Leadership
Scott “Intake” Kartvedt
Scott’s innovative leadership earned him the honor of being personally selected by the Chief of Naval Personnel as the first Commander of the Navy’s only stealth fighter squadron. He led the “start-up” of the Navy’s F-35C program entrusted with providing guidance, oversight, planning, and management of personnel and the $2 billion in capital assets involved with this revolutionary strike fighter program. Scott’s 5 combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan solidified his operational planning and execution expertise, culminating in his selection by the Chief of Naval Operations to receive the 2010 American Legion Aviation Valor Award. Scott started his professional speaking career as the Narrator of the Navy’s elite flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels. He flew as a demonstration pilot for 3 years with the team displaying professional precision as the #6-Opposing Solo pilot and the #5-Lead Solo pilot to millions worldwide.
Scott’s focus on safe operations was punctuated with his success on the Blue Angels and in combat. But his keen leadership and subject matter expertise in organizational safety was earned as an aviation accident investigator for the Navy. He was the lead operational investigator during two high profile aviation accidents involving fatalities. Scott passionately embraces sharing his safety experiences and how to achieve operational success and high reliability in high-risk environments. Scott’s ability to engage large organizations with his dynamic, personal stories of success and failure will leave your audience wanting more. His innovative thinking makes him a valuable resource for business owners seeking to drive innovation by embracing failure’s lessons to achieve success. His extensive leadership and operational background allows him to help organizations identify their strengths and weaknesses and to develop plans that will improve individual performance and the company’s bottom line. Scott’s high energy, and the entertaining, dynamic delivery of his prominent educational keynotes will inspire and motivate your team to achieve your organizational goals.
Matthew “Whiz” Buckley
E. Matthew Buckley, a former decorated Navy fighter pilot, is the Chief Executive Officer for Top Gun Options LLC (TGO). Prior to founding TGO he was a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Options News Network (www.onn.tv), a financial media company. He rose from the position of Managing Director of a leading Wall Street firm to CEO in one year at the age of 38. His areas of expertise include strategic planning and execution, start ups and high growth companies, raising capital, mergers and acquisitions, managing profitability, public speaking and relationship building, leadership development and team building, and crisis mitigation and problem solving and debriefing.
Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Strategy for a leading Wall Street proprietary equity options trading firm, PEAK6 Investments LP. He was responsible for the strategic development, successful execution, and debriefing of all strategic plans across the firm and retail business units. He oversaw the planning and building of a hedge fund and the retail brokerage firm Options House.
Matthew is an internationally recognized and highly sought after public speaker. He created and deployed leadership and strategic planning products and was a primary business consultant to many Fortune 500 companies, including McKesson, GE, Cisco, Gilead Sciences, AT&T, National Oilwell Varco, Macquarie, Bank of America, VMWare, Cargill, Capital One, MasterCard, Tyco, and Gilead Sciences.
From 1991-2006, he was a highly decorated Naval Aviator with United States Navy serving at multiple duty stations worldwide. He was an F/A-18 Hornet Instructor and Adversary Pilot with combat experience. He flew 44 combat missions over Iraq and was awarded 2 Strike/Flight Air Medals. He was a Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) Graduate. He served as a Department Head in a fighter squadron responsible for the safe operation and combat capability of 12 F/A-18 Hornet aircraft worth over $500 million. His responsibilities included the supervision and management of 200 naval personnel and material assets during combat operations. He managed the career paths and professional development of officers and enlisted personnel, managed a $25 million operations budget, and was responsible for planning, coordinating, and directing allied assets in the Persian Gulf theatre as the Mobile Targeting Officer in Riyadh, KSA. He conducted briefings for the highest levels of the National Command Authority and had Top Secret/SCI clearance.
He has combined his unprecedented experiences in the military and in corporate America in the writing of From Sea Level to C Level: A Fighter Pilot’s Journey from the Front Lines to the Front Office.
Chris “Rip” McCarthy
Chris is a Florida native and graduate of the University of Florida. Flying the F/A-18 Hornet, he deployed with aircraft carrier based squadrons in the US and Japan and flew numerous combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his career he attended the Naval Postgraduate School and the US Naval Test Pilot School, as well as participating in the well-known Navy Fighter Weapons School “’TOPGUN.”
Chris has extensive formal education, having earned two engineering masters degrees in addition to his MBA. As a civilian entrepreneur he has started several companies, and he has extensive experience in team development and risk management. He has consulted with companies in real estate, production and distribution, and digital marketing to raise their productivity to the next level. Chris’ extensive technical background and operations analysis experience enable him to optimize engagements for our clients and help our team meet or exceed their desired results.
Jim “Troll” Durso
Jim is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a decorated US Navy Officer. As an F/A-18 Hornet pilot, he deployed aboard aircraft carriers and flew in numerous missions in the Middle East. Jim has served as both a Commanding Officer and Executive Officer in the Navy Reserve and received extensive training in US Air Force Joint Air Operations, US Naval War College Maritime Operations, and attended ground school at the well-known Navy Fighter Weapons School “’TOPGUN.”
Jim has a superior track record of evaluating opportunities within organizations, implementing training plans and motivating teams. His C-level executive experience across media, finance, manufacturing, distribution, and consulting industries gives him an understanding of issues that today’s leaders face. It’s this high level of understanding that enables him to customize engagements for our clients to get the results they desire.