International Leadership of Texas (ILTexas) hosted its first Leadership Speaker Series of 2024 on Friday, February 23 at the ILTexas Katy-Westpark High School campus in Richmond, TX.

ILTexas hosted Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, of The Cohen Group based in Washington, D.C., for the event. 

Lt. Gen. Hooper spoke to ILTexas students about his extensive military career, spanning 41 years; his time in diplomacy and global travel; his service in the private sector; and how his Nine Leadership Principles have helped shape the person he is today. 

In September, the top three percent of the 2023-2024 ILTexas Senior Class went to Washington, D.C. as part of the ILTexas Distinguished Student Ambassador Program. It was during such trip that students initially met and interacted with Lt. Gen. Hooper, and the invitation was extended to him to be a Leadership Speaker Series guest. 

The ILTexas mission is to prepare students for exceptional leadership roles in the international community by emphasizing servant leadership, mastering the English, Spanish and Chinese languages, and strengthening the mind, body and character. In salute to the mission, the ILTexas Leadership Speaker Series provides ILTexas High School students the opportunity to engage with and learn from some of the greatest leaders the international community has seen.

The ILTexas Leadership Speaker Series is for the students, by the students. In other words, they run the show! On event day, students are spearheading everything from the technical set-up, to introducing the speaker and forming a student-panel to moderate questions, to running cameras and audio to further promote leadership among their peers.

 

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Watch the event recording here!

 

Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper Bio:

Lieutenant General Charles Hooper (Ret.) joined The Cohen Group as a Senior Counselor in October 2020 following a distinguished 41-year military career.

He most recently served as the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). In this role, he led the agency responsible for the sale of all US weapons, military equipment, support services, and training packages to foreign governments, which included oversight of 20,000 people globally and over $50 billion in annual sales. As DSCA’s leader, Lieutenant General Hooper built strong relations with officials from allied nations around the world — not just defense officials, but with leaders from foreign ministries and finance ministries as well, among others.

Over the course of his career, Lieutenant General Hooper has held senior level military-political positions around the world. Prior to his role at DSCA, Lieutenant General Hooper served as the Senior US Defense Official/US Defense Attaché and Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation at US Embassy Cairo. He has also served as the Director of Strategy, Plans, and Programs at US Africa Command and Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at US Indo-Pacific Command.

Lieutenant General Hooper spent much of his career focused on US policy in the Indo-Pacific region, and specifically on the US-China bilateral relationship. In 1975, Lieutenant General Hooper was one of the first few West Point cadets selected to study the Mandarin dialect of the Chinese language, which he still speaks fluently. He also speaks Arabic.