authors

Expertise
National security, leader development, organizational change, strategic planning, training management

Experience
Frank is a 1976 graduate of the United States Military Academy. He has served in operational and command assignments at every level with combat tours in Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He planned and participated in the opening campaigns of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom and commanded all Theater Special Operations forces in the middle-east including OIF and OEF from March 2005 to June 2007. Frank served as the Deputy Combatant Commander for United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) from 2007-2010 and insured that the 62.000 operators of this command were properly trained and equipped for their global special operation’s missions. Frank oversaw the SOCOM requirements process, the execution of a 9-billion-dollar budget and led the SOCOM Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) team for the 2010 QDR. Frank worked with cabinet level agencies in the U.S. government to plan and coordinated the whole of government efforts to achieve the goals of the Obama Administration’s Counter-Terrorism strategy. Frank retired from the U.S. Army after 35½ years of service. His final active duty assignment was Deputy Director for Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counter-Terrorism Center. Most recently, Frank served as the CEO of Draper Laboratories in Cambridge MA from March –October 2020.  

Frank is currently a Director on the Charles Stark Draper Laboratories Board of Directors and is on the advisory boards of a number of companies.  Frank served as a member of the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC) to the Secretary of Defense from 2014-2019, and served on the National Defense Panel for the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Frank is a Distinguished Fellow at the Joint Special Operations University and formerly served as a Senior Special Operations Fellow at the Center for Naval Analysis as well as a Senior Mentor for the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute.