Neil Alpert - Tumblr

The recipient of a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Rhode Island, Neil Alpert was a member of the school's debate team and earned the Leonard E. Smith Award for Public Speaking. Upon graduating, he began working as a development manager at the American Cancer Society, where he helped plan fund-raising events such as Relay For Life and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Neil Alpert subsequently worked in fund-raising roles with American Red Cross and the Young Republican National Federation in Washington, DC. From there, Neil Alpert joined Capital City Advisors, where he assisted multiple nonprofit organizations to reach budgetary and fund-raising goals. He later worked as a national campaign director with AIPAC and director of institutional relations at Washington National Opera. With the latter, he oversaw all corporate, government, and foundation fund-raising in addition to recruitment efforts for special events. After serving as a special assistant with the Republican National Committee and president and CEO of LaserLock Technologies (a publicly traded company) based in Washington, DC, Mr. Alpert began working as managing director of the advisory firm Potomac Management in 2015. He continues to serve in this capacity. Mr. Alpert is involved with a handful of charities and serves on the boards or advisory boards of several private family foundations and charities as well as two privately owned corporations. He is also an advisory board member of the Institute of World Politics, the former president of the board of directors for the Miss DC Pageant a subsidiary of Miss America. Mr. Alpert is often consulted as an expert and thought leader. As such Mr. Alpert has had an impact on legislation and gaming laws; providing recommended changes to the gaming laws in New Jersey, which were accepted and adopted. He has also spoken at conferences throughout the United States on a variety of topics ranging from non-profit management to anti-counterfeiting and technology.

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A Snapshot of the Mayor’s Arts Awards in the District of Creativity

Living in Washington, DC, Neil Alpert earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island with a focus on communications. In the early 2000s, Neil Alpert moved to Washington DC, and became an advisor for nonprofits. In 2008, under Neil's leadership, the Washington National Opera won The Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Innovation in the Arts.

Around for nearly four decades, the annual Mayor’s Arts Awards recognizes Washington DC residents who demonstrate inspiring and innovative creativity in film, television, music, and entertainment. The awards are presented on behalf of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and the District of Columbia, or the “District of Creativity,” as the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment calls it.

The Mayor’s Arts Awards are generally held at the end of September after two weeks of voting. A few other awards are for Visionary Leadership, Youth Creativity, Visual Arts, and Emerging Creative.

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The 2022 Conti Cyber Attack in Costa Rica

Neil Alpert is an experienced executive leader based in Washington, D.C. In addition to leading organizations as diverse as LaserLock Technologies and the Washington National Opera, Neil Alpert serves on several boards. He is an advisory board member with the Institute of World Politics and has served two President's of the United States as a Member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.

The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) provides the White House with information on minimizing physical and cyber threats to national security, particularly regarding the nation’s most critical infrastructure sectors. In 2022, the Costa Rican government relied on similar support when weeks of ransomware attacks on critical systems resulted in a state of emergency declaration.

The cyberattacks had a number of consequences for the national government of Costa Rica, ranging from an inability to pay workers to disruptions of major government systems, including customs and taxes. The attacks were perpetrated by Conti, a ransomware syndicate that called for a $20 million payment by the Costa Rican government. In fact, Conti claimed the attacks were specifically designed to leave the government vulnerable to a coup.

Costa Rica resisted the ransom demand and endured the attacks for weeks. By the end of Conti’s assault, roughly 50 percent of the stolen data had been published by the ransomware gang.

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Reasons Why Counterfeiting Is a Concern for Brands

Washington, DC resident, Neil Alpert, worked with LaserLock Technologies from 2012 to 2015. As president and CEO, Neil Alpert oversaw the firm that helped clients with anti-counterfeiting technologies. Mr. Alpert served as a member of the President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) which includes executive leaders from private sector and state/local government who advise the White House on how to reduce physical and cyber risks and improve the security and resilience of the nation's critical infrastructure sectors.

Anti-counterfeiting technologies have become necessary for brands for a few reasons. In terms of cost alone, brands have lost $320 billion cumulatively in revenue, according to a World Trademark Review 2020 article. Brand counterfeiting has run rampant in the online community, with consumers bombarded with authentic-looking emails and websites that copy the original brand and appear nearly perfect.

Counterfeiting has long-term impacts on everyone. For example, the government cannot collect taxes on unreported revenue, which impacts the government’s ability to fund social services, schools, hospitals, or road construction projects. Thus, according to some experts, the economy suffers and results in the loss of jobs - almost five million globally. The practice also risks consumer health when counterfeit foods and medications reach the market.

Brands have tools that reduce the likelihood of counterfeiting and selling on the black market. For example, adding sensors remotely connected to the Internet of Things, unique identification markers that differentiate the genuine product from fakes, anti-tamper labels, and tags that help trace and track items.

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Digital Measures against Counterfeit Goods

In addition to over 20 years of experience in various political organizations around Washington, DC, Neil Alpert served as the president of LaserLock Technologies for three years. In this role, Neil Alpert oversaw digital measures to fight product counterfeiting.

Emerging technologies can assure consumers they are purchasing a genuine product and ease the process of transporting merchandise to its destination. Blockchain algorithms store timestamp and location information for shipments in an encrypted form on a network accessible to everyone on it, so no one can alter it once submitted.

Digital measures can also bolster physical anti-counterfeiting techniques. Implementing unique labeling and using barcodes containing differences detectable only by special scanners can foil counterfeiters’ attempts to replicate features that mark authenticity. Although implementing multiple layers of security will incur significant costs at first, preventing the sale of counterfeit products that harm consumers and divert law enforcement resources will outweigh those costs. Implementing these measures will restore consumers’ confidence in manufacturers, demonstrating companies’ commitment to creating quality products, gradually leading consumers to pay higher prices to guarantee their purchases’ authenticity.

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La Boheme - One of Opera's Most Beloved Works

Washington, DC resident Neil Alpert, who graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in communication and is on the Advisory Board of the Institute of World Politics, is currently the managing director at Potomac Management. Previously, Neil Alpert served first as chief operating officer and later as president and chief executive officer of LaserLock Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: VRME), a company that specialized in authentication technologies.

Authentication technologies represent the first line of defense against cyberattacks or threats and aim to ensure the safety of users. An authentication technology aims to identify the user's identity to ensure that they are the ones that are using the account. There are several types of authentication technologies, one of which is the 2FA.

2FA or two-factor authentication provides a sense of security for users to log into an account; the individual has to provide the username and password and an additional piece of information that only the real user would know. In this way, the account is safer and harder to hack or get into. Another type is MFA, or multi-factor authentication uses even more information to determine the user's identity. In addition to the information required at the 2FA, MFA can also require location or device-based confirmation.

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Washington National Opera Shows Elektra Beginning in October

Washington DC resident Neil Alpert has worked for major organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross. Neil Alpert also served as Director of Institutional Relations for the Washington National Opera, which will perform the ancient Greek tragedy Elektra this fall.

Elektra follows the titular character’s quest for revenge on her mother for killing her father. As her brother returns from exile, Elektra’s obsession tears the family further apart. The new Francesca Zambello production takes viewers through just over an hour and a half of intense, hair-raising suspense and drama.

While the opera will be in German, the Washington National Opera will provide English subtitles. Christine Georke, famed soprano, plays Elektra. Other players are Stefan Margita as Aegisth, Sara Jakubiak, Katarina Dalayman as Klytamenestra, and Ryan Speedo Green as Orest. The conductor is Evan Rogister. The show begins in late October and runs through the middle of November. For more information, visit kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2022-2023/elektra/.

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WNO, NSO, & Kennedy Center Launch Cartography

Neil Alpert, a Washington, DC resident, has received recognition from various organizations for his work in the community. Among his multiple commitments in Washington, DC, Neil Alpert was involved with the Washington National Opera (WNO), for which the organization was awarded the Mayor’s Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts in 2008, when he was involved. In February, the WNO announced the multi-year, multi-season Cartography Project. Established in 1956, the WNO is considered one of the nation’s top opera companies and has performed before standing-room audiences in the Kennedy Center and other venues for more than six decades since its inception. The initiative collaborates among the WNO, the Kennedy Center, and the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). The Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director and Vice President of Social Impact, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, conceived the idea from the real-life race-based violence occurring in the US in the last two years. The initiative will showcase works from people of color that highlight grieving across communities in the US. More significantly, the showcase of works will use this as an opportunity to convey dignity as the most common narrative in the African-American community in contrast to the stereotypical narrative of black pain, slavery, and violence.

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Cancer Treatment Powered by Kras

The American Cancer Society is a non-profit organization that provides medical research and wants to create medicines and treatments for cancer. Lumakras is a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer that was approved in 2021 by the Food and Drug Administration. Kras, one of the first identified oncogenes is the key to the treatment. Kras is an oncogene, which is a mutant form of the human gene that usually causes cancer. Kras can be found in 32 percent of non-small cell lung cancers and over 85 percent of pancreatic cancers. Kras helps healthy cells as it can enable them to grow. Kras cells are active when they bind with guanosine triphosphate and helps the cell grow and divide into other cells. The oncogene stops the growth of the cell when it binds with guanosine diphosphate. Neil Alpert is an entrepreneur currently serving and guiding Potomac Management, where he offers strategic advice and management solutions to clients and companies throughout the world, but in the past Neil Alpert served as a development manager at the American Cancer Society, and has a real passion for seeing cancer tackled jointly by both government, the private and public sectors all working together.

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The Story of the YRNF

The managing director of Potomac Management, Neil Alpert works closely with the organization’s largest clients to provide them with strategic advisory services from his base in Washington DC. Over a decade before assuming this role, Neil Alpert served as the national finance director for Young Republican National Federation (YRNF) in the early 2000's, where he helped the group create a sustainable fundraising program. The YRNF was officially organized into a national collective in 1931, though it had existed for several years before. Its first official head was a young man named George H. Olmsted, whose early forays into politics so impressed the president of the time, Herbert Hoover, that he was invited to the White House and asked to head the YR division. That division became the YRNF in 1935, with Olmsted becoming the group’s first elected president. Since those early days, the YRNF has established itself as the nation’s leading organization for providing grassroots support to future Republican leaders. Membership is open to registered Republicans aged between 18 and 40 who wish to develop greater political knowledge and access insight into key issues affecting the United States.