Feral Jundi

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Industry Talk: Former SOCOM Commander Admiral Eric Olson Joins MEP And Iridium Communications

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 7:32 PM

This is cool. Retired Admiral Eric Olson and former SOCOM commander has gone ‘full contractor’, and has joined up with MEP and Iridium Communications. It must be nice to feel ‘wanted’? lol

Also congrats to MEP. They have definitely collected some heavy hitters for their Board of Advisors. Last year I posted that MEP picked up Dr. David Kilcullen to their Board of Advisors, and that was a very impressive addition to the team. Now with Olson joining, we will see what they do with all of this talent? –Matt

 

 

Mission Essential Personnel Adds Former SOCOM Commander Admiral Eric Olson To Board of Advisors
10/24/2011
Chantilly, VA – Mission Essential Personnel, LLC (MEP) today announced that Adm. Eric T. Olson, who recently retired as Commander, US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), has joined its Board of Advisors. Olson was the first SEAL to command USSOCOM and will share his unique global perspective with MEP leadership as the company continues to expand its current services and create new offerings to government, commercial, and multi-national customers.
“I am honored that Adm. Olson has joined our Board of Advisors,” said MEP CEO Chris Taylor. “He has dedicated his life to the security of the United States, ensuring that all people have the opportunity to live freer, safer, and more prosperous lives. His incomparable knowledge of global affairs will help MEP better understand the interdependencies of a complex world and drive our growth strategy toward creating shared value and solving seemingly intractable problems.”
“I have developed a deep appreciation for Chris Taylor’s vision and approach.  The services that MEP provides are important to our government, our forces, and our international partners,” said Olson.  “I look forward to helping Chris and his great MEP team expand and enhance their strategic contributions.”
Olson graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1973 and qualified as a SEAL officer in 1974.  He was both the first three-star and the first four-star SEAL.  Until his recent retirement, he was the “Bull Frog”: the longest-serving SEAL on active duty.  In addition to USSOCOM, he commanded Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Naval Special Warfare Command.  His overseas assignments include service as a United Nations military observer in Israel and Egypt, and as Navy Programs officer in Tunisia. He served on the Navy staff as assistant deputy chief of Naval Operations (Plans, Policy, and Operations) and as Chief of Staff at the Joint Special Operations Command.   Olson was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in the battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He earned a master’s degree in National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and studied at the Defense Language Institute.
Press release here.
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Iridium Communications Appoints Admiral (Ret.) Eric T. Olson to Board of Directors
December 6, 2011
Iridium Communications Inc. today announced that it has expanded its board of directors from ten members to eleven members and appointed Admiral (Ret.) Eric T. Olson as a new director. Admiral Olson brings nearly forty years of broad leadership, management and military operations experience to Iridium.
Most recently, he was the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command (“USSOCOM”), responsible for the readiness of joint special operations missions worldwide. Prior to that, he led operational units within every component of the Naval Special Warfare community and served in senior positions within USSOCOM and the U.S.

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Friday, September 10, 2010

Industry Talk: The Father Of Modern Counterinsurgency Dr. David Kilcullen, Joins MEP’s Board Of Advisors

Filed under: Industry Talk,Leadership,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:23 AM

     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.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Media News: Mission Essential Personnel Calls Out ABC News Over Report On Linguists

Filed under: Industry Talk,Media News — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:17 PM

Marc Peltier, MEP’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with ABC News that he had “no reports from the field” of translators who could not communicate in Dari or Pashto, and said the company has received “100 percent outstanding” ratings from the Army and shared a copy of what he said was an internal company survey that showed 82 percent of its customers were satisfied with the performance of its translators. An attorney accompanying Peltier to the interview said the company would answer Funk’s allegations in court, and not in the media.

*****

     I am not going to comment too much about the case between Mr. Funk and MEP, because I really don’t know enough about it. What I will comment on though is how ABC News decided to attack this company in such an obvious way. I would be cheering on this news broadcast if in fact their stuff was true or unbiased, but there are too many details that we are not privy too. I just cannot see how this mainstream media outlet thought that this was appropriate? It is more bashing of companies for the sake of ratings I guess?

     The show was completely one sided and the viewer is made to think that the translator in the film they showed from Afghanistan was one of MEP’s translators. This was not the case after reading MEP’s statement, and I was shocked. Who is ABC News for misleading the viewer, and especially when there were so many variables with this case?

     Also, I despise the idea of poor translators going out into the field like anyone else. I have witnessed exactly what poor translation services can produce. But really, if the government has identified poor service by MEP and they were not at all satisfied with the translators performance, then they should have reflected that in the customer surveys and reviews. Or better yet, they should have fired MEP and went with a better company. It makes no sense to keep paying for poor services, if in fact you are getting poor service. It’s called exercising your power as the consumer and the government does a terrible job of this. –Matt

Edit: 09/14/2010- Check out David Isenberg’s excellent post about the subject here.  He didn’t have much good to say about ABC’s track record on reporting and he pointed out many holes in this case.

Edit: 09/23/2010- The American Spectator did a story on this recently.

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Mission Essential Personnel Response To ABC’s 9/8/2010 Broadcast

9/8/2010

Mission Essential Personnel today released the following statement in response to the ABC News story “Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can’t Speak Afghan Languages.”

MEP is an American success story and a responsible partner to the U.S. Government and to service members around the world. Our linguists play a critical role in sharing the United States’ message of goodwill and deciphering the hidden messages of those who seek to harm Americans. MEP’s linguists risk their lives each day to accompany brave troops into the field, and many have made the ultimate sacrifice to advance the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, while saving many lives. While there are always challenges on a changing battlefield, MEP, in partnership with the U.S. military, has helped bring a greater level of peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Jobs: Dignitary Protection Officer, OCONUS

Filed under: Executive Protection,Jobs,Law Enforcement — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:44 PM

   Just a heads up, this is actually a job with JSI and MEP is just doing all the leg work for posting the job.  But both companies are all in the same partnership.  There are a few other companies in this group as well, and follow the links below and you will see for yourself.

   I am not the point of contact or recruiter for this, and follow the links in order to apply.  Good luck. –Matt

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Dignitary Protection Officer

Division: Criminal Justice Program Support

Location: Worldwide

FT/PT/Contract: Full Time

Job Description Position Summary: International civilian police work helps ensure that law and order are maintained effectively and impartially according to democratic policy principles by assessing, monitoring, advising and mentoring the local host country civilian police. This work helps ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully protected.

A Dignitary Protection Officer is a specially trained agent who has mastered protective operations and possesses extensive investigative skills, allowing them to deploy countermeasures that ensure the security of all protected dignitaries. The countermeasures consist of the collection of protective intelligence about the environments and sites to be visited. All proper steps and measures are taken to eliminate or reduce all risks including, threats, hazards, embarrassment and compromise of information, thus allowing us to establish a secure area for a dignitary. On duty, a Dignitary Protection Officer may be training/advising/mentoring host country officers or performing protection duties as part of a team.

Incumbent Dignitary Protection Officers must possess and be able to train others on fundamental skills and procedures necessary to provide personal protection to dignitaries, officials, witnesses and others in need of protective security. The host country counterpart may range from the entry-level novice getting started in the field all the way up to the experienced protection provider. The Dignitary Protection Officer must be able to train/advise and mentor counterparts at all levels of experience and training.

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