Rick Waddell is a semi-retired businessman, former government official, and retired Army Reservist.
In his business career, Rick spent seventeen years working in South America for four of the world’s largest companies, living twelve of those years in São Paulo. His teams found six billion barrels of oil equivalent, and he ran the largest iron mining construction project then underway globally. As a civilian government official, Rick served as the Director, Capstone, Keystone, and Pinnacle courses at National Defense University, then served as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser in the Trump Administration.
Rick served twelve years on active duty in the Army as a Combat Engineer, culminating as a Director for Europe on the NSC in the Clinton Administration. In his Reserve career, Rick deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan part of every year from 2004 to 2013. He served as the Deputy Commander for Reserve Affairs at US Southern Command, commanded the 76th Division (Operational Response), and served as the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Senior Military Adviser to the Secretary of State. Rick is the first Army Reservist promoted to Lieutenant General in a normally active duty billet since Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle in World War II.
Among other degrees, Rick holds a BS from USMA, an MA from Oxford earned as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD from Columbia. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at Hilsdale College’s Center for Military History and Strategy, a venture partner at New North Ventures, a Senior Fellow for Flatter, Inc., and serves on the Strategic Advisory Boards of KnectIQ, Massif Capital, Fifth Ocean Group, and Academy Securities.