My Experience in Strategic Planning
During my 30 year career as an active duty Army officer, I was afforded the opportunity to attend the Army’s premiere schools for developing planners. The focus of these schools was to produce critical-thinking problem solvers who were then sent back into the Army to share their skills. I served as a lead planner on a division staff with over 18,000 soldiers and on staffs that oversaw the employment of three to five divisions. I served as the chief-of-staff for the largest Joint Staff directorate in the Pentagon. With nearly 2,500 military, civilian and defense contractors, I was charged with developing an organizational structure that ensured all functions the directorate exercised in terms of doctrine development, education and training for all of the services could be accomplished in a time and resource constrained environment.
My final position in the Army was serving as the chief of staff to the Provost at National Defense University in Washington, D.C. While in this role I was involved with the development of the University’s strategic plan and accreditation process. I also built a process involving the five college academic deans and the deans of administration for each college in order to develop a clear picture of what it cost to deliver the education programs. This included right sizing the faculty, structuring a support staff for the university and the colleges and identifying human resource and information technology requirements.
After retiring from the Army, I continued to perform the same job as a civilian and was then hired as the Dean of Administration for the College of International Security Affairs. In this role I not only managed the support staff for the college but oversaw all finance, human resource and information technology needs for the college.
After retiring from National Defense University in 2019, my wife and I moved to a small town in Virginia where I was elected to the Town Council and appointed vice-mayor. Again, my background in planning assisted the collaborative development of the town’s strategic plan. I was also asked by the town manager to facilitate numerous staff process improvement drills that included public works, the planning and zoning office and the parks and recreation office.
After moving to Hartford in 2022, I began serving on the Wilson Gray YMCA Council of Advisors where I facilitated the development of their first strategic plan in eight years. I also began serving on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center where I worked with the board and the staff to develop their strategic plan. I have a passion for planning and an extensive background in leadership and organizational development that I know will benefit your organization.