Leo
Blanken
Leo has worked for a number of entities across the Department of Defense, exploring how organizations respond when their legacy modes of operation no longer match their evolving strategic environment. Leading teams of military officers, academics, and other experts, he helps organizations rethink how they gather information, measure success, invest in infrastructure and—most importantly—link their daily activities to deeper strategic purpose. Leo holds a BA from the University of San Francisco, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Davis. His dissertation on patterns of imperial expansion received the best dissertation award from the Western Political Science Association and was published as Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion (University of Chicago Press, 2012). He has published numerous articles on strategy, metrics/assessment, intelligence, and emerging technology.