Warren Rudman

hen Warren Rudman talks, people listen. The former Republican senator from New Hampshire is hardly the only brain behind the array of influential reports on national security issues that bear his name: On the seminal Hart-Rudman Commission that first proposed a federal Homeland Security Department back in February 2001, Rudman noted, "We had one of the largest groups of experts in national security policy that's ever been assembled." (That staff's influential alumni include Charles Boyd, president of Business Executives for National Security.) But Rudman's is the voice that carries in Washington, and the proposals he endorses tend to become reality. This summer, working with former White House counter-terrorism guru Richard "Dick" Clarke and the Council on Foreign Relations, Rudman released a pair of follow-up reports that commanded headlines with their assessment that the nation remains "dangerously unprepared." Since then, Rudman has campaigned especially hard for security regulations on chemical plants-"I always remind people what happened in Bhopal," he said-and for national standards on how local governments spend federal homeland-security grants. "That is my major concern right now," said Rudman. "Until you have those standards, no matter how much money you put out, it will not be spent wisely."

Alongside his national security work for the Council on Foreign Relations, where he's on the board of directors, Rudman is a partner in the D.C. office of international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind & Garrison. "I work long days," Rudman said, "but it's a very satisfying life." Rudman, 73, was born in Nashua, N.H., and holds degrees from Syracuse University and Boston College Law School. He served in the Army during the Korean War and rose to the rank of captain.