Nate Tibbits

Nate Tibbits is senior vice president of government affairs for Qualcomm Incorporated, a world leader in wireless technology. Leading Qualcomm’s Washington, DC, office, Tibbits focuses on driving Qualcomm’s Washington public affairs and policy agenda, including trade, immigration reform, and intellectual property protection.

From 2009 to 2011, Tibbits was executive secretary of the National Security Council, supporting President Barack Obama and his national security team in formulating national security policy. As special assistant to President Obama for presidential personnel, he worked on candidate identification and selection for more than 1,000 presidential appointments in 2009.

Immediately prior to joining Qualcomm, Tibbits ran Blackwood Advisory, a boutique strategy firm, and was the chair for the U.S. public affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller, where he worked with energy, technology, finance, and defense clients. Earlier in his career, he was the founding chief operating officer for the Center for a New American Security, a national security think tank. He was also vice president for international education at Discovery Communications, where he managed a digital content business unit with distribution in 60 countries. Before joining Discovery, Tibbits worked at the Albright Group, a consulting firm advising Fortune-100 clients on a range of international policy and public affairs matters. He was previously at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs where he managed international election observations and established new offices in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, Tibbits also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland in College Park. He currently serves on UNC’s Global Advisory Board, as well as on the UNC Burch Fellows DC Advisory Board.