Leadership

• FORMER UNITED STATES
  UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE
• FORMER SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
  NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES
• NATIONAL BESTSELLING, AWARD-WINNING
  AUTHOR OF 15 NOVELS

Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata (U.S. Army, Retired) most recently performed the duties of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the #3 position in the United States Department of Defense where he implemented the National Defense Strategy and worked closely with allies and partners to achieve strategic defense goals globally. Additionally, he led the development of the Defense Planning Guidance for Fiscal Year 2022 that established DoD resource requirements to field a military capable of meeting its strategic needs. His distinguished military career includes commands in the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions and the 10th Mountain Division as well as operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Panama, and Haiti. His military awards and decorations include the bronze star, combat action badge, ranger tab, master parachutist badge, and department of defense award for distinguished public service.

In his civilian life, Mr. Tata leads his consulting firm, Tata Leadership Group, and is the managing partner of Boundary Channel Partners, an advisory company he established with former Secretary of Defense, Chris Miller. Previously, he served as North Carolina’s Secretary of Transportation, Superintendent of Wake County Public School System (Raleigh, NC/Research Triangle), and Chief Operating Officer of Washington, DC Public Schools. As Secretary of Transportation, Tony managed 72 airports, two seaports, three railroads, 22 ferries, 88,000 miles of highway, and 100 transit systems. He was influential in changing state law to prioritize transportation projects that reduced congestion and travel time, increased safety and multi-modal connections, and created jobs. As superintendent of the 15th largest education system in the country with 150,000 students, 170 schools, and 18,000 employees, Tony implemented innovative programming that led to the highest gains in low-income student proficiency and growth in the history of the system.

Tony frequently provides geopolitical updates and/or leadership remarks to senior leaders in Fortune 500 and private equity companies such as Delta Airlines, AFLAC, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce, Google, Emerson Collective, General Electric, Bank of America, John Deere, Chevron, Andreesen Horowitz, Silver Lake, and many others.

He is the national bestselling author of 15 novels, including Besieged, a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mystery/Thriller of 2017 and Foreign and Domestic, a Barry Award finalist in 2016. He is a frequent guest commentator on a variety of popular cable news programs regarding foreign policy with over 1,000 appearances. Mr. Tata presently serves on the board of directors of Edge Data Solutions and on the advisory board of Academy Securities. Tony is also an ambassador for Homes for Our Troops, a 501c3 focused on providing ADA compliant homes to our most severely wounded veterans.

He is a West Point graduate with a Bachelor of Science and has two master’s degrees, one from the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies in operational planning and another from the Catholic University of America in international relations. He was also a distinguished national security fellow at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.