Worldly Perspectives: PCFR Members Take Flight

A Members-Only Program

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

5:00pm - 6:30pm MST

Pomo Pizzeria - Biltmore

2502 E Camelback Rd Ste A&B

Phoenix, AZ 85016

PCFR Member and Prospective Member event.

How many times has your perspective on the world been influenced by fellow members of PCFR? Now is your chance to learn more in the PCFR Worldly Perspectives Program series — featuring PCFR members who have led fascinating lives working and traveling around the world.

Each quarter, we will gather featured speakers to share their stories. Following the stories, you will have the opportunity to network and speak to the storytellers themselves. Expand your perspective and your network through PCFR Worldly Perspectives — the world’s stories told from our own backyard. 

This is a PCFR member and prospective member program with networking. Appetizers will be provided and there will be a cash bar.

Have your own story to share?

Reach out to Luke, PCFR Vice President, to share how your perspective can benefit our membership as a whole.

Featured Members

Caroline Lynch

Caroline Lynch is the founder and owner of Copper Hill Strategies, LLC, providing client-focused government relations, strategic planning, legislative, and business development services. She has fifteen years of Capitol Hill experience, including a decade with the House Judiciary Committee where she served for eight years as the Chief Counsel of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Caroline utilizes her expertise in public policy and the legislative process to advise clients on wide array of policy issues, including surveillance and encryption, CDA 230, facial recognition, and blockchain and cryptocurrency.

On Capitol Hill, Caroline was at the forefront of developing some of the most high- profile privacy, cybersecurity, national security, and criminal laws of the 21st Century, including updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act and FISA Amendments Act, and the USA FREEDOM Act enacted in response to the Edward Snowden leaks. She authored dozens of pieces of legislation and developed strategies to successfully shepherd those bills through Congress.

Caroline advised members on a variety of issues, including online child exploitation and sex trafficking, illegal drug distribution and money laundering, data breach notification and cybersecurity. She led the joint Bipartisan Encryption Working Group established by the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees following the San Bernardino terrorist attack to examine the complex legal and policy issues surrounding encryption.

Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee, Caroline served as Chief Counsel of the House Republican Policy Committee, Deputy County Attorney for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and Clerk for the Arizona Court of Appeals. She previously served in the personal office of former Congressman John Shadegg from 1996 to 2000.

Caroline is a member of the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation Board, the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, the Arizona Advisory Committee of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, the Arizona Women Lawyers Association, and the Arizona Technology Council. She has guest-lectured at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, the Texas A & M University School of Law, and the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. Caroline is a 2003 graduate of the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Sven Olson, “Sveno"

Sveno retired from the Army National Guard in 2013, with over 27 years of service. His final duty station was the US Embassy Kyiv, Ukraine where he served as the Bilateral Affairs Officer for three years. As a traditional part time soldier for most of his career, he responded to natural disasters that included forest fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. He commanded two separate Field Artillery units here in Arizona, deployed to Iraq with Arizona’s only Airborne attached unit, the 852 RAOC, and supporting the international State Partnership Program with Kazakhstan. As an activated reservist, he served overseas for twelve years in Jamaica, Panama, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Iraq, Germany and Ukraine. While serving in Panama he had a life changing scuba diving accident that left him a completely blind quadriplegic. After coming out of a short seven day coma, he made a miraculous full recovery over the next seven months. Through that experience, he felt a calling to serve youth and later founded a K12 Education consulting firm, Ignite for Schools. There he still serves as a Leadership Coach and motivational speaker for schools across America. He has spoken to over 500,000 students sharing his stories of resilience and courage. Since retiring from the Army National Guard, he has served as the Director for two hospice medical practices in Southern Arizona, is currently an Adjunct Professor at Grand Canyon University, and now serves as a Foreign Affairs Officer for the US Department of State, in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere, as a Public Diplomacy Officer for South America. In 2019 he authored the eBook Selfcare for Mortals, which he now shares through webinars with veterans, law enforcement and health care workers on their self care journey’s. Sveno lives in Chandler with his Ukrainian wife and daughter, has a son at the University of Arizona and another son serving as the Embassy Liaison Officer for the US Embassy Kyiv, Ukraine.

John Sellers

Graduating originally as an Aeronautical Engineer in the UK, John is a project finance veteran with $30Billion of projects in 30 countries with JP Morgan, Chase, Solomon Brothers, Banque Paribas and Rolls Royce. A dual US/UK citizen, he was trilingual having lived in 7 countries (the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Turkey) and visited almost 100. He has been active in suicide prevention with the Samaritans in London, child related charities and community service in the US. He is a co-founder of Yavapai Regional Capital, an infrastructure financial boutique. In the latter capacity he has been involved in marketing Public Private Partnerships for infrastructure to US Mountain State Governments for the last 10 yrs. He lives in Carefree with his wife Margaret, a Wire Haired Fox “Terrierist” (Dallis) and Charlie, a Cavalier King Charles.

Andy Yates

Andy Yates is an experienced international development professional. In his most recent position as a Public Polling Analyst in Kabul, Afghanistan, he designed public opinion surveys on significant political, security, and legal developments related to women’s rights and the Afghan peace process.

Formerly, Andy led development initiatives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Jordan for the International Republican Institute. Over seven years, Andy forged partnerships with governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) to advance democratic governance. He established programs to increase civic engagement/improve government services and helped CSOs affect public policy for the benefit of all their country’s citizens—especially underserved constituencies such as women, youth, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities.

When not overseas, Andy works with his wife Sarah for their company Forage Arizona, serves as a Transportation Commissioner for the City of Scottsdale, and spends his free time in the small towns of rural Arizona. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University and a master’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University. He is currently completing an additional master’s degree in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford.