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On this episode, I interview my good friend General Mark Gelhardt. General Gelhardt served as a Colonel in the US Army.

While a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) in the Army, he was selected by the top officials in the Government to be the Commander of the Data Systems Unit, as part of the White House Communications Agency. In this position, he supported President Bill Clinton, the VP, the White House Staff, and the U.S. Secret Service managing all the classified automation and telecommunications for the Executive Branch.

LTC Gelhardt worked at the White House for over four years (1995-1999), working with the President and his staff almost every day, both on the White House grounds and traveling worldwide. This gave Mark Gelhardt unfettered access to the inner workings of The White House and the Presidency. Mark took the time to write down his experience about his day to day job at The White House in his book “My Time at the Clinton White House: Military Support to the Commander-in-Chief.”

Since retiring from the Army in 2001 Mark has held several executive leadership positions; CIO/CSO for World Airways/Global Areo Logistics (US largest long-haul charter airline), CTO (Global Operations)/CISO for InterCall/West (World’s largest conferencing company), CISO for TravelClick (SAS in the hospitality space), Acting/Interim CISO for the Georgia Lottery and NCR.

Mark is currently the Senior Vice President (SVP), Global Technology Governance, Global Technology Services (GTS), as part of the Technology Operations Services (TOS) team, for U.S. Bank & Elavon.  Mark has worked for U.S. Bank/Elavon for over 6 years and has also held positions as an VP, Technology Governance, an AVP, Security Engineering and Operations & Security Project Management teams, AVP Cyber Risk Remediation team, and Global Director PCI Security and Compliance team.

General Gelhardt is still giving back to his country and his community as a volunteer in the Georgia State Defense Force (GSDF) a Georgia National Guard Auxiliary.  Brigadier General Gelhardt became the Commanding General for the GSDF on 5 Dec 2020.

For more information about the Georgia State Defense Force: https://paonews.net/ or http://www.gasdf.com/

For more information on General Mark Gelhardt: https://www.gelhardt.org/

Book: “My Time at the Clinton White House” available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/My-Time-Clinton-White-House/dp/0999758411