Major General Gregory Lengyel
Gregory “Greg” Lengyel is a senior national security executive with significant global experience leading in the U.S. military’s special operations community and within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He has achieved measurable operational results in the most challenging environments through transformational organizational management in operations, finance, strategic alliances, logistics, and human resources responsibility for organizations with multi-billion-dollar budgets and thousands of employees. He is a recently retired U.S. Air Force Major General with 33 years of service.
Major General (Ret.) Lengyel most recently served as the Deputy Commander, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where he managed resources totaling $10B of infrastructure, a $1.9B annual budget, and 1,750 team members in a multi-service environment to conduct strategic planning and solve our nation’s hardest problems.
As Commander, Special Operations Command Europe, he was the senior U.S. military officer leading 2,500 personnel and managing risk for all U.S. special operations forces in Europe. He completely refocused his command to counter Russian aggression, coercion, and malign influence, and simultaneously built, trained, exercised, and led a cohesive team of 9 NATO Allies for a year-long commitment to respond to crisis anywhere in the world on short notice.
He was handpicked by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to serve as the Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy. In this capacity Major General (Ret.) Lengyel was the Dean of Undergraduates and Military Commander of 4,000 U.S. Air Force Academy Cadets. With a team of 300 colleagues, he developed and executed a strategy to build young cadets into loyal, productive, professional Air Force leaders.
As the Executive Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, he managed and led a 100-person staff supporting the senior military officer in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Alliance, and served as a trusted advisor to senior leaders in critical negotiations with heads of state, defense ministers, chiefs of defense, and worldwide media.
Major General (Ret.) Lengyel has commanded at every almost every level in the Air Force and joint special operations aviation community. He has flown 4,000 hours in helicopters, tilt-rotor, and fixed-wing aircraft.
Major General (Ret.) has a BS in Engineering Technology from Texas A&M University and an MS in International Relations from Troy University. He is a graduate of the Air War College, Joint Forces Staff College, CAPSTONE, and served as a National Defense Fellow at The Brookings Institution.
He currently serves as Senior Partner at Leading-Edge Vortex LLC, a New Braunfels, TX, based national security, defense, and management consulting firm. He also serves as Vice President for Government Relations and Business Development at Sandoval Custom Creations Inc., an industry leader in providing video surveillance systems to federal, state, and local law enforcement.
