Gretchen is a highly analytic, data-driven leader known for candid, ethical advice to management and peers.  Her executive experience encompasses Growth and P&L roles across aerospace, technology, and professional services where she has been repeatedly sought out to renovate strategies, infrastructure, and performance for sustainable growth.  The unique crossover scope of her career powers integrative thinking and dot-connecting on complex, multivariant issues.  Female military veterans are but half of one percent of the US population, with Gretchen in the even smaller subset applying that pragmatic DE&I perspective in the C-suite.  Experienced in companies selling to both Federal and commercial clients, she is an adept translator for firms targeting market entrée to the US Government.

Gretchen is an accredited Governance Fellow by the National Association of Corporate Directors and member of Women Corporate Directors.  Her current roles include the Board of the National Defense Industrial Association which represents 1,600 corporate and 65,000 individual members, and the Advisory Council of STEM for Her, which brings educational programs to junior and high school girls.  She recently finished four years with Women in Defense during which she served as Chair of the National Council.  She also spent six years with a privately held small business as strategic oversight and sounding board on direction and growth.

Gretchen is actively engaged with the technology innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, regularly evaluating talent, viability, and market potential of start-ups as well as corporate M&A targets.

A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Gretchen holds two Master’s degrees and an advanced executive certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management.  She is currently at the University of the District of Colombia Law School.  Now living in Virginia, her global perspective comes from a career spanning the US, Europe, and Asia.  Her combined experiences plus a passion for furthering education led her to establish and lead a non-profit foundation that supplies computers and internet connectivity to a remote school in eastern Zambia.