James E. Cartwright

General James Cartwright retired from active duty on September 1, 2011, after 40 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps. General Cartwright served as commander, U.S. Strategic Command, before being nominated and appointed as the eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest military officer. General Cartwright served his four-year tenure as vice chairman across two presidential administrations and constant military operations against diverse and evolving enemies. He became widely recognized for his technical acumen, vision of future national security concepts, and keen ability to integrate systems, organizations, and people in ways that encouraged creativity and sparked innovation in the areas of strategic deterrence, nuclear proliferation, missile defense, cybersecurity, and adaptive acquisition processes.

Born in Rockford, IL, he attended the University of Iowa and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines in 1971. He was both a naval flight officer and naval aviator who flew the F-4 Phantom, OA-4 Skyhawk, and F/A-18 Hornet. In 1983, he was named Outstanding Carrier Aviator of the Year by the Association of Naval Aviation. General Cartwright graduated with distinction from the Air Command and Staff College, received a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, completed a fellowship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was honored with a Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award.

General Cartwright currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors for Wesley Theological Seminary and is on the Boards of Directors for IP3 Security Corporation and Beyond Aerospace. He is also a co-chair for Global Zero Nuclear Crisis Group. General Cartwright has served on the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Policy Board, the Raytheon Company Board of Directors, the Federal Advisory Board for Accenture Federal Services, the TASC Advisory Board, and was a defense consultant for ABC News. In addition, he was the inaugural holder of the Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies for the Center for Strategic & International Studies and a senior fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center.

General Cartwright is also an adviser for several corporate entities involved in global management consulting; technology services and program solutions; predictive and big data analytics; and advanced systems engineering, integration, and decision-support services. He serves as an adviser to Beyond Aerospace, Enlightenment Capital, IxReveal, HSH Analytics, ForcePoint, and the Potomac Institute. In addition, he was a member of SpaceX National Security Space Strategic Advisory Committee as well as a consultant for AT&T Government Solutions and Logos Technologies. General Cartwright is also affiliated with a number of professional organizations to include the Aspen Strategy Group, The Atlantic Council, Council on Foreign Relations, Global Zero, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.