Jeanette (Jan) K. Edmunds served for 32 years in the Army as a leader and commander at every level of Department of Defense. At the General Officer level, she commanded the 13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Texas and the 19th Support Command in Daegu, South Korea. In both cases becoming the first woman General Officer to serve in those locations and commands. Her final assignment was as the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff Logistics, Headquarters, Department of the Army. Here she was responsible for logistics planning, policy formulation, and program development for an enterprise valued at approximately $500 Billion. She oversaw logistics transformation, business process re-engineering and strategy, development of logistics force structure, and issues involving National and Multinational logistics.
Since retiring she has been consulting in the Defense and Aerospace industry. She uses her Defense Department background to assist clients in meeting their market objectives through strategic business planning and identification of market shifts and growth opportunities. She has unique expertise in performance-based contacting, lifecycle support to products and all manner of services contracts.
She served as Senior Vice President for Logistics at Cypress International, a consulting company specializing in the Defense and Aerospace industry. At Cypress she established and led a logistics practice that expanded to address client goals across the spectrum of product lifecycle support and contracted services in general. In this role she provided business strategy support to Fortune 500 as well as mid-tier companies. Since stepping away from Cypress full time, she continues her relationship as an independent consultant providing in depth knowledge to Cypress clients in the areas of logistics, product aftermarket strategies, and contracted logistics opportunity growth.
She served on the Board of Directors for Baum, Romstedt Technology Research Corp (BRTRC) until the successful sale of the company in 2019. Other board roles included Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Old Dominion University Research Foundation, and past Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University. She previously served as a member of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) President’s Advisory Board for the Advanced Technology Institute and an Advisory Board Member for SCRA’s Institute for Solutions Generation. She also served as a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Energy Systems for Forward and Remote Operating Bases.
She is currently the Board Chair for the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation.
She holds a Masters of Business Administration in Logistics Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University’s Program Manager’s Course and the Army War College.
Her professional affiliations include the Association of the United States Army, The National Defense Industrial Association, Women in Defense, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Republic of Korea Service:
In her last assignment in the Republic of Korea was from 2002 to 2004 as the Commanding General of the 19th Theater Support Command, was responsible for an organization made up of Active and Reserve Component soldiers, Department of the Army Civilians, Korean Nationals, KATUSAs, and Korean Service Corps personnel. The organization provided logistics support to U.S. Forces forward deployed across the peninsula. They provided day to day tactical and operational planning and command and control for six brigade sized units as well as TACON for force protection purposes of all units operating on U.S. Army bases in areas II, III and IV – over 80% of the South Korean land mass. Wartime command and control responsibilities expanded to a force of over 30,000. In addition to operational duties the 19th Theater Support command engaged in extensive community relations activities with the members of the surrounding communities in Daegu and Seoul.
Her first assignment to the ROK (1980-1982) was also with the 19th TSC in Daegu, first as the Maintenance Branch Chief of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics and then as the Company Commander of the 595th Maintenance Company in Yongsan.
