General Jay Raymond served as the 1st Chief of Space Operations of the United States Space Force and retired from active duty 1 Jan 2023.
He has commanded national security space units at every level of command from squadron to combatant command. He is recognized as a global leader in all sectors of space operations, including national security, intelligence, commercial, civil and international space.
He deployed as CENTCOM’s Director of Space Forces in 2006-2007 and served in Japan from 2011-2012 where he helped lead Operation Tomodachi, a Humanitarian Disaster Relief Operation is response to a earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disaster.
As a transformational leader, Gen Raymond has planned, established, and led large, complex organizations with budgets exceeding $34B. To include United States Space Command and the United States Space Force.
As the 1st CSO, and our nation’s first Guardian, he led the establishment of all new space force organizations, the transfer of personnel from other military branches, the consolidation of space units from other services, the setting of the service’s culture and the design of its force structure.
As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he served as a strategic advisor to the president, secretary of defense and the National Security Council.
After retiring, Gen Raymond serves as a partner at Cerberus Strategic Capital, an advisor for Geodesic Capital, a director on several company boards, and is affiliated with Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Hoover Institute at Stanford.
Gen Raymond and his wife Mollie reside in Reston Va.