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Rick has over four decades of military and national security experience.  He served 24 years on active duty with the US Army as both an artillery officer and foreign area officer (FAO).  As chief of the Korea Division at the Defense Intelligence Agency he led an Agency-wide task force focused on North Korea during the first nuclear crisis in the mid-1990s.  During his Headquarters-level assignments at the Pentagon as well as in Korea and Hawaii, Rick was responsible for executing regional and bi-lateral engagement plans for the military and providing regional subject matter expertise to the Army Chief of Staff and respective Headquarters leadership.

As part of a US Army War College fellowship, he spent a year at the Korea Institute of Defense Analysis in Seoul, Korea where he did research on future security challenges to the United States in Northeast Asia.  He is a graduate of West Point and received his graduate degree from Campbell University.

Following retirement from the Army in 2000, Rick spent 20 years in the private sector, initially managing a small international business with offices in the US and Vietnam before joining CENTRA Technology, Inc. in 2001.  He helped grow CENTRA from a small business of approximately 40 personnel to over 800 with a focus specifically on the defense and intelligence business lines, retiring in late 2020 as Senior Vice President. Rick and his wife, Joanna, now enjoy spending time with their grandkids.