Jack Midgley
There is a category of strategic problem that most advisors cannot handle. It is consequential, politically complex, and cross-border. It requires analytical rigor and an intimate understanding of how governments and militaries actually work. Jack Midgley has spent four decades solving problems in exactly that category, for defense ministries, senior military commanders, and major corporations operating in the world's most demanding markets.
His recent work reflects that range. He advises a Middle Eastern defense manufacturer on corporate strategy and acquisition planning as it builds its global market position. He designed and led the creation of Saudi Arabia's first National Defense University, a multi-year engagement with the Saudi Ministry of Defense to establish the senior military college for the Kingdom's armed forces. He created the Target Operating Model that the Ministry approved to guide the transformation. He has trained hundreds of senior executives to sharpen their skills in argument and advocacy through the program of that name.
His consulting career spans McKinsey, Ernst & Young, Roland Berger, and Deloitte — where he built and led the Asia-Pacific Defense practice in Tokyo. A former US Army officer, he deployed to Afghanistan as a Senior Advisor to the Commander, International Security Assistance Forces, restructuring Afghanistan's national identity program and redirecting over $100M in US government investment.
He writes Global Defense and Security on Substack. It is not a newsletter. It is a practitioner's analysis written by someone who has worked inside the institutions, in the countries, and at the levels he writes about. His commentary appears regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC, the Financial Times, Al Arabiya, China Daily, and major US networks.
