I went to the US Air Force Academy longer ago than I am willing to admit and served for 22 years in the Air Force. I flew B-52s for half my career and then matriculated into the nuclear arms control business, where I helped negotiate our first two nuclear arms agreements with the then-Soviet Union. After that, I became involved with organizational development and design in the Air Force, where I got the people management bug. I retired and then went into the management-consulting world, where we did everything from performance management to leadership development to change management and everything in between.
After ten years of working for various government and private entities, I moved to a medium-sized company where I took over as the Chief Learning Officer and the VP of HR for North America. That is where I earned my "HR chops" and focused on leadership development, change management, organizational development, and establishing an effective HR organization. The company I was with was acquired by and larger (like 30 times larger) foreign-owned company, and I became the head of Learning and Development for North America. I can tell you it is much more fun to be the acquirer than the acquiree, but that is for another time.
In both positions, I led significant change management projects and helped implement a global change management process. I moved into a similar position with the FAA, where we did all of the organizational development work for the air traffic part of the FAA (85%) of the organization, and that is where I finished my "working" life.
Throughout all this, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of managing people from every perspective, including the CEO's office. I also have an extensive background in working with labor from my time at the FAA. My education includes a master's in business from Michigan Tech University and a DSc from George Washington University, where my research was on organizational learning and knowledge management with an emphasis on innovation. I also teach at the Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI) for nine years and am the HR concentration lead. JWMI was one of the top 10 online MBA programs globally in 2021.