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Peter Cook

Former Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon Press Secretary

 
Peter Cook served as the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for communications, news media relations, public outreach, engagement, public affairs and visual information. Mr. Cook was dual-hatted as the Pentagon Press Secretary and the chief spokesman for the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

He was the communications policy lead for DoD, providing departmental guidance to the Armed Services and Combatant Command Chiefs of Public Affairs as well as over 4,500 public affairs personnel worldwide. Mr. Cook directly managed the Defense Media Activity, an organization of approximately 2,000 personnel that provides a wide variety of multi-media information products to over one million U.S Servicemembers, civilian employees, and their families.

Before coming to the Pentagon, Mr. Cook spent his career in journalism. Most recently he worked as Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Television where he covered the intersection of government and business and often reported on national security issues. His regular beats included the White House, Congress, Treasury, and the Pentagon.

Mr. Cook covered three Presidential elections at Bloomberg, and his reporting took him around the globe. He interviewed world leaders such as Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, Canada's Stephen Harper as well as President Obama.

Before Bloomberg, Mr. Cook worked for NBC News and MSNBC and covered the Pentagon during the start of the Iraq war. He helped launch EnergyNewsLive.com as Washington bureau chief. Mr. Cook started his career in local television, winning awards for his work as an anchor and reporter in North Carolina, Virginia, and Idaho.

Mr. Cook is a graduate of Duke University and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He was born in Washington but spent his early youth living in Italy.
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