About the Authors

After graduating from West Point in 1980, Ed was commissioned as an infantry officer in the United States Army and served at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. After earning a Master’s Degree from the University of North Carolina in 1987, Ed joined the English Department at West Point. He left the service in 1991 to pursue a career as a writer, public speaker, and communications consultant. Ed is the author of five novels published between 1990 and 1997. In 1998, he co-authored the field manual, Army Leadership, and in 2001 HarperCollins published the first of Ed’s five non-fiction books, Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders. His latest title is The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day (HarperCollins).For the past several years Ed has been a keynote speaker on leadership, leader development, and ethical leadership. His list of clients includes universities, technology, and financial services companies, as well as federal organizations and military units.

Perry is a 1971 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He later earned three Masters Degrees in Business, Education, and International Affairs and a Doctoral Degree in Education from The George Washington University. Perry was a Naval Aviator and served with distinction for twenty-seven years in several leadership positions, including Commanding Officer of a Navy P-3 Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland, special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War in 1991, and the Director of Leadership, Organization and Management for the Chief of Naval Operations from 1992-1994. In his last tour of duty at the Naval Academy, he was the Deputy Director of Athletics and served in a pivotal role in the development of the Leadership and Ethics curriculum as an adjunct professor. Perry has also served as the Assistant Secretary of Higher Education in Maryland, where he was a frequent speaker on leadership and ethics and appeared regularly before the Maryland General Assembly on issues of education, finance, and structure. He has published numerous journal articles and publications related to the governance and leadership for higher education in the State of Maryland and the University System. As an adjunct professor at Regent University and Villanova University, he teaches leadership, ethics, research, and organizational management. A graduate of the Buckley School of Public Speaking, Perry has been a sought after speaker on leadership and ethics as well as character development and has led numerous workshops and seminars for business leaders and human resource managers.

Following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1967 with a B.S. in Engineering, Dennis Haley successfully completed Admiral Rickover’s nuclear power training program and served onboard the USS Long Beach, a nuclear powered cruiser. Leaving the Navy, he joined a small family-owned HVAC company in Philadelphia, PA. Over a 25 year career, he grew this small business into one of the largest and most respected HVAC companies in the Delaware Valley. He also contributed to the community by serving in a number of positions including the Board of Directors of Fort Mifflin and President of the Delaware Valley Chapter, Air Conditioning Contractors of America. Dennis then left the heating and air conditioning industry to spearhead a new endeavor: helping others reach their full potential as leaders. As founder and CEO of Academy Leadership, he developed the Lead2Succeed™ process that creates the ideal environment for behavior change to take place.