Management Team

Widely acknowledged as one of America's leading authorities on terrorism, Mike Ackerman's forte is recovering kidnap victims. He has lectured at the National War College, the Harvard Business School and Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, has appeared before the crisis-management teams of numerous multinational corporations and has made more than 50 appearances as a commentator on terrorism and intelligence matters on FoxNews and other news networks. His book, Counterterrorism Strategies for Corporations: The Ackerman Principles, was published in 2008. Ackerman served in the CIA's Clandestine Services for 11 years before resigning in 1975 to protest the congressional investigation of the Agency then in progress and plead for the preservation of America’s intelligence capability. In the CIA he had undertaken intelligence operations in 20 European, Latin American and African countries. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Russian and Italian, Ackerman graduated from Dartmouth College magna cum laude and holds an M.A. from Columbia. He was a security officer in the US Air Force Strategic Air Command

Wes Odom joined The Ackerman Group in 1990, following a 15-year career in the CIA's Clandestine Services. At the CIA, he had specialized in foreign intelligence operations and counterterrorism and garnered extensive experience in technical surveillance. He had tours in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and served as an instructor in the Agency's operational training program. A fluent Spanish speaker, he holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of West Florida and served with a U.S. Navy Seabee battalion in Vietnam.

Frank Pedrozo served 29 years in the US Army, achieving the rank of colonel. A Special Forces officer, he commanded the US Military Liaison Office in Mexico, the Special Troops Battalion of V Corps, US Army-Europe, and served as a military advisor in El Salvador during that country's civil war. Pedrozo holds a B.S. from West Point, a Master’s in Strategic Planning from the US Army War College and an M.A. in International Relations from Salve Regina University. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Bronze Star with "V" Device. Pedrozo speaks native Spanish and is conversant in Portuguese and German.

George Kiszynski served 33 years as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acquiring a reputation for excellence in white-collar crime and public-corruption investigations. He also coordinated kidnapping, narcotics-trafficking and international terrorism investigations in Latin America and the Caribbean for the Miami Field Office, and served as its Bomb Coordinator. In addition, Kiszynski served four years as Assistant Legal Attache/Acting Legal Attache in Rome, managing international terrorism programs for Italy, Africa and the Middle East. Raised in Argentina, he speaks native English, Spanish and Italian, and has a B.A. from the University of Illinois.

Bill Reynolds joined The Ackerman Group in May 2001 and is Vice President, Forecast Services. A journalist by trade, he has years of experience in the former Communist bloc. He arrived in Czechoslovakia upon the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, filing stories for US newspapers as the country peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. During the same period, he made frequent reporting trips to the former Yugoslavia, then splitting apart. He moved to Ukraine in 1995, and from 1998 to 2001 edited the leading English-language newspaper in Baku, Azerbaijan. Fluent in Russian, he holds a BA in political science at Temple University.

George Dew joined The Ackerman Group in 1998. Previously, he had served five years in the CIA's Clandestine Services and six years as a U.S. Navy SEAL. Dew also worked as an investment banker on Wall Street and founded a computer networking and software development company, Response Networking Inc. Dew has appeared on Fox News as a technical expert. He holds a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from Georgetown. Fluent in Spanish and French, he is conversant in Mandarin and Cantonese. Dew is a certified Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructor (Level 1--probation).

Adam Stanley-Smith served six years in the US Marine Corps, achieving the rank of captain. He participated in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, leading a mechanized infantry platoon from Kuwait to Baghdad. Subsequently, he served in the Current Operations Section of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC), supporting the establishment of the command and team training and deployments. After leaving the Marine Corps, Stanley-Smith taught basic military skills and tactics to army units in Burundi and Djibouti. He holds a BA in International Studies from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), an MBA from the prestigious HEC School of Management in Paris and Master of Science in Economics from the NHH School of Economics in Bergen, Norway. He is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish.

Chuck Krueger served 23 years in the US Army, beginning in the enlisted ranks and retiring as a lieutenant colonel. A Special Forces and Foreign Area Officer specializing in Asia, he served in the 1st and 7th Special Forces Groups, the 101st Air Assault Division and the 2nd Infantry Division. Following his retirement from the army, Krueger served as a project manager for security at the US Embassy, Bangkok, and as security manager for a firm servicing more than 40 airlines at Bangkok International Airport. He has a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Krueger is fluent in Mandarin and Thai.