Firm employs large number of Pentagon mentors

[unhappycamper]

AIR FORCE Retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman, former Air Force chief of staff, founded Durango Group in 2005.


Firm employs large number of Pentagon mentors
By Ken Dilanian, Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 9:28:02 EST

In a marketplace awash in consulting firms that help defense companies sell to the Pentagon, the Durango Group has a unique advantage. The Colorado-based firm has become a base of operations for retired officers who also are handsomely paid by the military for their advice.

No other defense consulting firm employs more “senior mentors” than Durango. Of the 59 former officers who work for Durango, 15 also serve as mentors, a USA Today investigation found.

As Durango associates, the retired officers are paid to help private companies win and administer Pentagon contracts. As mentors, the retirees are paid by the military to help run war games, which also gives them access to classified strategies and weapons systems. Durango cites these mentoring assignments on its Web site as signs of its associates’ unique connections.

Along with their work for Durango and the military, these retired officers, mostly from the Air Force, are paid advisers, consultants and corporate directors on the boards of at least 20 companies, according to public records. Three of them work for private equity firms to help them identify, buy and then run defense contractors.

Durango’s ability to mix mentoring and consulting work illustrates how closely the private interests of some mentors overlap with their military advisory jobs. The firms’ mentors move seamlessly between roles as paid advisers to the services and paid consultants to defense companies in the same subject areas, USA Today found.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/gns_mentors_firm_122909/



unhappycamper comment: IMO the problem is that these guys have hired retired neocon nutbags to pimp for more war bucks.

[evan2]

1. Corporate socialism at its best!

And every single one of 'em would probably get highly agitated at the merest mention that they're corporate socialists.