the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, at the National Security Council, Departments of State and Defense, at U.S. embassies, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and was selected for Senior Executive Service. Elisa led the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s work on Middle East and North Africa, Nonproliferation and Arms Control, and International Economic policy. She has tackled some of the thorniest national security issues, served as a principal counselor to the most senior leaders, and exercised oversight over billions of dollars in U.S. programs related to some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges of the day.
Previously, Elisa served as an adjunct faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Before entering government service, she had a private sector career in consulting and institutional asset management with firms like Booz Allen Hamilton and Wellington Management Company.
A first generation American, Elisa has lived and worked across Europe and the Middle East, and is a certified yoga instructor. She serves on the executive board of directors of the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, and is an adjunct senior fellow in RAND’s national security division.
Michael Schiffer
Michael has played key roles in both the executive and legislative branches on consequential national security issues from the post-9/11 wars on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan to today’s strategic competition with China – helping to shape American policy on a range of issues from the rise of ISIS and conflicts in Syria and Ukraine to developing strategic initiatives including the Quad, engagement in the Pacific, and mobilizing hundreds of millions of private sector capital to address climate change and energy transition.
From 2022-2025, He was the Assistant Administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), overseeing some $3 billion in annual programming and a staff of 1,500 across Asia and the Pacific. Prior to USAID, Michael was Senior Advisor and Counselor on the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responsible for the Indo-Pacific, technology, and the economic statecraft portfolios, among other matters.
Earlier, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, where he was the senior U.S. defense official responsible for managing the US-China military-military relationship as well as key alliances and partnerships, including with Japan, Korea and Taiwan, among others. He has also served as legislative director and national security advisor to Senator Dianne Feinstein from California and he has held roles at the Stanley Foundation, as a Council on Foreign Relations Hitachi International Affairs Fellow in Japan, at the Center for War Peace and the News Media at New York University,
Michael is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, an Associate Fellow in the trade, technology, and geopolitics program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. Before he began his career in national security and foreign policy, he co-managed the Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn in Kauai, Hawaii.