Robert J. Giesler was a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Giesler is a retired US Army officer and Senior Executive Service member. He has subsequently served as a consultant to a variety of government agencies as well as advisor to a number of US corporations.  

He has served in a number of senior roles within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) that include director, strategy coordination; chief, strategy and plans, Department of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office; and director, information operations and strategic studies. While in OSD, his specialties included strategy development, information operations, hybrid conflict, cyber in conflict, special operations, and intelligence. 

While in industry, he has worked as senior vice president for cyber programs at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) with a focus on corporate-wide strategy as well as organic and inorganic growth. In academia, he was the senior advisor for asymmetric operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and was responsible for providing thought leadership on strategy and solutions development across the full spectrum of asymmetric operations challenges.

His army career included tours in the infantry as an army counterintelligence agent, clandestine human intelligence operations, and strategic planning. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Defense Intelligence College postgraduate intelligence program.