A lighthouse by the shore

About Us

We strive to be your trusted advisor and help you navigate your unique challenges of today’s high seas.

Freedom of Navigation (FON) is a fundamental tenet of international law meant to guarantee unobstructed access to the high seas for ships from all states, without interference.

Throughout naval history, freedom of navigation operations have ensured the navigability of international waterways, enshrining freedom of sea trade for all.

Who We Are

Our Team

FON was formed by a group of senior aerospace and defense industry executives, intelligence, operations officers, and operators from premier units in the DoD and US intelligence community.


FON Advisors


David Walsh profile image

David Walsh

Managing Partner, FON Advisors
Henry Talbot profile image

Henry Talbot

COO, FON Advisors
CCO, FON Investment Banking
Caitlin Botting profile image

Caitlin Botting

Chief of Staff, FON Advisors

FON Investment Banking


Cameron Hamilton profile image

Cameron Hamilton

Managing Director, FON Investment Banking

FON Valuation Services


Jouky Chang profile image

Jouky Chang

Managing Director and Practice Leader, FON Valuation Services
Ray Moran profile image

Raymond Moran, ASA, MRICS

Managing Director, FON Valuation Services
Elbert Choi profile image

Elbert Choi

Vice President, FON Valuation Services

FON Federal


Bradford Powell profile image

Bradford Powell

President, FON Federal
Joanie Myers profile image

Joanie Myers

Managing Director, FON Federal

Strategic Advisors


Terry Athas

Terry currently serves as Senior Vice President at Alliant/Mesirow Insurance Services. He has over 37 years of experience in the financial services industry, and specializes in determining the unique financial needs of organizations and institutions at a variety of scales. Terry plays a significant role in growing Mesirow Financial’s Public Finance, Private Equity, and Investment Services Divisions. His clients range from institutions, such as pension funds, to manufacturing companies and law firms, and vary in size from small businesses to multi-billion dollar entities.

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John Cusack

John is the Global Co-Chairman of DLA Piper’s Finance group and Co-Chairman of DLA Piper’s Real Estate Capital Markets group. He has practiced in the area of corporate and finance law for over 25 years. Among his clients are banks and financial institutions, private equity funds, investment funds and corporations. He represents them in most types of finance transactions including private and public offerings of equity and debt, fund formation, and mergers, acquisitions and dispositions. John has extensive experience representing companies and financial institutions in the real estate and infrastructure market sectors. John also represents institutional investors and lenders in debt restructurings, workouts and bankruptcies in the real estate industry. John’s debt restructuring experience includes a wide range of real estate asset classes such as multi-family, residential, office, retail and hotels. He has worked with clients through numerous cycles of the real estate industry.

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Paul Becker

Paul is a former Intelligence Officer who served 30 years in peace, crisis and combat. In fall 2016 he led the Presidential Transition’s Intelligence Community Landing Team, which provided policy input, strategic guidance,and operational counsel to new administration Cabinet Secretaries. His military service includes Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J2), the Pacific Command in Hawaii, the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan, command of the Central Command’s Joint Intelligence Center and duty as an Assistant Naval Attaché to France. RADM Becker founded the Becker T3 Group LLC in 2016, a consulting firm focused on global risk management, business intelligence and cyber operations with expertise in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Paul holds an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, maintains a Top Secret Clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) access and is a certified Executive Coach. He is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Naval Analyses and is a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Rear Admiral Becker is a recipient of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s, Department of Defense’s and Navy’s Distinguished Service Medals, the National Military Intelligence Association’s Leadership Award and the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations’ Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

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David Walsh profile image

David Walsh

Managing Partner, FON Advisors

Dave serves as the Managing Partner and is responsible for overall management and investment activities of the firm. Prior to FON, he was the CEO of Prescient Edge Holdings, the parent company of four intelligence services and technology firms he managed through periods of rapid organic growth both domestically and throughout the European Union. The Prescient companies specialize in National Security Operations, Technology, and Research & Development services to a range of government and corporate customers to include the US Intelligence Agencies, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and several government research laboratories. Dave has broad experience providing contractor support to mission critical operations delivering Human Intelligence and Counterintelligence services to the DoD and US Intelligence Agencies and the creation of best practices and policies pertaining to insider threat protection and the advancement of intelligence tradecraft. Dave works to commercialize unique Research and Development efforts inside the U.S. Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. Prior to entering the private sector, he was engaged in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the United States, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the United States Naval Academy, serves on the Board of Directors of Guitars over Guns, and is a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Miami.

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Henry Talbot profile image

Henry Talbot

COO, FON Advisors and CCO, FON Investment Banking

Henry serves as the COO of FON Advisors and CCO of FON Investment Banking. He is experienced in financial regulatory compliance, broker/dealer operations, and financial services training. Prior to joining FON, he was a vice president with Deloitte’s investment bank where he managed a wide variety of broker/dealer compliance functions, including cross-border engagements, FINRA and state regulatory filings, electronic correspondence oversight, principal review of engagement deliverables and marketing materials, and annual branch audits. Prior to his time with Deloitte, he held compliance, operations, training and sales positions with some of the largest financial institutions in the US. His responsibilities included: oversight of SEC, FINRA and NFA/CFTC filings for broker/dealers, asset management companies and RIAs; creation and maintenance of WSPs and internal policies and procedures; development and delivery of new hire operations onboarding for ~3500 financial advisors nationwide and oversight, creation and delivery of broker/dealer operations training for a large US bank’s back office broker/dealer operations department. Henry earned a BA in both economics and philosophy from Northwestern University and is a licensed securities representative, holding his Series 7, 63, 65, 79 licenses and his Series 24, 9 &10 principal licenses.

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Caitlin Botting profile image

Caitlin Botting

Chief of Staff, FON Advisors

Caitlin Botting serves as the Chief of Staff for FON Advisors. Prior to joining FON, Caitlin was the Director of Member Engagement for Stand Together (formerly the Seminar Network), a network of philanthropic organizations dedicated to helping all Americans improve their lives and achieve their full potential. She was responsible for developing and executing appreciation and engagement strategies for donors who contributed more than $100,000 annually. Before joining Stand Together, Caitlin spent five years as Chief of Staff at Prescient, a global risk management and intelligence services firm. At Prescient, she served as a strategic advisor to senior leadership and was responsible for executing the day-to-day operations across a portfolio of five companies in the U.S. and Ireland. Caitlin holds a M.A. in Government from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University.

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Cameron Hamilton profile image

Cameron Hamilton

Managing Director, FON Investment Banking

Cameron serves as the Managing Director of the Defense and Government Services Group at FON Investment Banking. Prior to joining FON, he spent nineteen years with The McLean Group where he was involved in more than 75 successful sell- and buy-side M&A and capital formation engagements. His deals include the sale of ACES, Inc. to Everwatch (an Enlightenment Capital portfolio company), representing Engility in its divestiture of its USAID work to RTI, advising SPARC in the sale of its software services business to Booz Allen Hamilton, INDUS Corporation in its sale to Tetra Tech, dTS in its sale to Palladium, NetCentrics in its sale to Haystax Technologies (an Edgewater Funds portfolio company), SigInt Technologies in its sale to Novetta Solutions (an Arlington Capital portfolio company), UltiSat in receiving an investment from LLR Partners, DAI in acquisition of HTPSE, CompSec in its sale to DC Capital Partners, iLuMinA Solutions and OAK Management in their sales to ECS Federal, NETCONN Solutions in its sale to General Dynamics, Casals & Associates in its sale to Dyncorp, Haselwood Enterprises and DPK Consulting in their sales to TetraTech, and Arrowhead Global Solutions in its sale to Caprock Communications, among others. Before joining The McLean Group, Mr. Hamilton led customer ROI analysis and supported multiple capital raises and acquisitions for ClearCross, Inc., a leading international trade compliance software vendor. Cameron holds an AB in economics from Princeton University, where he was a member of nationally ranked varsity swimming and water polo teams. He regularly competes in triathlons, is a two-time age group national champion, has qualified for multiple world championships in his age group at the sprint, Olympic and half-Ironman distances and has completed four Ironman distance races on three different continents.

Professional Credentials

  • FINRA Registered Representative (Series 7, 24, 63, 79)
  • Accredited Valuation Analyst (AVA)

Professional Memberships

  • Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF) – Board Member and former Chairman
  • Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce – former Board of Directors member
  • Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA)
  • Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA)
  • Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)
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Jouky Chang profile image

Jouky Chang

Managing Director and Practice Leader, FON Valuation Services

Jouky Chang serves as Managing Director and Practice Leader of FON Valuation Services. Jouky has more than 20 years of experience in the valuation of business interests and intangible assets for a variety of accounting, tax and other corporate related matters. He has prepared such valuations for purposes of business combinations, impairment testing, acquisitions and divestitures, fairness opinions, federal and state tax planning, estate and gift tax planning, litigation involving shareholder disputes, bankruptcy reorganizations, etc.

Prior to joining FON Valuation Services, Jouky was a Managing Director with Duff & Phelps’ Valuation Advisory Services and a part of its national Office of Professional Practice. Before that, he specialized in audits of investment dealers, pension fund managers, offshore mutual funds, and other financial services sector organizations with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Toronto, Canada.

From 2010-2012, Jouky served as a Professional Accounting Fellow in the Office of the Chief Accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Jouky’s focus was on valuation and fair value measurement matters. His responsibilities included following the activities of U.S. and international professional accounting standard setting bodies, consultations with registrants on accounting, valuation and reporting matters, and participation in rule proposals by the Commission and other standard setting bodies.

Jouky has served on the IMA Financial Reporting Committee, a member of The Appraisal Foundation’s Business Valuation Resource Panel, and the IVSC Business Valuation Standards Board.

Jouky has a B.B.A. with a minor in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada). He is a CFA Charterholder and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (Chartered Accountant) in Canada.

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Ray Moran profile image

Raymond Moran, ASA, MRICS

Managing Director, FON Valuation Services

Raymond Moran, ASA, MRICS serves as Managing Director in the FON Valuation Services group. Prior to joining FON, he was the CEO of MG Valuation, a firm operating in 17 countries worldwide. Ray specializes in valuations for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and valuations in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Europe. Prior to forming MG Valuation, Ray was Senior Vice President and Managing Director of American Appraisal Associates Asia/Pacific operations, and before that managed the firms US real estate and machinery & equipment groups. He was also a Manager with Coopers & Lybrand, in their National Practice Office. He serves on the board of the International Institute of Business Valuers (iiBV), and chairs its marketing committee, promoting business valuation education worldwide.

Ray is past editor of the American Society of Appraisers Machinery & Technical Specialties Journal, and past member of the RICS Americas Plant Machinery Committee. His professional designations include Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers, and Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Ray is a frequent speaker and author on valuation issues, having spoken in a dozen countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. He has a BA in Valuation Sciences from Hofstra University, a degree program sponsored by the American Society of Appraisers. He regularly competes in triathlons and marathons, having completed his first Ironman distance triathlon at Ironman Maryland. He has raced half and full marathons and triathlons throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

Professional Credentials

  • Accredited Senior Appraiser – American Society of Appraisers
  • Member, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Professional Memberships

  • International Institute of Business Valuers (iiBV) – Board Member and Chair – Marketing Committee
  • American Society of Appraisers – New York City Chapter
  • Turnaround Management Association – New York City Chapter
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Elbert Choi profile image

Elbert Choi

Vice President, FON Valuation Services

Elbert Choi serves as Vice President of the FON Valuation Services group. Elbert has more than 15 years of experience in the valuation of business interests and intangible assets for a variety of accounting, tax and other corporate related matters. He has prepared such valuations for purposes of business combinations, impairment testing, acquisitions and divestitures, fairness opinions, federal and state tax planning, estate and gift tax planning, litigation involving shareholder disputes, bankruptcy reorganizations and collateral/cash flow-based lending.

Prior to joining FON Valuation Services, Elbert was a Senior Vice President at Hilco Global and led its Enterprise Valuation Services group for over 12 years. He has completed or managed hundreds of valuation engagements and related financial analyses for organizations ranging from small, closely held companies to multi-billion-dollar enterprises. He has provided a range of valuation consulting services including business and stock valuations; cost of capital analyses; valuations of patents, unpatented early stage technologies, trademarks, proprietary processes, options, notes and restricted stock; damages calculations, and related litigation support services. These valuations and analyses were conducted for purposes of financial reporting, lending, corporate/strategic planning and litigation support.

Elbert holds an MBA from DePaul University and undergraduate degrees in Finance and Computer Engineering from Northern Illinois University and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively.

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Bradford Powell profile image

Bradford Powell

President, FON Federal

Bradford Powell serves as the President of FON Federal, responsible for defining and executing FON’s growth strategy for its federal professional services and advanced technology segments.

Prior to joining FON, Bradford was the vice president and general manager of Cubic Digital Intelligence. In that role, he was responsible for Cubic’s Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) commercial software portfolio and M&A activities. Key programs and products included Unified Video Dissemination System (UVDS), Motion Imagery Online (MI Online), Geo-intelligence Unified Naval Streaming System (GUNSS), LogX, MotionDSP ® Anubis ® , and the PIXIA ® line of HiPER ® products.

Previously Bradford held multiple senior director positions at Northrop Grumman. As an operating unit director his P/L responsibilities included the Global Combat Support System – Army (GCSS-A) and U.S. Postal Service Biohazard Detection System programs. He spent three years in Saudi Arabia leading Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Arabia (NGMSA), a joint venture where he directed Northrop Grumman’s business execution and growth strategy for delivering critical infrastructure protection solutions to key middle eastern customers. He was also responsible for the successful pursuit and capture of multiple C4ISR franchise programs related to tactical airborne networking and senior leader communications.

As an acquisition officer in the U.S. Air Force, Bradford served as the program manager for a portfolio of tactical data link integration programs. During his service at Hanscom Air Force Base, he initiated the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) program and led the initial fielding of Link 16 on the F-15C/D/E and F-16 blk 50 fleets.

Bradford holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Iowa and a Master of Business Administration, with honors, from the University of Chicago.

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Joanie Myers profile image

Joanie Myers

Managing Director, FON Federal

Joanie Myers serves as a Managing Director for FON Federal, dedicated to ensuring and developing the United States competitiveness through exceptional talent, technology, and innovation. She possesses an extensive knowledge of US global relations and deep skill sets in secure logistics, asset protection, threat mitigation, cyber, digital and kinetic technologies, training, and the policy arena.

Prior to joining FON, Joanie co-founded Strategic Link Partners and served as a principal with Deep Water Point. She is also founder of RUB OF THE WARRIOR (www.rubofthewarrior.com). Additional former positions include Senior Special Operations Forces & Intelligence Community Client Manager for Huntington Ingalls Industries- MDIS; Director of Strategic Relationships & Innovation for Fulcrum; Director, Special Operation Forces & Cyber Technologies, ARA; Director, U.S. Policy for SAS; President and CEO of the North Carolina Technology Association; and she served as an Assistant Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Joanie is actively engaged in the global Eisenhower Fellowship program where she studied Cyber Terrorism and security. In 2010 she was the chief architect of a Cyber Security Test Bed project for the Department of Homeland Security that engaged a holistic model of threat, training, and policy constructs.

Joanie was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004 to serve on the Presidential Rank Review Board. She has had a collaborative relationship with the FBI in the cyber and counterintelligence area that has spanned two decades. She is a Certified Corporate Trainer and is a dynamic public speaker in the areas of leadership, threat, cyber, insider threat, asset protection, risk management, contingency planning, and innovation.

Joanie serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Small Business Association and is on the Board of Advisors of the Rick Herrema Foundation. She also is on the Advisory Board of Innovate-Educate and is a former Board Member of the Wake Tech Foundation and the National Association of Corporate Directors (RTP Chapter). Other positions include past Chairman, Council of Regional Information Technology Associations, a former Advisory Board member of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte, a former Board member of the NC Information Resource Management Commission, and a former member of the Governor’s Commission on National and Community Service.

In 2013 Joanie was conferred The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the State of North Carolina’s highest civilian honor for her work in national security, technology, and innovation. Joan is the winner of the 2007 Women of Achievement Award, 2003 Business Leader Magazine Woman Extraordinaire and was named one of the Top 25 Women in Business by the Triangle Business Journal in 2001. She is the founder of the Eisenhower Fellowships NC Alumni Network and is a member of the International Counterterrorism Association, The Cipher Brief, NDIA, NAGC, and the OSS Society.

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