John Stufflebeem is an independent consultant and former US Navy admiral and professional football player. He has over 30 years of military experience, including serving as commander of the US Sixth Fleet and leading forces in combat operations. Since 2008, he has advised Fortune 100 companies and organizations like the NFL on building winning teams and crisis management. He credits his success to the teams he worked with in both football and the military.

1. JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT
NJS Group, LLC | 7311 Park Terrace Drive | Alexandria, VA 22307 USA | +1 571 312 6728 | JohnS@njsgroup.net
John Stufflebeem is a thirty year US military veteran and former professional football player.
Since 2008, he has been an independent consultant advising Fortune 100 companies
including the Lockheed Martin Corporation, private companies such as ADARA Networks in
Silicon Valley, the National Football League Players Association, NFL clubs including the
New England Patriots and Houston Texans, as well as senior executives, professional
coaches and players. He is a noted speaker, mentor, crisis manager and strategic advisor.
Prior to retiring from the US Navy as an admiral, John was the commander of the US Sixth
Fleet and deputy commander of all naval forces in Europe, Africa and Middle East. He led
multi-national forces in combat in Lebanon, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
operations in Pakistan, and security operations in Africa. He served as the commander of a
task force in the Iraq war, and as a war planner in the Pentagon he was the face
and voice to the world via international Press on operations against the Taliban
in Afghanistan following the attacks of 9/11.
John is an acclaimed expert in building winning teams, delivering covenant
leadership for those teams, and creating opportunities from extreme challenges.
Learning the critical nature of teamwork from his then-coach Bill Belichick in the
NFL/NFC Central Detroit Lions club, he traded uniforms and applied his
expertise from the gridiron to become a pinnacle leader on the battlefields leading a fighter squadron, an aircraft
carrier air wing, and subsequently a carrier strike group in combat. Additionally, he honed
critical leadership skills serving in the White House carrying the nuclear football for President
George H.W. Bush as his military assistant during the crises in Panama and Kuwait. He
furthered them in the Pentagon as the chief operations officer for the US Navy as well as
global operations director on the Joint Staff.
Stufflebeem was a career warrior and aircraft carrier fighter pilot deploying more than eleven
times and eight years to trouble spots around the globe. He is a graduate of the Navy Fighter
Weapons School, TOPGUN, and flew over two hundred combat missions and landed more
than a thousand times on aircraft carriers. He built his career in positions of ever increasing responsibility until
becoming a corporate chief executive as an admiral putting together teams of increasing complexity dealing with
international crises in remote locations of the world often with few resources, little guidance,
low initial support and high expectations of delivering success.
He credits all of his success to the teams of people he worked with, supported and answered
to as well as the personal skills learned from the elite level of football and the military. He
gives back from the success he has enjoyed by serving as a Trustee of the prep school he
attended and provided his life foundation, works to support wounded warriors and former pro
football players suffering the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury and assisting homeless
Veterans. John notes he passed up corporate opportunities in order to consult and bring his
leadership expertise to those he could touch. In acknowledging realities learned firsthand
that guided him to his second career, John espouses the US Navy SEAL saying—“individuals play the game, but
teams beat the odds.” He measures his success today in making others better at their profession ranging from
corporate governance to personal performance.