Stan McChrystal

General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star US Army general and the former commander of US Forces Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He also previously led the nation’s premier military counterterrorism organisation, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where he was instrumental in reshaping interagency cooperation and modernizing counterterrorism operations.

General McChrystal is widely recognised for developing and implementing a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan and for creating a highly effective, networked approach to counterterrorism that transformed the US military and intelligence community’s culture of collaboration. During his 34-year military career, he held leadership roles in many of the Army’s most elite units, including command of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, he spent more than six years deployed in combat, often in senior command positions. In June 2009, he was appointed by the President of the United States and the Secretary General of NATO to lead all coalition forces in Afghanistan, commanding more than 150,000 troops from 45 allied nations. He retired from the US Army on August 1, 2010.

Following his military service, General McChrystal founded McChrystal Group in January 2011 to deliver innovative leadership solutions to businesses globally in order to help them transform and succeed in challenging, dynamic environments. He has become a respected author and thought leader on leadership and organisational performance. His memoir, My Share of the Task, became a New York Times bestseller in 2013. He is also the co-author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Leaders: Myth and Reality, and most recently, On Character: Choices That Define a Life, which distills a lifetime of leadership into practical lessons on integrity, resilience, and personal growth.

General McChrystal has served as a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he also taught a popular course on leadership. He currently serves on the boards of JetBlue Airways, Siemens Government Technologies, and Navistar International Corporation. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College and completed year-long fellowships at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Council on Foreign Relations.