Experience

Summary

Over 39 years’ experience in leading dynamic, multi-faceted, resource constrained, results driven organizations.  Inculcated independent leadership skills and organizational ethos through direct mentoring and personal engagement that maximized personal growth, and implemented ethical decision-making frameworks.  Designed team based, innovative processes that drove individual and collective successes in the most challenging and physically demanding strategic planning, fiscal and budgeting, operational, and logistics support environments.  Sought as a speaker and presenter on leadership development and developing winning teams. Retired as a Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps in October 2017 and continued his multi-faceted work as President, JPW Solutions, LLC.

Disabled Veteran-owned leadership consulting service that provides consulting services in leadership development and organizational effectiveness, logistics planning and execution and strategic enterprise planning.

• Began work with Major League Soccer (MLS) league leadership and all MLS coaches during the January 2018 MLS combine. Leading a small group seminar, JPW Solutions provided insights to improve leadership qualities and provided key insights into how to build develop continuously winning teams and team cultures.

• Provided focused leadership development and team building techniques to the MLS Portland Timbers and Chicago Fire management, coaches and players culminating their pre-season preparation for the 2018 MLS season.  John continued his work with the Chicago Fire team in 2019.

• Initiated work with several commercial clients in leadership development, logistics systems development, and strategic planning efforts to revitalize already successful business undertakings.

• Serves as the Distinguished Chair of Leadership in the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy teaching coaching and mentoring Midshipmen Team Captains and Commanders as well as Coaches and Faculty. 

• Engaged with several NCAA Division I collegiate programs in providing coaches, team captains, and the general student body with leadership development techniques essential to building positive team culture and driving team-based wins. 

• Serves as a Board Member of the Australian Northern Territory Strategic Defence Advisory Board providing strategic planning insights for the development of business and military capabilities in the Northern Territory.

• Provides product development guidance and executive coaching and mentoring to Business Line Managers at Battelle Memorial Institute. 

• Building leadership skills in youth through volunteer work in local Arlington Diocese Catholic schools as well as the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Schools.

• Command responsibilities including leadership, fiscal guidance and budget execution, strategic planning, and organizational development for 65,000 Marines, Sailors and government civilians executing operations around the globe including employment of ground combat, logistics and aviation forces as well as unique world-wide strategic capabilities. Responsible for the detailed Fiscal guidance and budget execution of $1.3B in Operations and Maintenance funds annually and the upkeep and maintenance of over $24B in physical assets not including buildings, facilities and training ranges. Command responsibilities include the following units:

  • II Marine Expeditionary Force and their associated Marine Division, Combat Logistics Group, and Aviation Combat Element assets including over 350 fixed-wing (fighter and transport), rotary-wing, and tilt-rotor aircraft;

  • Marine Corps Security Force Regiment providing Nuclear Weapons Security and Global Fleet Anti-Terrorism support;

  • Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force supporting numerous National Security events at home and abroad including support to the President, Congress, and Marine Corps service components to the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC)

  • Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group developing Theater Security Cooperation plans supporting Marine Corps components in every GCC as well as building foreign military advisor capability within the Marine Corps.
    

• Manage the development and implementation of Global Force Management solutions to include pre-deployment training, long-term force generation, and readiness requirements for the employment of all Marine Corps forces meeting Combatant Commander requirements around the globe.
  

• Partner with U.S. Fleet Forces Command for the development of naval capabilities supporting Combatant Commanders around the globe. Naval integration activities include integrated Navy and Marine Corps training and readiness evaluation criteria, technology development, and Navy-Marine Corps integrated experimentation plans for force and capability development.
  

• Analyze Marine Corps readiness across all units providing detailed institutional actions to improve readiness across the force. Simultaneously develop automated processes that identify the cost of readiness to achieved levels of personnel, training, equipment, and maintenance levels across the force.
  

• Provide oversight and support to US Marine Corps Forces Europe, Africa and Southern Command. Developed and implemented detailed plans for the integration of rotational forces in Norway working with EUCOM and NATO commands as well as the US Embassy and Norwegian government. Planned trained and certified the employment of rotational forces in Africa and South America.

• Command all embarked Marine Corps forces prior to their reassignment to Geographic Combatant Command Navy or Marine Corps components.
  

• Integrate Navy and Marine Corps training and certification of amphibious forces for missions across the range of military operations from Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR), to contingency response and combat operations.

• Command of 30,000 Marines, Sailors and civilians comprising the only forward deployed Marine Expeditionary Force in the Marine Corps. Command of Marines dispersed from Mainland Japan to Australia, and Hawaii to South Korea, including ground combat, logistics and aviation forces (over 200 fixed-wing (fighter and transport)), rotary wing, and tilt-rotor aircraft.
  

• Plan, train, organize and employ Marine Air-Ground Task Forces to meet the needs of U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) across the range of military operations.
  

• Twice designated as the USPACOM Joint Task Force Commander for HA/DR operations in the wake of the most powerful and deadliest typhoon to ever hit the Philippines (Typhoon Haiyan, 2013) and the most devastating earthquake to strike Nepal in over 80 years (2015 7.8 Magnitude earthquake). Both operations designated by US State Department and US PACOM as the model for Joint and interagency HA/DR response.
  

• Execute PACOM Theater Security Cooperation (TSC) efforts in 22 of the 36 countries in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region with a focus on Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines. Published the first classified TSC plan with associated metrics to measure the success of TSC efforts in III MEF assigned areas of responsibility.
  

• Serve as Commander, Combined Marine Component Command (wartime) supporting the Commander, U.S. Forces Korea and Commander, Combined Forces Command in the defense of South Korea. In this role developed, rehearsed and war gamed detailed and innovative plans in support of the Joint and Combined force commander. Awarded the Order of National Security Merit, Gukseon Medal conferred by the President of the Republic of Korea.
  

• Partnered with the Chief of Staff, Japan Ground Self Defense Force in the development of rapid deployment and amphibious capability. In this role worked with the Japanese government and the entirety of the Japan Self Defense Force (Air, Maritime and Ground) to develop integrated Joint warfighting capabilities to support rapid deployment and amphibious operations. Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Star from the Emperor of Japan.
  

• Designed and implemented a decision support tool to define the operations and maintenance costs to effectively meet assigned missions and ensure readiness across all required training and readiness standards. Efforts resulted in increased funding for III MEF forces in a time of reduced funding across DoD and the Marine Corps.

• Served as Marine Component Commander to US Forces Japan in execution of national security treaty obligations with Japan.
  

• Managed relationships with local Okinawa prefectural government, the US Ambassador to Japan, the Japanese government, and the Japanese Ambassador for Okinawa to ensure continued execution, coordination and required modifications to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa Agreement signed by the United States and Japanese governments to address the long-term plans for US military presence on Okinawa.
  

• Improved organizational policies that resulted in successful US-Japan relationships and the shift of responsibilities and staff support requirements in the event of contingency operations affecting the US, Japan, and South Korea.

• Responsible for the Planning, Programming, Budget and Execution process developing the Marine Corps’ Program Objective Memorandum (POM) totaling in excess of $140B across the five-year Future Years Defense Program.
  

• Planned, designed and implemented efficiencies in the Marine Corps program to incorporate DoD and congressionally directed funding reductions associated with initial Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) efforts in 2010 and the subsequent 2011 Budget Control Act (Sequestration) funding constraints and reductions. Developed a model for measuring readiness across five institutional pillars that ensured long term readiness of the force and an ability to most effectively balance current force readiness with future force requirements. Implementation of Big Data Analysis was central to the success of these efforts and provided senior Marine Corps, Joint Staff, and OSD decision makers with metric-based impacts of fiscal decisions at every level.
  

• Reduced unexecuted fund obligations across the Marine Corps surpassing prior performance records and improving balance across the five pillars of institutional readiness.
  

• Provided guidance and strategic planning efforts across the Marine Corps to achieve the first successful unqualified audit opinion of the Marine Corps General Fund Schedule of Budgetary Activity. This was the first successful audit in all of DoD and was the first important step to full financial statement auditability now underway.

• Executed the responsibilities as Deputy Commanding General for Governance and Economics. In conjunction with the Governor and the tribal leadership of Al Anbar Province supported over $28B in Foreign Direct Investment, which revitalized Al Anbar province and allowed for the development of the Akkas gas field.
  

• Coordinated the closure of numerous bases and Forward Operating Bases across Al Anbar province working in direct coordination with the Government of Iraq and the provincial government. Reduction of US footprint in Al Anbar supported wider efforts across Iraq and led US Force-Iraq (formerly Multi-National Force-Iraq) efforts.
  

• Planned and supervised the redeployment of all Marine Corps personnel and equipment from Iraq via air, sea and ground transportation through Iraq, Kuwait, and Jordan. This effort began prior to deployment in order to properly draw down the force, maintain security, and redeploy critical capabilities to Afghanistan with the build-up of Marine Corps and multi-national forces in Helmand province.

• Provided personal assessments, identified process shortcomings, and implemented procedures to synergize decision-making and team building internal and external to the Office of the Deputy Secretary.
  

• Provided insights and analysis to the Deputy Secretary regarding impact of personnel, procurement, and operations and maintenance budget decisions on current and future operational capabilities across the DoD.
  

• Personal focus on supporting wounded warrior rehabilitation and family support resulted in policy changes improving quality of life and resilience.
  

• Deployed for two months to Iraq in conjunction with a US Joint Forces Command team to analyze the sufficiency of in-place logistics elements to support the potential troop increases associated with the “surge.”

• Organized, trained, deployed and employed 5,000+ Marines and Sailors from Camp Lejeune, NC to Al Anbar province Iraq providing uninterrupted logistical support to Multi-National Force-West (MNF-W) forces.
  

• Established the communications and information technology architecture across all of Al Anbar Province, an area the size of the state of Georgia, that resulted in reduced order-ship time, improved readiness, and reduced casualties resulting from decreased on-road requirements.
  

• Created a logistics decision support tool to provide a logistics common operating picture for all logistics forces across Al Anbar province. Real time position location, text messaging, and intelligence updates resulted in significantly improved coordination and support to the over 25,000 Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers in the MNF-W battlespace engaged in significant kinetic and non-kinetic operations against Al Qaida.
  

• Planned, organized, and executed all requirements for the up-armoring of all MNF-W HMMWVs. This effort included significant global coordination of Marine Corps Logistics Command and TRANSCOM capabilities, establishment of specific air routes to support materials delivery, and the establishment of an up-armor facility capable of synchronized throughput to provide turn-in and receipt of vehicles with no impact to ongoing tactical operations.

• Organized, trained, deployed and employed a multi-functional battlefield distribution capability to support I MEF and Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom I. Developed innovative force organization and command and control capabilities that integrated industrial base, theater, and service component logistics capabilities that provided 5 times the doctrinal operational range of a Marine Expeditionary Force in combat, supporting MEF operational capabilities from Kuwait to Baghdad and Tikrit.
  

• Utilizing a combination of Blue Force Tracker, rudimentary decision support tools, and RFID technology provided flexibility of support that revolutionized Marine Corps battlefield distribution capabilities.

• Led a collection of hand selected Navy, Marine Corps and civilian strategic analysts to support the Commandant of the Marine Corps with decisionable information and an understanding of the intricate connections and dynamic opportunities between the Marine Corps, the other Services, DoD, Academia, Industry, and the Executive and Legislative branches of the government.
  

• Authored a weekly strategic vision publication for distribution to all Marine Corps General Officers.
  

• Authored two draft Presidential Decision Memoranda.
  

• Principal participant in developing Marine Corps input into the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review