Our Expert Change Management Consultants

Ron Horton

Ron "Beav" Horton is a 1982 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and following an extremely successful career, retired from the US Navy after 30+ years of distinguished service. Ron is also a graduate of the US Navy's prestigious Nuclear Power Program and was fortunate enough to have had two pinnacles during his long career. The first pinnacle being his selection for the rank of Rear Admiral and serving in that capacity as the Commander of a Logistics Group, an Operational Task Force, and a Navy Region based in Singapore where he was the senior US Naval Officer in Southeast Asia. In those positions, Ron led, directed, and was responsible for all Naval Logistics in the Western Pacific to include all ship maintenance outside of Japan. Additionally, he was the Seventh Fleet's Executive Agent for Southeast Asia Theater Security Cooperation which included leading and directing exercises, engagements, and international cooperation with over 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia.

The other pinnacle in Ron's career was his selection for and service as the 20th Commanding Officer of the world's first Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier, the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65). In that capacity, Ron led, directed, and was fully responsible and accountable for all aspect of operations and maintenance of that floating city, including its embarked crew of 5500 personnel and eight nuclear reactors. Under Ron's leadership, ENTERPRISE won the SECNAV and CNO Environmental Excellence Awards, ADM Flatley Memorial Safety Award, Battle "E" for Readiness Excellence, and the coveted Battenberg Cup signifying the "Fleet Forces Ship of the Year".

During his military career, Ron also was the Commanding Officer of an FA-18C "Hornet" Carrier Based Strike Fighter Squadron and the Commanding Officer of an 18,000 Ton Amphibious Ship. As a Strike Fighter Squadron Commanding Officer, Ron led his squadron to winning the Navy's Battle Efficiency Award, Safety Excellence Award, and to being selected as the Navy's "FA-18 "Hornet" Squadron of the Year".

As a seasoned carrier fighter pilot, Ron has been selected as "Pilot of the Year" and "Instructor Pilot of the Year". He has over 750 Carrier Landings of which 250 were at night. He was a qualified instructor in every facet of tactical strike warfare and a qualified Carrier Air Wing Strike Leader.

In 2011, Ron was hand-picked to become Afterburner's first Executive Vice President for Health, Safety, and Environmental Services. Ron's vast experience and success in fighter squadron operations, surface ship and aircraft carrier operations, and nuclear power plant operations has afforded him the opportunity share his vast executive leadership and management experience in High Reliability, High Risk Operations with Afterburner clients globally.

Brigadier General Charles Campbell, USAF (ret.)

Charles "Chaz" Campbell is the Director of Afterburner University. He is retired from active service having achieved the rank of Brigadier General and accumulating over 30 years of service in the US Air Force and the Florida Air National Guard. He now shares his experiences and leadership lessons with Afterburner clients and students in the Afterburner University.

During his career Chaz has commanded at all levels of the Air Force structure. None more demanding than his last assignment as the Vice Commander of Air Forces North, First Air Force where he dealt with the "Can't fail" high pressure environment of Air Defense of the entire United States airspace...helping ensure "9-11" will never happen again! Chaz is not only a graduate of the US Air Force Fighter Weapons School; but, was also selected as an instructor in the most elite of the Air Force fighter schools. He has been combat ready in the F-4, F-16 and the F-15 with over 3,700 hours of flight time.

Chaz was handpicked in 2007 to lead the Afterburner University. In that capacity he develops and executes the highly successful curriculum of the Flawless Execution University (FLEX U) program. During 2008 alone, he delivered Leading Flawless Execution^sm to over 300 business leaders. Chaz has worked with cutting edge companies crossing all industry sectors such as Northrop Grumman, Bank of America, Bausch and Lomb, Champion Enterprises, Sea Ray, Brinks Security, Humana, Lockheed Martin and Tree Island Industries... Helping each improve execution and close their Execution Gap.

James D. Murphy

James D. "Murph" Murphy, the Founder & CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique and powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. Murph joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance aircraft. As the 116th Fighter Wing's Chief of Training for the Georgia Air National Guard, Murph's job was to keep 42 combat-trained fighter pilots ready to deploy worldwide within 72 hours. As a flight leader, he flew missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East.

Prior to his service in the U.S. Air Force, Murph had a successful career in imaging equipment sales, where he helped increase his company's sales by 500%. Years later, he became Director of Sales for a small paint company. The concepts he developed and utilized in business and the U.S. Air Force would become known as Flawless Execution®. Applying Flawless Execution's continuous cycle of planning, briefing, executing, and debriefing, he increased his new employer's sales from $5 million to $52 million per year. Realizing that all companies and organizations could benefit from these same concepts, Murph started Afterburner Incorporated in early 1996.

Through his leadership, Afterburner landed on Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500 List" twice. Murph has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, Meetings & Conventions Magazine and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg News. He was also named as one of Atlanta's top 50 entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine. To date, the Afterburner team of elite military professionals has led over 1 million executives, sales professionals, and business people from every industry through Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model^sm, and its unique, high-energy programs.

Murph and Afterburner have shared the podium with notable speakers like Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Marcus Buckingham, Colin Powell, J.W. Marriott Sr. and Terry Bradshaw. Murph serves as a panel member of the League of Extraordinary Minds with business and self-improvement gurus such as Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. He is the author of the groundbreaking books Business Is Combat and Flawless Execution through Harper Collins publishing and has spoken at many of the world's most notable business schools to include Harvard, Wharton, Cornell, Emory, Duke and Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny is one of the most experienced members of the Afterburner Team. Since 1997 he has worked with hundreds of different companies providing Flawless Execution^sm solutions. He has been called upon by some of the top CEO's in the Global 1000 to facilitate their Strategic planning, Project Management, Product Launches & Standard Operating Procedures. He is also our Subject Matter Expert and a leading authority in the area of Corporate Debriefing. His clients include companies such as Kellogg, Bank of America, New York Life, Union Pacific, Bausch & Lomb, Pfizer, H&R Block, CIBA Vision, & TIBCO, to name few. Michael is also a contributing author of Afterburner's 2005 release Flawless Execution (Harper Collins).

After graduating from the US Naval Academy with a degree in Mathematics, He went on to be a Marine Pilot for over 20 years. For 5 years he flew the AV-8B Harrier and then the F/A-18 Hornet for the last 15 years, accumulating over 3800 Tactical flight hours. His Combat experience includes 36 missions during Desert Storm and combat operations in Somalia.

In 1992 he was handpicked to attend the elite Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron (MAWTS) course or the Marine equivalent of "Top Gun". From 1993-1997, he was an instructor at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC); A Naval Aviation training center of excellence in Fallon, Nevada. These Top notch training environments afforded him the requisite skills to teach Businesses how to lead, train and standardize their Teams.

Michael has over 23 years of leadership experience as a Marine Corps Officer and is now a Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. At Afterburner he is our Senior Consultant and Solutions Director.

Jim Demarest

Jim Demarest joined Afterburner, Inc. in 2002 as a main speaker and international corporate consultant delivering his leadership and consulting experience to companies including Sara Lee, Genworth, Kohler, Motorola, Meridian Gold, Wet Design, Lockheed Martin and GMAC.

After four years at the United States Air Force Academy, Jim graduated as class president. From there he went on to graduate at the top of his pilot training class in 1984, when he began his operational flying career as an F-15 fighter pilot. Jim completed tours flying the F-15 at Bitburg Air Base in Germany and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. During his military career Jim was an F-15 Instructor Pilot and Mission Commander recognized as a Distinguished Graduate of the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapon School "Top Gun" program. Jim's Air Force service ended in 1992 following a tour in Desert Storm.

In 1995 Jim graduated from Cornell Law School as the Managing Editor of the Cornell Law Review, and thereafter spent over 9 years as a Commercial Litigation attorney in Florida. In addition to his work at Afterburner, Jim is also pursuing his entrepreneurial interests with several companies in Southern Florida.

Matthew Buckley

E. Matthew "Whiz" Buckley is the founder and CEO of Strike Fighter Financial LLC, a privately held consulting firm that works with select clients in the financial industry. He is the founder and CEO of Top Gun Options LLC and is the Chief Strategy Officer and a partner at Options University Group LLC headquartered in Boca Raton, FL.

Whiz is a highly experienced business executive with decades of leadership and execution experience from the front lines to the front office. Whiz was the founder and CEO of PEAK6 Media LLC, a financial media firm. The company provided options and futures news, commentary, analysis, entertainment, and up to the minute reporting directly from the floors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Board of Trade. This exclusive information allowed retail and professional options and futures traders around the world to execute at a higher level.

Prior to this Whiz was the Managing Director of Strategy for PEAK6 Investments L.P., one of the largest proprietary volatility arbitrage options trading firms in the country. He was responsible for the strategic development, execution, and debriefing of all strategic plans across the firm and retail business units. Whiz rose from the position of Managing Director at this leading Wall Street firm to CEO of a subsidiary company in one year at the age of 38. This firm recruited Whiz based on his experience as a consultant at Afterburner, his military leadership experience, and his retail options trading knowledge.

Whiz's military background makes him a highly successful options trader. At Top Gun Options he applies many fighter pilot methodologies and techniques to trading such as executing a well defined strategy with predetermined exit points, managing risk by having a contingency plan, and debriefing each trade to get lessons learned so he can improve future performance. His firm teaches professional and retail traders how to sort through information overload (trading task saturation) to ensure that they have the highest probability of success before squeezing the trigger on a trade. One of his options based portfolios returned over 75% in 2010, and year to date another portfolio is up 60%.

Whiz is a columnist on Jim Cramer's financial website TheStreet.com and writes a column called "The Firing Line". He also writes an options trading column on Investors Observer. Whiz has been quoted as a financial expert in the Wall Street Journal and Market Watch and as a military expert for Fox News.

From 2004 to 2006, he was the Director of Leadership for Afterburner where he became a nationally recognized and highly sought after business consultant and speaker. He developed and deployed leadership and strategic planning products and was a C level advisor to many Fortune 500 companies, including GE, Cisco, GM, AT&T, Sears, First Industrial, GMAC, Panasonic, Washington Mutual, Capital One, GM, MasterCard, Tyco, and Gilead Sciences.

Whiz has written a book called From Sea Level to C Level: A Fighter Pilot's Journey from the Front Lines to the Front Office, which combines his experiences in the military and in corporate America.

Whiz is a decorated Naval Aviator who flew the F/A-18 Hornet for the United States Navy. He flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq and graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School ("TOPGUN").

William M. Duke

Will Duke is Afterburner's Director of Learning and Development. His duties include coordination of the development of intellectual property, training programs, and educational materials. He also serves as a consultant to process and continuous improvement management programs. With Co-Author James "Murph" Murphy, he wrote the 2010 release "The Flawless Execution Field Manual."

Will graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, while earning his commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy from nearby Vanderbilt University NROTC. As a bridge officer and engineering officer on active duty, he logged over 1,800 hours piloting the world's most complex machine, a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered, Super Carrier. After leaving active duty in 1994, Will earned a second degree in education and taught for several years before serving 8 years as a Regional Operations Manager at Sears Product Repair Services.

His 20 years of professional experience have focused heavily upon leadership and management methods and training. He practiced Total Quality Management (TQM), Statistical Process Control and Just-in-Time management during his active duty Navy career. He also worked with corporate Six Sigma projects and training, and ISO 9001 certification and auditing in his eight years in operations for Sears. Will currently serves as a senior Human Resources Officer in the in the U.S. Navy Reserve and has held numerous command and command-staff positions throughout his career.

Anthony J. Roberson

Anthony J. "Roby" Roberson joined the Afterburner team in 2008. Roby has conducted Flawless Execution consulting to a host of diverse companies like USAA, Kwikset (Black and Decker), Smith and Nephew, Integrated Electrical Systems, Sea Ray Boats and Underwriters Laboratories. Roby's leadership and human capital development, strategic planning, organizational management and tactical execution strengths are tried, tested and proven. From developing leading edge tactics and training programs for the Department of Defense, to authoring academic curriculum for the largest training wing in the US Air Force and developing major theater engagement, action and combat plans for the nation, he is a first call on resources for any industry in need of breadth of talent and expertise.

Roby graduated from the US Air Force Academy with military distinction in 1989. While at the Academy, he led the Western Athletic Conference in all-purpose yardage in 1987 and 1988 as a National Strength and Conditioning Association All-American athlete. Roby is the only player in Air Force Academy football history to be honored with all three of the team's top awards; Most Valuable Player Award, Brian Bullard Award (unselfishness, total team commitment, 110% effort) and the Mr Intensity Award in 1988. Following academy graduation, Roby completed 18 years of Air Force service as a highly decorated combat fighter pilot and lauded military strategic planner. During his career, Roby amassed over 2,200 flying hours, 101 combat missions and supported combat and contingency operations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He is one of the original architects of the Operation IRAQI FREEDOM air campaign effecting the rapid regime removal of Saddam Hussein. Roby is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force F-16 Reserve Training Unit, an honor graduate of the Joint Firepower Control Course, a graduate of the Air Force's Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (Top Gun), and the Advanced Command and Control Warriors Course. He spent his final years on active duty as an Assistant Football Coach and national recruiting scout for the Air Force Academy football Falcons, helping lead the team and staff to consecutive Armed Forces Bowl appearances in 2007 and 2008. Roby retired from active duty in May of 2009 in the middle of a combat zone, at Balad Air Base, Iraq, during a joint ceremony honoring America's Original Tuskegee Airmen and his personal service and sacrifice to our nation.

He holds a graduate degree in Aeronautical Science & has served as an adjunct instructor at the undergraduate & graduate levels for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Roby recently co-authored a book with several other accomplished leaders and the long time Air Force Academy Head Football Coach, Fisher DeBerry entitled The Power of Influence.

Scott Leonard

A former Gulf War era M1 Abrams tank gunner, Weapon's instructor and Combat Lifesaver, Scott Leonard is one of the newest members to join the Afterburner team, bringing experience from the Development, Real Estate, Hospitality and Consulting sectors. As both an employee and as a consultant, Scott has trained, managed and advised consultant associates, HR Directors, compensation and employment professionals, operations staff, sales professionals, line and VP management, call center employees and trainers in the US and abroad within multiple sectors.

Scott has 12+ years experience in the vacation ownership, hotel, real estate & development sectors, operating in nearly every vertical. He has worked and consulted for both public and private companies such as Hewitt Associates, CitiGroup, Cendant, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Central Florida Investments (Westgate Resorts), Sunterra Resorts (now Diamond Resorts) and Fairfield Resorts (now Wyndham Vacation Ownership).

His own company, The Resort Principle, provided consulting work for vacation ownership, resort and development companies in South Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, California and the Caribbean. His areas of experience include resort management, interval and fractional ownership, business process improvement, acquisitions & dispositions, operations, IT, construction, sales, marketing, e-commerce, financial processing and project management. Throughout his tenure at these organizations and via his own company, Scott has established a multitude of vendor relationships that are applicable across multiple sectors. Scott is a strong communicator at home in the presentational environment and a leader practicing servant leadership with his teams.