Admiral Craig Faller

Craig Faller is a retired four-star Admiral with decades of global, national security leadership experience. He has successfully led large, complex organizations with billion-dollar annual operating budgets.

From 2018 to 2021 he Commanded United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida where he led a diverse team of 7000 people with an annual operating budget of over $1 billion. In this role, he enhanced Western Hemisphere security by building strong, trusted partnerships between the United States military and Latin American and Caribbean security forces. His team rapidly and effectively responded to a myriad of complex security challenges to include transnational criminal organizations, the Venezuela crisis, the global pandemic, and the August 2020 Haiti earthquake.

Previously, Faller served as the top-most military assistant to the Secretary of Defense, James N. Mattis. He assisted the defense secretary on all matters from military operations, national security strategy development, management of the department’s $700 + billion budget and global engagement with world leaders.

As the Department of the Navy’s Chief of Legislative Affairs, and the top Navy liaison with Congress, he represented the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chief of Naval Operations on the Hill. Faller engaged with Congress on the Navy’s $160 billion annual budget and all Navy programs from research and development to acquisition.

Leading the Navy’s 5,000 person recruiting organization, Faller started a digital recruiting program and a new Navy wide marketing and advertising branding strategy. His relentless focus on diversity and quality helped the Navy gain a competitive advantage through new talent acquisition.

Faller has other, extensive global experience leading large teams to include the Director of Operations for United States Central Command, where he coordinated military operations and activities across the Middle East and command of an aircraft carrier strike group and two warships the USS Stethem (DDG-63), and USS Shiloh (CG-63).

He is a 1983 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering and a 1990 distinguished graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School with a Master’s in National Security Affairs (Strategic Planning). A nuclear trained surface warfare officer, Faller was both a student and instructor in the Naval Nuclear Power Program.

He currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Senior Fellow at the National Defense University, Senior Fellow at Florida International University and on the Advisory Board of the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory (ARL).