Andrew Charles

CAPT Andy Charles is a strategist, futurist, and transformation architect.  He is at the Naval Intelligence Activity, where he is involved in shaping the Naval Intelligence Enterprise for current and future mission requirements.  He recently completed a Fellow for the Secretary of Defense, embedded with CACI International, researching and examining innovative concepts to address the most pressing challenges and enhance the capability of the Defense Department, Defense Intelligence, and Naval Information Warfare.  

 He led efforts to craft creative strategies and identify new approaches to address Defense and Navy challenges in ways that often challenged the status quo but left the organization more effective.  As Commanding Officer of the Kennedy Irregular Warfare Center, he led the transformation of intelligence analysis and operations expertise to provide analytic foundation to emerging concepts for strategic competition and operations to counter malign influences. As the CTF-72 N2, he redesigned collection operations in the Western Pacific, leading tactics development for effective maritime collection operations.  He created an artificial intelligence investment plan as Director of Navy TENCAP, leveraging machine learning, open architecture, and creative data strategies to reimagine maritime OPINTEL to better inform decisions “at speed”.  While the Head of OPNAV N2/N6’s Space Capabilities and Requirements Branch, he developed a satellite resiliency concept to ensure Naval forces remained effective in the face of emerging threats. 

 His early Naval Intelligence experience was in operationally focused roles at Strike Fighter Squadron THREE SEVEN, Fifth Fleet, and the Joint Warfare Analysis Center. While mastering his information warfare trade, he frequently was exposed to challenges that required innovative solutions and (r)evolutionary vision, teaching the value of considering alternatives no matter how improbable. His lessons on reexamining the status quo were stimulated as the Chief of Targets for JTF-519 under COMPACFLT and as the Senior Intelligence Officer on the USS BATAAN (LHD 5) for rescue operations after Hurricane Katrina and counterterrorism operations off Somalia. 

 He led in a variety of intelligence roles that required development of non-traditional and creative strategies to solve problems. He was the Operations Officer for the Joint Intelligence Group – Guantanamo Bay, National Terrorist Watchlisting Division Chief for the Joint Intelligence Task Force – Combatting Terrorism under the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the lead Executive Briefer and the Senior Service Advisor for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Directorate.   

 CAPT Charles received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Master of Military Arts and Sciences (Strategy) from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He completed the Secretary of Defense’s Executive Fellowship training program at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.