Strategic Marketing Innovations, Inc. (SMI), a leading government affairs firm, has established a strategic communications practice to complement its growing success advocating on behalf of technology companies, nonprofits and research universities.
Leading it as SMI’s new Vice President for Communications Strategy is Bryan Bender, an experienced journalist and communicator with an extensive network in the national security and foreign policy communities, think tanks, trade associations and the private sector.
Bender brings more than two decades of experience covering the defense budget, government acquisition, climate security, nuclear arms control, and the aerospace, shipbuilding and tech industries.
As Washington Bureau Chief for Jane’s Defense Weekly and an award-winning Pentagon correspondent for the Boston Globe, Bender reported on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and military operations around the world. Most recently, he was senior national correspondent for POLITICO and defense editor of POLITICO Pro, where his beat included NASA, the Space Force, and the commercial space industry —- and he anchored the must-read newsletter Morning Defense.
Bender has also taught journalism and public relations at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and is author of You Are Not Forgotten.
A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Bender earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Writing and Political Science from University of Pittsburgh and studied Middle East politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.