BIOS
John A. Warden III
Colonel, USAF (Ret)
John A. Warden III is the president of Venturist, Inc., the company he founded after retiring from the Air Force in 1995. His company helps corporations and organizations learn and execute the concepts of winning strategy. Venturist clients have included Texas Instruments, McDonald’s, government agencies, and many others. His diverse background includes serving as the architect for the successful Gulf War 1991 Desert Storm air campaign, authoring the best-selling The Air Campaign, heading the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, working as Special Assistant to the Vice President of the United States, commanding the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing (F-15s) in Germany; and flying in the Vietnam War (266 combat missions). His business strategy book, Winning in FastTime, is available on-line and in selected book stores as is The Air Campaign.
He has produced many videos and published numerous articles on planning, strategy, and aerospace power, has appeared on many television and radio shows, and has spoken to groups ranging from the American Bar Association to most of the US’s intermediate and senior professional military education schools and to defense colleges in Australia, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Chile, Brazil, and France. He was the 1989 winner of the Air Force Association’s Arts and Letters Gill Robb Wilson award.
John Warden graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1965, completed pilot training in 1966, earned a Master’s degree from Texas Tech University in 1975, and graduated from the National War College in 1986. His military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with ten oak leaf clusters. He has over 3,000 hours of flying time.
Larry Weaver Colonel, USAF (ret)
Colonel, USAF (ret) Larry Weaver received a BS degree from the United States
Air Force Academy, and a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. from the University of
Indiana. He served as a B-52 pilot with three thousand hours of flying time
where he was the test pilot in such operations as marrying the navy Harpoon anti-
ship missile to Air Force bombers and new defensive technology aiding manned
bomber penetration of heavily defended air space. He served as a Professor of
History at the Air Force Academy and served as the Dean of Faculty at the Air
Command and Staff College. He also served as the senior Air Force Planning
Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction
and the Air Force Chief for Future Technologies where he was responsible for
integrating modeling and simulation into exercises, training, and wargaming and
created the first Title X wargame.
Following retirement from the Air Force, he wrote the classified history of
Operation Enduring Freedom and facilitated the creation of the expeditionary Air
Force concept. As an independent consultant he served as the senior consultant
for the creation and strategy development for such organizations as the Defense
Threat Reduction Agency, Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative and
the Joint Science Technology Office for biological weapons counter measures.
Dr Weaver has received numerous leadership and educator awards including the
Air University Outstanding Educator Award. He is currently a strategy consultant
for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency and the Counter Threat Reduction
Division of the Defense Threat Reduction Aency. He is also a Fleet Seminar
Professor in Strategy and War for the US Naval War College