Advisors

Ambassador Dell Dailey, LTG (USA Retired)

Ambassador (Ret) Dell L. Dailey is the President of a family owned consultant company. This enterprise is the culmination of four decades of government service with a brief opportunity at President, Pacific Architect and Engineers. Currently, Dell Dailey and Family spans both Department of Defense and Department of State programs, numerous product focused companies, private equity, small arms company, think tank efforts and international operations.

Prior to his current efforts in the private sector, he served as the Coordinator for Counterterrorism for The Department of State, charged with coordinating and supporting the development and implementation of U.S. Government policies and programs aimed at countering terrorism overseas. As the principal advisor to the Secretary of State on international counterterrorism matters, he is responsible for taking a leading role in developing coordinated strategies to defeat terrorists abroad and in securing the cooperation of international partners to that end.

Ambassador Dailey served over 36 years on active duty in the United States Army. He reached the rank of Lieutenant General as the Director of the Center for Special Operations (CSO), U.S. Special Operations Command, at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. His duties involved participation in all recent major military operations. He is a Master Army Aviator with over 2400 hours flight time, and 400 night vision goggle hours. Additionally he is a Master Parachutist of 120 jumps, with airborne wings from Canada, Germany and Jordan.

During the latter phase of his military career and particularly in the CSO, Ambassador Dailey's professional focus was not only on the military aspect of counterterrorism operations, but also on the need to deal with complex terrorist threats using all appropriate instruments of national power. Under his leadership, the CSO promoted interagency collaboration and built closer partnerships between military personnel and the members of other U.S. Government departments and agencies involved in global counterterrorism activities.

Ambassador Dailey was born into an Army family in Flandreau, South Dakota. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1971. Subsequently he earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from Shippensburg University in 1994. In 2008, Ambassador Dailey was recognized by his peers as a the youngest Distinguished Graduate from The Military Academy at West Point, NY. In 2010 he was inducted into the US Army Aviation Hall of Fame.

He has five wonderful children, several whom are involved in government service. He is married to his loving wife Mary, who has been his counsel and support for 28 years.

Ambassador David T. Johnson (Retired)

David T. Johnson served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs from October 2007 until January 2011, where he led U.S. anti-crime, anti-money-laundering, counter-narcotics, and criminal justice capacity building assistance efforts. Those efforts took place in more than seventy locations, included almost seven thousand personnel, and encompassed a budget of almost four billion. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Johnson served as Charge’ and then Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy in London from August 2003 until July 2007. He is a member-elect of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board.

Mr. Johnson, of Georgia, entered the United States Foreign Service in 1977. He served as the Afghan Coordinator for the United States from May 2002 to July 2003. He served as United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from January 1998 until December 2001. Before serving as Ambassador to the OSCE, Mr. Johnson was Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the White House and Spokesman for the National Security Council from 1995 to 1997. Previously, he served as Deputy Spokesman at the State Department and Director of the State Department Press Office; United States Consul General in Vancouver; and Deputy Director of the State Department's Operations Center.

Mr. Johnson has also worked in the Department of State on European security issues and as desk officer for Berlin, Austria, and Switzerland; an economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin; and a vice consul at the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez. Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Johnson was an Assistant National Trust Examiner with the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Mr. Johnson earned a B.A. in economics from Emory University in 1976. He attended Canada's National Defense College in 1989-1990.

Michael D. Maples, LTG (USA Retired)

Mike Maples retired from the United States Army in 2009 as a Lieutenant General with over 37 years of service in critical leadership and staff positions. In his last assignment he served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) an organization of over 16,000 civilian and military personnel serving in over 140 countries. Lieutenant General Maples simultaneously commanded the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JFCC-ISR) for the United States Strategic Command.

During his tenure LTG(R) Maples increased defense intelligence support to ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism. He established the Defense Intelligence Operations Coordination Center to focus resources on priority intelligence requirements and to coordinate support to the Combatant Command Joint Intelligence Operations Centers. He likewise established the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center to more effectively meet the needs of the Department of Defense. LTG Maples was instrumental in developing information technology applications to enable a more collaborative environment in the intelligence community. His responsibilities included operating and protecting the Department of Defense Top Secret communications network.

Lieutenant General Maples previously served as the Vice Director and Director of Management of the Joint Staff. In this role he coordinated support to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense. He directly supervised the Joint Staff management, comptroller, security, logistics and communications functions, and served as the Joint Staff Chief Information Officer.

As the Commanding General of the United States Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Chief of Field Artillery for the United States Army, LTG(R) Maples was extensively involved in training leaders, the development of future force operating concepts, and the acquisition of precision combat capabilities to support ground forces.

LTG(R) Maples served on the Army Staff as the Director of Operations, Readiness and Mobilization with the responsibility for operating the Army Operations Center. As the Director of Military Support, he coordinated Department of Defense support to civil authorities, including Special Security events.

LTG(R) Maples has extensive operational experience having planned and executed the in place relief of U.S. forces in Bosnia and the initial entry of NATO forces into Macedonia and Kosovo. In combat, he commanded the only Army Tactical Missile System capable Multiple Launch Rocket System battalion in Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

In his many assignments, most especially as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he has worked closely with counterparts from foreign militaries around the world.

Mike received a Bachelors of Science from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY in 1971 and a Masters of Arts in Organizational Behavior from Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington in 1977. In addition to the Field Artillery Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, He completed the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and graduated from the National War College.

Lieutenant General Maples’ decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Army Achievement Medal.

Foreign decorations include the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, the Cross of Honor of the German Federal Armed Forces (Gold), and the Slovak Medal of the Military Intelligence Service.

He was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.

Mike is a Founding Partner of the Star Strategies Group. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Intergraph Government Solutions and as member of the Advisory Boards for FEDSYS Secure, Glimmerglass Networks and the Thayer Leader Development Group. He also is a member of the Elbe Group sponsored by the Belfer Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

John R. (Bob) Wood, LTG (USA Retired)

John R. (Bob) Wood, Lieutenant General (retired), served over thirty-six years as an officer in the United State Army. As a commander, he led soldiers at all levels of responsibility from platoon to division. As a staff officer, his experience ranges from tactical level with coalition forces in combat, through Army level in the aftermath of 9/11, to the national level in the National Security Council during the Reagan administration. In his last assignment on active duty, he was the chief operating officer of the United States Joint Forces Command where he led the daily activities of the largest joint command in the military responsible for all joint experimentation, training, capability development, and force deployments.

As a commander in Korea, he was responsible for all training, personnel readiness, sustainment, and combat operations of the largest, most combat ready US Army force defending the Republic of Korea and supporting alliance operations in NE Asia. In Desert Storm, he led his battalion in support of ground offensive operations supporting both the French and the US forces. His leadership capabilities were recognized by his appointment as deputy commandant of the United States Army’s Command and General Staff College. In this role, he led the Army’s premier leadership development organization as it transitioned from the Cold War to today’s new challenges. He was subsequently tasked to craft the Army’s 21st century leader development strategy.

As the Army’s senior strategic planner, he developed and implemented the US Army’s strategic response plan for combating worldwide terrorism in the wake of 9/11. He led the efforts of 22 worldwide Army commands and a select team of 200 planners through an intensive planning and execution effort that instituted three planning processes and produced strategic guidance that, today, still guides the Army. Further, he led the Army’s Pentagon planning for Rwanda, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and initial Iraq operations. As a White House Fellow in the National Security Council, he helped craft presidential directives and public policy guiding the Strategic Defense Initiative and directly influenced critical arms control actions.

While the Director of Joint Experimentation for the United States military, Bob designed and led a broad range of defense experiments to unite DoD’s newest operational concepts underlying planning, combat, and security operations for the 21st Century. He has broad experience in experiment design, IT testing and integration, intelligence fusion and integration, and concept development. He has spoken on innovation and the military in national and international military and industrial forums. He is a recognized authority in the areas of command and control, logistics planning, and intelligence innovation. He has taught both economics and operations research while an assistant professor at West Point. He brought these skills and his background in operations and strategic planning to his research and development activities as well as his responsibilities for model and simulation design.

Bob has degrees from the United States Military Academy (BS), the University of Chicago (MBA), and the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College (Master of Military Art). He was selected as a White House Fellow in 1984 and served in the Reagan White House on the National Security Council. He was also a fellow at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1993).

Since retirement from the Army in January 2009, Bob has devoted his attention to the establishment of a consulting practice, Star Strategies Group where he is a Founding Partner and President.