Frank Sawicki

I spent more than 26 years with the U.S. Department of Defense, in U.S. Army Special Operations and the Joint Special Operations Command. We were tasked with creating and leading an experimental innovation unit from nothing, and I held oversight of up to $360M in high-value assets and more than 3,000 troops, advising senior commanders on budget allocation and institutional acquisition.

My operational career spans five continents, with the Middle East and North Africa as a regional specialty and Arabic as a working language. Those postings shaped how I read risk. Regional security dynamics are rarely what they look like from a headquarters slide.

Special operations taught me to evaluate a capability by asking who has to carry it, not who built it. That question turns out to be just as useful in a boardroom.

I founded Actaeon Solutions in 2022 and now advise executives, founders and investment funds on advisory board placement, technology and venture due diligence, and governance and scaling. I have advised more than 18 companies since entering the advisory business, and I hold an active TS/SCI clearance.

I am a guest lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the United States Military Academy at West Point, an Ambassador of the TF-7294 Foundation, and a member of Primer AI’s Federal Advisory Board.