Board of Advisors
Major General Ronald L. Beckwith, USMC, (Ret.)
General Beckwith retired from the U. S. Marine Corps in 1991 after 34 years service. His military career includes multiple combat tours and aviation command assignments at the Squadron, Group and Wing level. He served in a senior leadership Joint billet as the Deputy to the Director of Weapons Systems, Department of the Army. Senior staff leadership assignments also included serving as the Deputy to the Marine Corps’ Assistant Commandant for Requirements and Programs, the Marine Corps’ Deputy Fiscal Director, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Expeditionary Force Programs during Operations Desert Shield & Storm. Prior to retirement, General Beckwith led a major OSD study chartered to explore, develop and implement new management architectures with supporting enterprise software for Defense and Service-level supply, maintenance and inventory management functions. Those solutions remain in place to date. Upon retirement, General Beckwith founded LeeCor, Inc. a professional services company focused on business development for emerging technologies, i.e., businesses emerging from industry IR&D, government labs, and small businesses. Early LeeCor focus was on technologies supporting naval surface fire support and counter-mine warfare, with special emphasis on shallow water regimes. More recent professional services support has been provided to companies focused on digital imaging and storage, high speed data exchange, data encryption, and enterprise network architectures. Recent activities have included development of market penetration strategies for companies with technical solutions to the current remote controlled IED threat in Iraq and Afghanistan, data-at-rest encryption software, and very advanced vehicle-mounted data distribution systems. Other activities have included participation on or leading teams to research and develop market penetration strategies for Defense-related items for Fortune 500 and Small Business companies.
General Beckwith received his Baccalaureate degree in Economics from Georgetown University, completed Naval Aviator training in 1959, received his MBA from the University of West Florida and is a graduate of the U. S. Army War College, Carlisle PA.
Lieutenant General John S. Caldwell, Jr., USA (Ret.)
General Caldwell is currently employed as a consultant and serves on the board of directors of several companies, including TASER International and Puradyn Filter Technologies.
General Caldwell joined Perot Systems Government Services February- May 2007, as Executive Vice President for Defense Solutions. He was employed by QSS Group, Inc., as Senior Vice President for Defense Programs, until QSS was acquired by Perot Systems.
General Caldwell joined PTC in March 2004, as an Executive Adviser.
General Caldwell’s last active duty assignment was Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology). In that capacity, he was responsible to the Assistant Secretary for the direction and oversight of the Army’s Research, Development and Acquisition (RDA) programs. He was also Director of the Army Acquisition Workforce. He was instrumental in formulating the acquisition programs that provided dominant war fighting capability and pioneered the transformation of the Army in the early 21st century.
Previous assignments included: Commanding General of the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM); Deputy Chief of Staff, Research, Development and Acquisition (RDA), Army Materiel Command (AMC); Director of the Army Digitization Office; and Project Manager, Abrams Tank System.
Rear Admiral Stephen R. Pietropaoli, USN (Ret)
Rear Admiral Stephen R. Pietropaoli, USN (Ret) is the national executive director of the Navy League of the United States. The Navy League of the United States is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating our citizens about the importance of sea power to U.S. National security and supporting the men and women of the sea services and their families
Admiral Pietropaoli served as the Navy's Chief of Information from August 2000 to November 2003 during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Before that, he was special assistant for public affairs to Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Brian A. Sailer
Brian Sailer serves as Senior Vice-President at Dutko Worldwide, and helps to lead the Dutko Government Markets business division. Brian specializes in working with clients in the government IT, homeland security and defense industries. Brian provides clients domain expertise, strong relationships at the federal, state and local levels, and a comprehensive understanding of the state and federal intergovernmental affairs and funding processes, as well as federal and state procurement and acquisition processes. Brian also helps clients successfully develop demonstration pilots and establish research, development, test and evaluation programs (RDT&E). Brian also brings significant foreign affairs experience to Dutko’s Global Advisors practice, having represented foreign nations in their bilateral relations with the U.S., foreign corporations entering the U.S. market, as well as U.S. companies that are attempting to expand business oversees.
Brian managed an initiative on behalf of the world’s largest law firm in the post-Iraq war reconstruction period. The effort focused on positioning the law firm to provide counsel and services to the United States Government, the Department of Defense’s Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), and the Multi-agency Task Force on Iraqi Reconstruction in a effort to affect the redrafting of the constitution and laws/regulations on private investment in Iraq. The initiative not only positioned the firm as a thought leader on reconstruction, but also enabled the firm to better position its clients for business capture and investment in Iraq.
Brian has developed and implemented comprehensive integrated communications, market development, and lobbying campaigns for technology, corporate, non-profit and government clients. Brian recently helped to create a unique and successful public-private partnership bringing together eight Mid-Atlantic States to organize the All Hazards Consortium. The organization fosters collaboration between federal, state and local homeland security/first responder communities to strengthen regional coordination and interoperability in planning, preparedness, response and recovery in the event of natural and/or terrorist related events. The organization is nationally recognized as one of the leading homeland security collaboration initiatives.
Prior to Dutko Worldwide, Sailer was the Regional Managing Director of the Washington, D.C. office of The Launch Company (TLC), a high-tech strategic marketing communications consulting firm. At TLC, his clients experience included working with start up and enterprise companies in satellite and telecommunications, software, hardware, new media, entertainment, education, among others. Prior to The Launch Company, Brian was the Vice President of Mark A. Siegel & Associates & International Public Strategies. He also served as the executive director of a Washington based non-profit environmental foundation, utilizing a grassroots media and marketing campaign to build membership support.
Dr. Tony Tether
Dr. Anthony J. Tether was Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2001 to his retirement in 2009. DARPA is the principal Agency within the Department of Defense for research, development, and demonstration of concepts, devices, and systems that provide highly advanced new technology capabilities. As Director, Dr. Tether was responsible for management of the Agency's projects for high-payoff, innovative research and development.
In 2009, Dr. Tether re-formed The Sequoia Group (TSG), which serves government and industrial clients. He is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Council on Competitiveness located in Washington DC.
From 1996 to 2001, Dr. Tether held the position of Chief Executive Officer and President of The Sequoia Group, which he founded in 1996. From 1994 to 1996, Dr. Tether served as Chief Executive Officer for Dynamics Technology Inc. From 1992 to 1994, he was Vice President of Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Advanced Technology Sector, and then Vice President and General Manager for Range Systems at SAIC. Prior to this, he spent six years as Vice President for Technology and Advanced Development at Ford Aerospace Corp., acquired by Loral Corporation during that period.
He has also held positions in the Department of Defense, serving as Director of DARPA's Strategic Technology Office from 1982 through 1986, and as Director National Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1978 to 1982. He served as Executive Vice President of Systems Control Inc., a company he helped start after receiving his Ph.D., where he applied estimation and control theory to military and commercial problems with particular concentration on development and specification of algorithms to perform real-time resource allocation and control.
Dr. Tether has served on Army, Navy and Defense Science Boards, and on the Office of National Drug Control Policy Research and Development Committee. He is a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and currently listed in several Who's Who publications. In 1986, Director Central Intelligence Bill Casey and the Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger honored him with the National Intelligence Medal and the Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Medal respectively. In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates honored him with the Department of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal.
Dr. Tether received his Bachelor's of Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his Master of Science and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Christian Connors
A serial entrepreneur, Chris Connors founded RCS, a successful New England based Defense Industry System and Subsystem Manufacturer’s Representative Firm in 1994. RCS focuses on marketing highly engineered products to Department of Defense Prime contractors such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, BAE, MIT, Mitre etc.
In 2003 he invested in Aethercomm of Carlsbad, CA where he sits on the Board of what is now the largest Counter IED Amplifier Company in the country.
In 2005, Chris founded LJC Consulting which focuses on marketing innovative technologies to the DoD in support of Rapid Technology Insertion Initiatives. LJC identifies capability gaps, finds highly motivated “game changing” capabilities and markets to all levels of the DoD to field life saving devices. Among others, LJC works with BBN Technologies (now Raytheon BBN Technologies) who had fielded over 6000 Boomerang Shooter Detection Systems and related equipment. Boomerang was the first capability to go through the Army’s CDRT Process which expedites the Army’s fielding process for new capabilities.
Chris sits on several Boards and is a graduate of Providence College.