The attack on our nation by terrorists in September 2001, followed immediately by the distribution of the anthrax virus through the postal system, forced all Americans to rethink and restructure our approach to keep our nation safer and more secure. Our leaders at all levels of government were tasked to take stock of, develop new strategies around, and implement/deploy new solutions regarding our nation's need for preparedness, prevention, coordination of communication, sharing of intelligence and an effective and efficient response to community catastrophes. Leading senior executives in the private sector who had both a corporate (and personal) mission to provide the needed product, technology and services solutions for our nation felt it important to come together with a desire to develop a strong relationship with their public sector counterparts in a coordinated and thoughtful manner to assist in the implementation of these new strategies and structures to help prevent, be prepared for and respond whennecessary to another event.

The Homeland Security & Defense Business Council was founded in 2004 on the heels of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to encourage thoughtful discussion between the private and public sector homeland security policy leaders. A forum was created that facilitated the discussion, not of contracts and procurements, but rather, the strategies and policies that could best help industry and government identify and develop the very best solutions to accomplish the collective mission. Gregory Pellegrino, Global Managing Director at Deloitte, the Council's founding Chairman of its Board of Directors, a small group of the leading senior industry executives in the homeland security marketplace, and the Council's first executive director, Michael Meldon, came together to fashion an organization to build strong and substantive discussions with their newly appointed public sector counterparts tasked with developing a coordinated homeland security mission at the Department of Homeland Security and in Congress. These monthly, informal, not-for-attribution Executive Roundtables' conversations were structured and remain to the present day as a critical way to provide a ‘safe' environment for senior executives from industry and government to engage in a dialogue that seeks to identify and discuss strategies and facilitating a process that gives the private sector an opportunity to provide input and add value to critical homeland security missions and solutions. The forums foster a better understanding among the leading players of the homeland security priorities, opportunities and challenges facing the Department in particular and our nation in general. As the Department evolved and adapted, revising and retooling its mission in light of the natural disasters, sparked initially by Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, so did the Council's mission, membership and activities.

Over the course of its first few years in existence through the present day, the Homeland Security & Defense Business Council was and remains the only organization of its kind - devoted exclusively to representing the interests of and providing industry with a collective voice on homeland security and homeland defense policy marketplace issues. The Council's mission has remained consistent - to build stronger and more meaningful, relevant and valuable relationships between senior leadership in industry and government to help facilitate processes and policies that will help keep our nation safer and more secure.

As the mission and focus of the homeland security mission evolved the Council built strong, substantive relationships with government leaders, established programs and committees that encouraged the high-level thought leadership perspective of the executives from the leading world-class homeland security solutions providers, and recruited top former DHS and homeland security-focused congressional leaders to its Board of Advisors to provide advice and counsel. Leaders of the Council authored multiple thought leadership documents on topics including corporate responsibility, federal contracting, the SAFETY Act; hosted discussions with the leading officials in homeland security; and launched its "Partners in Preparedness Symposium" with the National Capital Region of the American Red Cross to inform and educate local business community about preparedness issues and response to catastrophes in the National Capital Area.