President and CEO, Business Executives For National Security (BENS)
General Norton A. Schwartz, USAF (Ret.), serves on the board of directors for Braidy Industries.
Serving as Business Executives for National Security (BENS) President and CEO since joining the organization in 2013, Gen. Schwartz continues a long and prestigious career of service and senior leadership that spans more than four decades.
In addition to overseeing a multidisciplinary staff, Gen. Schwartz also advises and executes the organizational strategy set out by BENS' board of directors and over 400 dedicated members who volunteer to improve national security. Under his leadership, BENS experienced improvement in the quality of products it provides government partners and increased the impact BENS members are making to provide solutions to our most pressing security challenges.
Gen. Schwartz took the helm at BENS following nearly 40 years in uniform, last serving as the 19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force – a post he held from 2008 to 2012. In his assignment as Chief, he served as the senior uniformed Air Force officer responsible for the organization. He trained and equipped 680,000 active-duty, guard, reserve and civilian forces. Also, as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the general and other service chiefs worked as military advisers to the Secretary of Defense, National Security Council and to the President of the United States.
He also served as Commander of the Special Operations Command-Pacific, as well as Alaskan Command, Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, and the 11th Air Force. Before his position as Chief, Gen. Schwartz commanded U.S. Transportation Command where he managed global air, land and sea transportation for the Department of Defense.
Gen. Schwartz is a command pilot with more than 4,400 flying hours in a variety of aircraft. He participated in the 1975 airlift evacuation of Saigon, and as Chief of Staff of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for Northern Iraq in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. In 1997, he led the Joint Task Force that prepared for the noncombatant evacuation of U.S. citizens in Cambodia.
General Schwartz is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Central Michigan University. He is an alumnus of the Armed Forces Staff College, the National War College, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a 1994 Fellow of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Seminar XXI.