Chris Payne

Chris Payne serves as executive vice president at Hurt, Norton & Associates, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm. He specializes in defense acquisitions, intelligence, and appropriations work as well as congressional relations and corporate counseling. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2009 after a distinguished 20-year career that included congressional relations tours with the army’s appropriations liaison office and the U.S. Special Operations Command’s liaison office. He also served as the military legislative assistant to Congressman Jack Kingston (GA-01) under the army’s Congressional Fellows program.

Mr. Payne served multiple tours with joint commands, special operations forces, and intelligence community agencies. Additionally, he worked extensively with budgets and acquisition programs for the army, the intelligence community, and Southern Command and directly interfaced with various congressional committees and member offices.

He is a graduate of Presbyterian College and holds an M.S. from the National Intelligence University and an M.A. from the Notre Dame Graduate School at Christendom College. He is past president and life-time board member of the Thomas More Society of America and a member of Padre Pio Council 10754 of the Knights of Columbus. He and his wife, Leslie, have five children and reside in Reston, Virginia.