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Simon E. Bland
Principal
S4@falco.one
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Simon Bland serves as the Trustee of the Plum Foundation, a Guernsey-based foundation helping communities and independent organizations around the world drive action toward sustainable development and ecosystems restoration. Previously, Simon served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration[1] and as Director of the Office of Business Liaison within the Office of the Secretary.
Previously, Simon was a Managing Director and Senior Banker at JPMorgan Chase where he built his career working in the New York Private Bank. He has extensive experience advising Fortune 500 CEOs and broad expertise in finance, economics, relationship management, leading people and the banking system.
As Assistant Secretary at the United States Department of Commerce, Simon served on the senior leadership teams for both the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Office of the Secretary.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is an agency that deals with issues involving national security and sensitive technologies. The Bureau controls the export of dual-use and military items for national security‚ foreign policy‚ nonproliferation‚ and short supply reasons. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration is responsible for export licenses, treaty compliance, treaty obligations relating to weapons of mass destruction, and the defense industrial and technology base.
Concurrently, Simon served as the Director of the Office of Business Liaison for the Secretary of Commerce. The Director is the Department’s key link between the public and private sectors, and is the Secretary’s right-hand on external relationship management.
At JPMorgan, Simon was responsible for client assets in excess of $1.5 billion, was jointly first in his class to achieve the title of Managing Director and was consistently ranked as one of the Private Bank’s top bankers.
He served as the co-Chairman of the JPMorgan Global Wealth Management Technology and Innovation Council and played an integral role steering a $500+ million annual budget. Simon was also a JPMorgan Chase Ambassador. In this role, he represented JPMorgan Chase to Federal, State and Local policymakers at events and roundtables and has first-hand knowledge of financial policy, banking legislation and applicable regulation.
Simon received his Master’s degree in Intelligence from the American Military University and concentrated in intelligence operations. In 2018 he was issued the Department of Defense’s Intelligence Fundamentals Professional Certification by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
He previously graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and later served as the JPMorgan firm-wide Executive Sponsor for recruiting at UPenn.
In 2016, Simon was selected to be a Presidential Leadership Scholar. This highly selective program is a bi-partisan partnership between the Presidential Centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and seeks to develop the leadership capacity and network of future national leaders.
Simon maintains Top Secret/SCI clearance eligibility[2]. He completed a Tier 5 background investigation by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), and at the request of the White House, a Level 1 full-field background investigation by the FBI.
Simon is originally from South Africa and moved to the United States in the late 1990’s to attend Deerfield Academy. He enjoys playing squash, running, exercise and the outdoors.
[1] Performing the non-exclusive and delegated duties of
[2] Adjudicated October 2020
