Charles Hecker is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, London) and author of the 2024 book Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia, published in Europe by Hurst Publishers and in the US by Oxford University Press. Zero Sum was named a “Best of Books 2025” by Foreign Affairs magazine and is a New York Times “Editors’ Choice.”
Prior to writing Zero Sum, Charles was a partner at Control Risks, the international, specialist risk consultancy, and for eight years was the managing partner of the firm’s Moscow office. He was later a co-head of Control Risks’ geopolitical risk consulting practice. While at Control Risks, Charles helped dozens of leading international companies invest safely in Russia and manage the dynamic array of risks the country presented as it developed as a market. He is a former reporter for The Moscow Times and remains a frequent contributor to print and broadcast media.
In addition to his role on the Davis Center Advisory Board, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London (UCL).
Updated October 2026.
