Colonel Kevin Benson, U.S. Army Ret.

Kevin Benson taught at the U.S. Army’s Red Team School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from 2007 to 2017.  He served in the U.S. Army for 30 years.  His final assignment in the Army was Director, School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, from 2003-2007.  He was the Director of Plans for Third U.S. Army and the Combined Forces Land Component Command at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, from July 2002 to July 2003.  In October 2010 he returned to Baghdad at the request of the Commanding General, US Forces-Iraq to assist in planning the successful conclusion of US operations in Iraq.  

Kevin is a 1977 graduate of the United States Military Academy.  His military education includes; the U.S. Army Armor Officer Basic Course, U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the School of Advanced Military Studies.  He also attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program as a War College Fellow in 2001.  He earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Kansas in 2010.  He was a SEN Robert J. Dole Fellow at the Dole Institute of Politics in 2011.

Kevin writes for a number of professional journals and web sites ranging from Parameters, the Journal of the U.S. Army War College and ARMY Magazine, the magazine of the Association of the U.S. Army, to Time.com, POLITICO, and War on the Rocks.  He is also regular book reviewer for ARMY magazine.

Kevin’s military awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal (Hurricanes Andrew [1992] and Katrina [2005]), and the United Nations Medal for service in Haiti [1995].

Colonel Itai Shapira, Israeli Defense Forces, Reserve 

Itai is an experienced intelligence officer with more than 26 years of experience in the Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI). He retired from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as a colonel, and still conducts reserve service in the IDF General Staff.

Itai has a rich experience in intelligence analysis and management roles on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels – and has contributed intelligence insights to formulation and execution of strategies and operations. In his last assignments Itai served as the Deputy for Analysis in the IDF’s Research and Analysis Division – where he led efforts of analytical tradecraft and methodologies; a transformation project lead in the IDI – where he drafted a conceptual framework for joint intelligence concept; and the Head of the “Red Teaming” Department in the IDI, where he conducted disruptive and critical analysis supporting national, defense and military decision-making.

Itai is a graduate of the Israeli National Defense College (INDC). He holds a B.A from Tel Aviv University in economics and philosophy, an MBA from Tel Aviv University, and is currently a PhD candidate in the University of Leicester. Itai has written academic and professional articles about intelligence, strategy and Middle Eastern affairs in Intelligence and National Security, War on the Rocks, Defense One, The National Interest, RealClear Defense, and Strategic Assessment.

Wing Commander Ellie Cloke, RAF, Ret.

Ellie has a proven track record of complex strategic planning in fast-paced and complex environments, built during a successful career as a logistics officer in the Royal Air Force. Within her RAF career, Ellie undertook numerous operational deployments including Turkey, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Kuwait, Italy in a variety of operational roles; her UK based employment included several tours as a staff officer in a number of planning, capability and strategy roles. Leaving the RAF as a wing commander, Ellie’s final tour was as a strategic plans officer where she led and directed cross functional analysis, strategy development and delivery of RAF capability to support MOD’s strategic objectives and global operations. This last tour saw Ellie lead on the planning for the recovery of all RAF assets from Afghanistan, design and development of solutions for complex cross-Defence projects across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas and Antarctica.

A short period as a management consultant working in the health and social care sector beckoned before Ellie returned to the public sector, working for the NHS in Organisational Development,  

An absolute advocate of an organisation using the experience, talent and intellectual capital it has, to deliver the change and results it wants and needs; Ellie looks to tap into that resource and get any organisation where it wants to be using its most important assets – its people. One of life’s enthusiasts, she sees fun and adventure in the opportunities life throws at you and imbues this positivity in everyone she meets.  Fascinated by what makes people tick, Ellie has a genuine interest in ensuring people bring their best self to work and apply their unique strengths in order to successfully deliver on the organisation’s task and mission.

Ellie holds MA in Strategic Defence Studies and MSc in Business Psychology.

Brian Tarallo has served as a subject matter expert at the U.S. Army’s red team school, the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies (UFMCS) and contributed to the final edition of the Army’s Red Team Handbook. In addition, he has served as a red team facilitator for other government agencies.

Brian is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Surviving the Horror of Online Meetings and a contributing author of The World of Visual Facilitation. He is an International Association of Facilitators Certified Professional Facilitator^™ and an International Institute of Facilitation Certified Virtual Facilitator^™. He is a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® Master Practitioner, one of 160 globally. Brian is the founder of NOVA Scribes, a community of visual facilitators with over 800 members. He has been a TEDx speaker (TEDxLizardCreek 2014), a presenter at the International Forum of Visual Practitioners (IFVP), and a presenter at the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators' Network (MAFN). He has an MBA from Arizona State University.

Brian lives in Virginia with his wife, Liz, and their four kids.

Kate Stewart, PhD, MBA

Kate has served the U.S. Army Red Team School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas since 2014 as a subject matter expert teaching negotiation, communication skills, and conflict management. She also teaches in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Montana State University, and assists major project leaders in the construction, defense, and healthcare industries through her firm, Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Services.   

Kate’s background includes extensive experience teaching adult civilian and military learners with diverse backgrounds and experiences. She has developed and taught business and communication classes and seminars in top-ranked national and international graduate and undergraduate programs, and to military units and Fortune 50 companies. In addition to numerous articles, Kate co-authored the book Storied Conflict Talk: Narrative Construction in Mediation. Her research examines the impact of culture and communication styles on negotiation and conflict (focused on Arab and sabra Israeli styles), narrative mediation, decision-making in VUCA environments, and community-building. 

She has held corporate leadership roles and founded several entrepreneurial ventures, including a successful entrepreneurship/regional development NPO. For over 20 years, she coached business leaders and startup founders, helped develop strategy, built early organizational dispute resolution systems and ombudsman functions, and mediated workplace disputes. In 2013, Kate embedded with ISAF forces in Afghanistan as a Human Terrain Team Senior Social Scientist and HTS Afghanistan Theater Research Director, during which time she led a nationwide research project to assess Afghan attitudes about legitimacy of the national election process. 

Kate holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Florida and both an MBA and an MA, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, from The University of Texas at Austin. She earned her PhD in Communication Studies, with concentrations in Organizational Communication and Language and Culture, from the University of Texas at Austin, where she also completed the Graduate Portfolio in Dispute Resolution.

Wing Commander Marcus Dimbleby, RAF, Ret.

Marcus is a former military red teamer who has been sharing these tools and techniques with corporations in the U.K. and around the world since retiring from the Royal Air Force in 2013. In the RAF, he served as a fighter controller and also enjoyed tours with the Royal Marines, Royal Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, with whom he went to Iraq in 2003. An airfield director, strategic and operational planner, and, finally, one of the Air Security Executives responsible for defending the U.K. during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. With extensive experience gained as a senior military officer Marcus seamlessly moved into the business world in London, initially as a senior manager at a major consultancy, then an independent contractor, then business owner and partner – leading on major business transformations predominantly in the financial sector. Along with his military skills and training, Marcus has completed post-graduate studies in Strategic Leadership and Management, as well as Business Management in the areas of performance improvement and change management.

Bryce Hoffman, President, Red Team Thinking

Bryce is a bestselling author, speaker and strategic advisor, as well as the founder and president of Red Team Thinking. In 2015, he became the first civilian to graduate from the U.S. Army’s red team leader training program. He then worked with companies around the world to develop a model for business red teaming, which he shared in his 2017 book, Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything. His first book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, has become a manual for CEOs looking to transform their corporate culture. Bryce has taught these tools and techniques to companies around the world, including Verizon, JPMorgan, Delta Air Lines, Huawei and Roche, and he regularly appears on television and radio news programs internationally. Prior to founding Red Team Thinking, Bryce spent 22 years working as a financial journalist for newspapers across the U.S. He also teaches red teaming at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business