Harlan Ullman divides his time between the worlds of business and policy. He is chairman of two companies: CNIGuard Ltd, a high technology infrastructure protection firm based in London and New York and The Killowen Group that acts as both a strategic investor in high technology companies and that advises leaders of business and government at the highest levels. He also sits on several boards of public and private corporations in the financial and high technology sectors.

He has actively advised American Secretaries of State and Defense, NATO strategic commanders (including serving on the Senior Advisory Board of Supreme Allied Commander Europe for thirteen years) and NATO secretaries general as well as members of Congress and heads of a number of foreign governments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific regions. He is recognized as one of the globe’s thought leaders in strategic and innovative thinking both in the public and private sectors arguing for a “brains based approach” for sound strategic thinking. He was a principal on the 2019 U.S. Navy education review as well as other government studies.

Deeply involved in the formulation of U.S strategy during the Cold War and beyond, he was the creator of the original doctrine “shock and awe,” although a far more different version than the sound bites used in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. A distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Dr. Ullman holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy administered by Tufts and Harvard University in International Politics and Finance.

A career naval officer, he has served at sea in command and ashore in senior assignments of responsibility including two happy years with the Royal Navy afloat. As a Swift boat skipper, he led over 150 combat patrols and operations in Vietnam for which he was decorated and was a professor at the National War College where he directed the course of study in military strategy for three years before returning to sea in command.

He was appointed the first Distinguished Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island from 2017-2019. His latest book is Anatomy of Failure—Why America Loses Wars It Starts (November 2017).

Current Assignments: Chairman, The Killowen Group; CNIGuard Ltd and Chairman CNIGuard Inc.; Director Emeritus, Capital Guardian Fund and The Wall Street Fund; Senior Advisor, The Atlantic Council and (Emeritus) Business Executives for National Security (BENS); UPI Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist; and foreign columnist for the Pakistani Daily Times