Karl Stoltz is Foreign Policy Advisor for Deft9 Solutions (www.deft9.com). He retired from the U.S. State Department in October 2024 after 38 years as a diplomat, most recently as Senior Advisor and acting Deputy Coordinator in the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which focused on countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) from America’s adversaries. Karl also served as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs in Russia and South Africa, as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Denmark and Myanmar, as an Office Director in the East Asia/Pacific Bureau and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and as a public diplomacy officer in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and the former Soviet Union.  Karl also taught as Public Diplomacy Fellow at George Washington University.  He studied as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, and as a graduate student at Middlebury University and the Foreign Service Institute.  Karl’s foreign languages include Indonesian, Malaysian, and Russian.