Ed Ruggero is a distinguished writer, military historian, teacher and lecturer on leadership skills. He has studied, practiced, and taught leadership for more than twenty-five years, helping organizations develop the kinds of leaders people want to follow. His client list includes the FBI, the New York City Police Department, CEO Conference Europe, the CIA, the Young Presidents Organization, Forbes, the SAS Institute, Hugo Boss USA, CitiFinancial, and Time, among many others. He has appeared on CNN, The History Channel, the Discovery Channel and CNBC, and has spoken to audiences around the world on leadership, leader development and ethics. Ed is a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company and has been a panelist for The Washington Post’s On Leadership Series. He also has been a guest speaker at Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Ed is the author of eleven books, including Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders, a study of leader development at the US Military Academy; and Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault Into Fortress Europe, July 1943, which became a one-hour docudrama on The History Channel. Ed is also the co-author of The Leader’s Compass, a fictional story of how one leader developed a personal leadership philosophy. His most recent book is The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day.

After his graduation from West Point, Ed received his commission in the United States Army and served as an infantry officer in a variety of leadership positions, followed by an assignment teaching at West Point. After his service, Ed continued to share his insights about leadership, leading to his career as an author, public speaker, and trainer.

Ed Ruggero is the founder and principal of The Gettysburg Leadership Experience, The Concord Leadership Experience, The Valley Forge Leadership Experience and the Normandy Leadership Experience, four distinct experiential learning programs in which participants walk the grounds of great military struggles and learn battle-tested leadership lessons that help meet today’s challenges. These programs immerse business executives in leadership training experiences like no other. Through on-the-ground study of the challenges that faced military commanders in critical moments, participants discover timeless lessons of leadership.