This is a little late, but none the less very important to bring up. Dr. Kilcullen will now be advising MEP on company strategy, ethics, and world affairs. Not to mention that the other board members are pretty impressive as well. Still, the father of today’s counterinsurgency strategy and modern day Lawrence of Arabia has joined a PMC! How cool is that?
Now the question I have is if this new board will actually take the company to the next level? To me, that level has always been to be profitable as well as earn the respect of it’s employees, world and peers. Could a PMC achieve the status of some of today’s more respected companies, like Google or Apple?
That is a tall order for our industry. At this point, PMC’s really don’t have a great reputation and are frequently attacked. Hell, I just posted a deal where ABC News attacked MEP. This entire blog is filled with the various problems and histories of this industry, and we need all the help we can get.
If Dr. Kilcullen can do for this company and this industry what he did for today’s military and counterinsurgency strategy, then that would be really impressive. Perhaps he or one of the board members could come up on the blog and do a little ‘strategic communications’? That’s if they care to engage with one of the ‘few’ new media sources out there that really cares about this stuff? –Matt
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Mission Essential Personnel Announces New Board of Advisors
July 26, 2010
Mission Essential Personnel, LLC, (MEP) today announced the creation of a board of advisors to counsel senior company leadership on company strategy, ethics, and world affairs. A trio of highly accomplished professionals, this board will enhance MEP’s strategic planning, thought leadership, and superior performance throughout the world.
MEP CEO Chris Taylor said, “MEP’s exponential growth has brought us great success and new challenges and choices. In order to ensure we continue to deliver certainty to our customers, we will look to the collective wisdom of our Board of Advisors to help us critically think through the opportunities of the new global economy and how MEP can continue to create value for our stakeholders. We are all excited about this new relationship and Mitchell, Sarah, and David will serve as the cornerstones of MEP’s bright future.”
The board of advisors consists of:
Ambassador Mitchell Reiss – Recently made the 27th president of Washington College, Reiss was previously Vice Provost at the College of William & Mary. He is a scholar and diplomat best known for successful negotiations during the Northern Ireland peace process and the North Korean nuclear crisis. From 2003 to 2005, he was Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department under Secretary of State Colin Powell and earned the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service. Reiss concurrently served as President George W. Bush’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Peace Process until 2007. As a White House Fellow from 1988-89, he served as special assistant to the national security advisor.
Sarah Sewall – Sewall teaches international affairs and directs the Program on National Security and Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is the founder and faculty director of the Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) project. She led President Obama’s Transition National Security Agency Review process. Sewall is a member of the DOD’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and the Center for Naval Analyses Defense Advisory Committee. She served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance in the Clinton Administration. From 1983-1996, she served as senior foreign policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.
Dr. David Kilcullen — Kilcullen served more than 20 years as an Australian light infantry officer before joining the US Government and serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa in counterterrorism, diplomacy, international development, strategy, and counterinsurgency roles. In 2007, Kilcullen was Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to Gen. David Petraeus, then Commanding General, Multinational Force-Iraq. In 2008-2009, he served as Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to the Secretary of State. Since leaving government, he has worked closely with NGOs, international aid agencies and communities affected by conflict. He is the author of “The Accidental Guerilla” and “Counterinsurgency” and is a consultant to NATO in Afghanistan and to the US and allied governments.