The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a long-standing tradition of accelerating technological innovation, serving as early adopters and impacting the broader commercial market in such areas as aviation, computing and global positioning systems (GPS). For the past several years, the DoD has been playing this same role in the renewable energy space. In fact, The Pew Charitable Trusts reports that the DoD clean energy investments increased 300 percent between 2006 and 2009, from $400 million to $1.2 billion. Projections for 2030 are set to eclipse $10 billion annually,1 with an overall target of obtaining 25 percent of the DoD's energy from renewable sources by 2025.
Becky Halstead, retired Brigadier General, United States Army, founded her own leader consultancy company, STEADFAST Leadership, LLC, following 27 years of service in the U.S. military and her role as Executive Director for a leadership consultancy company. Becky specializes in inspirational speaking (nationally and internationally; corporate and academic), developing leader training programs, leader coaching, consulting and advising. She authored her first book on leadership, 24/7: The First Person You Must Lead Is YOU.
Becky has over 15 years of executive level leadership experience, developing and training high-performing, complex and diverse teams capable of strategic planning and execution. She has a proven record of leading change, building successful teams in demanding environments (Afghanistan and Iraq, Germany, South America), and creating innovative solutions, systems and programs to complex problems. She is an experienced leader and logistician, a highly effective communicator, and a strategic planner with exceptional organizational skills.
Becky is a 1981 graduate of the United States Military Academy and achieved an historic milestone as the first female graduate of West Point to be promoted to General Officer. She was the senior Commanding General for logistics in Iraq, and was the first female in U.S. history to command in combat at the strategic level. In this capacity she was responsible for leading over 200 multi disciplined units (20,000 military and 5,000 civilians) located across 55 different bases, providing supply, maintenance, transportation and distribution support to over 250,000 personnel serving in Iraq.
Becky honorably served with the U.S. Army and retired as a General Officer in 2008. The culmination of her career came in 2006 when she became the first female Chief of Ordnance and Commanding General of the Army’s Ordnance Center and Schools (equivalent to President of a University), responsible for the leader development and institutional training for the second largest branch in the army with over 100,000 members of the Ordnance Corps.
During active service, she served in Europe as the Deputy Commanding General (Chief Operating Officer) for the 21st Theater Support Command and has experience leading a multi-national team in wholesale level logistics operations. Prior to Europe, she served as the Chief Advisor to the Combatant Commander (Four Star General) for Southern Command, whose responsibility encompassed military training and operations for South America. She was also responsible for coordinating directly with high level organizations such as Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of State, U.S. Congress, U.S. Ambassadors and equivalent foreign military and civilian organizations.
Becky earned a B.S. in Engineering from West Point, an M.S. in National Resource Strategy (Advanced Manufacturing) from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, and an M.S. in Advanced Military Studies (Visionary Leadership) from the Army Command and General Staff College.
She is a member on the Board of Advisors for multiple companies: Principal Solar, the Thayer Leader Development Group, and Prevail Health Solutions; and two not for-profits: Grace After Fire and Vet R.E.S.T. Becky is an active spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress with specific focus on military health care. She is also a member of the Gordian Institute; a team of accomplished thought leaders and problem solvers.
Becky is a recipient of the 2007 National Women’s History Project award for “Generations of Women Moving History Forward.” From 2009 to 2010, Becky served as a Commissioner on the President’s Military Leadership Diversity Commission. In 2011, her leadership model was a focus of a Harvard Business School Case Study.
A quintessential entrepreneur, mentor, and company builder, Michael Gorton has proven to be a strategic visionary, impacting the telecommunications, music, and healthcare industries. As founding CEO of Teladoc, the nation's leading telehealth company, Michael pioneered a health care model in which members had access to telephonic physicians who could review medical records, treat, and prescribe medication that today supports the new paradigm in health care reform. As a founder and leader of Principal Solar, Michael applies his business expertise, scientific education, and training to the renewable energy sector – a strong voice and proponent of solar power.
Prior to this, Michael served as a partner of the Texas Acceleration Group (TAG), an entity formed to assist startup companies. Michael and other TAG partners founded Palo Duro Records to promote unknown country artist Shelley Laine. Within three years, Laine became the number one ranked independent artist in country music, was nominated for Best Female Artist in 2002, and put six songs on the charts.
In 1993, Michael founded Internet Global, a company that delivered the first DSL network and one of the first VOIP networks at a time when few people predicted the profound impact the Internet would have on communication and society. Prior to this, Michael worked as a project engineer at Dallas Power & Light dealing with power plants, distribution, transformer management, and integration of renewable energy into the grid.
Fueled by his passion for education, Michael has taught college courses in math, astronomy, and physics and published two novels and dozens of articles on topics ranging from physics to healthcare.
Michael earned his B.S. in Engineering from Texas Tech, his M.S. in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas, and his Juris Doctorate from Texas Wesleyan University.
