Eric Greitens is a former Navy Seal and the current CEO of The Mission Continues. He is also the author of Heart and Fist: The Education of A Humanitarian, The Making of a Navy Seal, which shares lessons of leadership, ethics and inspiration from his service as a humanitarian and a soldier.

Eric is not your typical SEAL (is there such a thing?). He was a Rhodes and Truman Scholar, attended Duke and Oxford Universities, and his doctoral thesis at Oxford was entitled “Children First,” which investigated how international humanitarian organizations can best serve war-affected children. He continues to study and teach public service as a Senior Fellow at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri and in the MBA Program at the Olin School of Business at Washington University.

Eric has done humanitarian work in Rwanda, Cambodia, Albania, Mexico, India, the Gaza Strip, Croatia, and Bolivia.

Eric is also a United States Navy SEAL officer, and he has deployed four times during the Global War on Terrorism: to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia.

After returning from Iraq, Eric donated his combat pay to found The Mission Continues. A non-profit organization, The Mission Continues empowers wounded and disabled veterans to begin new lives as citizen leaders here at home. He has been recognized by the Manhattan Institute as one of the five leading social entrepreneurs in the country.

Eric was appointed by George W. Bush as a White House Fellow in 2005.