Monday Convocation | Brian Grant

April 12, 2017

Convocation speaker Brian Grant spoke about his years of civil service, implementing sanctions, and fighting terrorism abroad.

Fighting terrorism, traveling the globe, hand-delivering messages for President Obama: Brian Grant fascinated the Cate students in the audience of the Hitchcock Theater on April 3.
A close friend and long-time schoolmate of Ivan Barry, Chair of the Humanities Department, Grant graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and was originally posted to Cairo, learning to speak Arabic fluently. Grant worked first for the US Commerce Department and then for the US Treasury Department. Rising swiftly through the ranks, he became the equivalent of a one-star general in his civilian capacity as a member of the “Special Executive Service.” Grant is the youngest to have done so.
Grant spoke with passion about his years of civil service. In the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Grant was instrumental in developing the successful strategy of targeting the assets of terrorist groups as well as planning and implementing sanctions—both trade and economic—to ensure compliance with US security goals. Grant traveled the globe for many years; he noted that the personal meetings with decision-makers in foreign governments were crucial for the success of the program. Students were struck by the real-world implications of a job whose title might not indicate global impact. “I had never thought about fighting terrorism with economics rather than in a tactical, military way,” said junior Kathryn Antonatos, an opinion shared by her peers.
Grant showed his excitement about what he was able to accomplish with the tools of finance. However, he became most impassioned when talking about the value of civil service. Not only are civil servants able to have such a large impact on the world, but also, he commented, they are the most intellectually capable group with whom he’s ever had the honor to work. As he said, “When you have to present and defend your department’s plan to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it sharpens your intellectual knives.” Gavin Fansler, ’18, found these comments the most important. He was struck, as he said, by the idea of a career “that is meaningful and not just for yourself.”
Of course, the students, in general, shared an opinion about any friend of Mr. Barry’s who had also lived overseas and spoke other languages. The running joke on campus is that Mr. Barry has a secret life, and thus his friends must as well. Many students, when asked about their takeaways from Grant’s talk, declared “He is a spy!”