Captain John K. Reilley, USN

During this seminar, Captain John K. Reilley, USN, provides a summary of founding vision of establishing a school within the National Defense University “to keep in touch with industry.”  The Industry Studies Program (ISP), as part of the National Security and Industrial Base (NSIB) Department, remains the cornerstone of the Eisenhower School (ES) curriculum.  The ISP provides an in-depth study of the national and global resource base combining lectures, graduate seminar Socratic discussions, experiential field studies, post-visit synthesis and analysis, and individual research presented in a variety of written and oral reports.  The individual Industry Study (IS) Programs of Study (POS) provide the analytic framework to examine selected strategic industry sectors, with a focus on national security-related industries.

While each IS seminar examines a distinct “industry” as a focus for learning, the ISP philosophy is that the detailed analysis of a specific industry, its various components, and the markets it serves, will provide generalizable knowledge and understanding of industry perspectives on value creation, interaction with government, and responses to government actions to regulate and draw resources from industry.  Upon completion of the ISP, ES graduates should be comfortable working within the government-private sector interface based on their knowledge of and experience with the government, U.S. and global private sector firms, and industry strategies, practices, perspectives, capabilities, and limitations.

Captain John K. (Ken) Reilley enlisted in the Navy in 1986, becoming a nuclear- trained electronics technician aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). He received his commission from the United States Naval Academy in 1993 after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Ocean Engineering. His early sea duty assignments include USS Thorn (DD 988), USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), and USS Vella Gulf (CG 72), and he commanded at sea three times including Crew Bulwark in USS Scout (MCM 8), USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) during NATO efforts in Libya, and most recently the Navy’s Afloat Forward Staging Base, USS PONCE (AFSB(i)15) in the Fifth Fleet. His shore duty assignments include serving in various roles at the Pentagon; such as Action Officer for surface weapon programs in OPNAV N76 Surface Warfare directorate, Flag Aide to OPNAV N8 Resources, Requirements and Assessments, Resource Officer for Surface Mine Warfare Systems in OPNAV N85 Expeditionary Warfare Directorate, and most recently serving as Military Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Tactical Warfare Systems. A graduate of both the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Naval War College, CAPT Reilley currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Strategic Leadership department at National Defense University’s Eisenhower School.