Chris Sanchez

I postponed my retirement from the Navy by 1 year, at the personal request of the Director of Operations for United States, Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW), in order to lead an Enterprise-level software development initiative. The program, in its then-current state, had the underpinnings to be great but lacked direction, organization, and was floundering in semi-obscurity as a "fringe" program of record. I took the reigns as the Program Director for the NSW Training and Readiness Management System (NTRMS), which ultimately led to the program being chosen as the NSW community system of choice (over an entrenched multi-million dollar competing system).

Specific accomplishments include the following:
• Led the design, implementation, training and marketing of NTRMS at seven new NSW commands, including three SEAL Teams, representing a tripling in the number of daily users of the system.
• Leveraged outside funding to double the number of full-time NTRMS staff (software developers and business case analysts) in order to increase the velocity and scope of the NTRMS project, resulting in breakneck "idea to implementation" rollout times and the expansion of NTRMS to include several new modules.
• Reprioritized previously lagging efforts to achieve the coveted Authority to Operate, which established NTRMS as a fully-authorized National Security System for the NSW community.
• Despite being outmatched in terms of funding, manpower, and access to technology my team beat the entrenched Training and Readiness system-of-record, because we built a faster and more intuitive system that answered the specific demands of our customers (10K+ Active Duty SEALs and civilians). My team ultimately succeeded because we listened to and put our customers FIRST!

Leading a staff of 14 personnel, I directed the daily operations of 13 separate departments in support of the Logistics requirements of the West Coast SEAL Teams and seven other supporting commands. Managed the organization, training, equipping, and overseas deployment of over 450 combat support personnel, including six specialized Combat Support Teams. Led disruptive institutional change, starting with the Operations Department and extending throughout the entire organization.

-- Upon taking the reigns as the Director of Operations, I made no significant organizational changes for three months. After the initial learning/grace period was over, I leveraged the talents of my staff to break the "business as usual" status quo and implemented major changes including:
• Redesigned the information flow within my organization to account for the real-time location of every employee both within the United States and overseas. Prior to my arrival this information could take hours to process through various departmental channels.
• Overhauled all previous organizational tracking mechanisms which were largely confined to local copies of Excel spreadsheets. I implemented an organizational-wide database and user-interface that tracked all aspects of combat readiness; this multi-step effort brought operational readiness from below 50% to a sustained 95% within a six month timeframe.
• Instituted a new training and development pipeline for building Combat Support Teams for the West Coast SEAL Teams. Prior to my arrival these 38-man teams were formed from piecemeal departmental elements with little accountability or tracking of readiness and qualifications. I restructured the way candidates were chosen for these teams, how they were trained, how their qualifications were tracked, and codified the process in an official written instruction signed by the Commanding Officer.

I was the Team Leader for a 34-person Operational Planning Team, charged with developing a 5-year strategy for the employment of Naval Special Operations forces (SOF), with the goal of countering transnational organized crime on the South American continent. The directed efforts of my team resulted in the largest surge of naval SOF in that region of the world since 2001, a redesigned information collection platform, and the relocation of a multi-million dollar Navy command.

Specific accomplishments include:
• Over the course of my role as a Strategic Plans Officer I worked with multiple military organizations to write a maritime strategy for the employment of Naval Special Operations (SOF) across the entire spectrum of SOF skillsets. This "plans" document took several months to complete and involved extensive travel, research, and key leader engagements.
• The capstone piece of our theater engagement strategy was the design of an architectural framework for a command and control (C2) center located within the center of gravity for operations in South America. This C2 center required months of negotiations and deliberation amongst various stakeholders, but was ultimately briefed to the head of US Special Operations Command as the definitive way forward for Naval SOF employment in the region.
• As a result of my team's successful efforts, we received the go-ahead to relocate NSW's primary command responsible for South American engagement from Virginia to Florida. This relocation did not happen on it's own. It required aggressive negotiations with various levels of higher headquarters regarding financial resources, manpower, physical space allocation, and timelines. I spent months working with key leaders from finance, manpower, administration, and logistics working on a detailed plan to execute the movement.

Team Leader responsible for the mentoring, training, and the tactical employment of a 16-person Cross Functional Team consisting of SEALs and Combat Support personnel, directed to conduct highly sensitive clandestine missions in support of long-term US government strategic objectives.

Specific achievements include:
• I led my team through an arduous 12 month training cycle that included both "green skills" (shooting, moving, and communicating) and "soft skills" (various aspects of unconventional warfare). With an emphasis on peer-to-peer mentorship and placing a premium on "hustle" my team achieved the highest score possible on our final two-week long Culmination Exercise.
• Deployed to Helmand, Afghanistan as the sole Special Operations ambassador to the local Afghan government, charged with leading counterinsurgency efforts in support of six Special Operations teams; extensive coordination with NATO forces and US Department of State.
• Led a very successful campaign to connect US Special Operations teams and their outlying villages with local governmental resources (both Afghan and US), through the careful cultivation of relationships with key Afhgan military, police, and governmental leaders, executing high risk missions to maximize information flow, and as always, taking the time to listen to the needs/wants of both sides of the issue.
• Responsible for the recruiting and outfitting of over 250 Afghan Local Police (ALP) charged with bolstering defenses of local villages against insurgent attacks in Helmand, Afghanistan.
• Deployed to Ramadi, Iraq as a team member of a Special Collections Team responsible for developing targeting packages for a co-located Special Forces strike team. Utilizing cutting-edge technology the team’s efforts resulted in 12 insurgent capture/kills and the successful execution of the #5 ranked leader of the Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq organization.

As the Southeast Asia Program Manager I was given extensive latitude to unilaterally plan, coordinate, and execute all aspects of foreign engagements with the Naval Special Forces units of allied host nations, including the countries of India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. Full execution required coordination amongst seven distinct and geographically separated military organizations, of which my office was the focal point. Key highlights:
• Extensive foreign travel to coordinate exercise logistics, including site preparation and setup, acquiring all necessary material resources, scheduling deconfliction, and developing a training plan with the host nation.
• Worked directly with US Ambassador's Office in each country to obtain necessary approvals for exercise execution and to provide ongoing feedback on exercise highlights and key points of interest.
• Typical budget for each exercise was around $500K each, the execution of which required dynamic resource allocation and coordination with budgeting department of higher headquarters.
• To excel at this role required a high degree of initiative to learn and explore the cultural and regional issues that were important to our host nation partners. I took it upon myself to read and study the history, modern political thought, and after action reports from previous exercises in order to best represent the United States and provide the most value to our partner nations.

Specific accomplishments include:
• Planned and executed Naval Special Warfare’s piece of Exercise MALABAR, the largest Joint naval exercise between India and the United States. Ensured the coordination and delivery of multiple air and sea-borne assets, a 16-man SEAL platoon, and all exercise logistics.
• Planned and executed exercises in Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Maldives to build partner nation capacity, focusing on counter-terror operations, information gathering, and basic combat tactics.

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