During his three-decade career as a telecommunications executive, Jon served as Chief of Convergence Strategy for British Telecom and Vice President of Lucent Technologies, where he ran the company’s mobility and switching strategy. Most recently, he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Rampart Communications, a deep-tech defense and intel startup, responsible for product management, customer relationships and overall company strategy.
In addition to consulting on China competition issues for technology companies and federal agencies and departments, Pelson has lectured on the topic at Duke, Yale, William & Mary, and Purdue, and is a frequent speaker at events for the technology, intelligence and defense communities, including keynoting the annual Supply Chain Security Technical Symposium in Bethesda. His op-eds analyzing the China threat have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The New York Post, The Hill, and many other publications, and he has appeared on TV, podcasts and radio news shows addressing China issues.
Jon is an Adjunct Fellow with the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and is on the Advisory Council of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and of Darden Business School at the University of Virginia.