The founders of COMMAND! Associates are Tom Gallagher and Mike West, two career Naval officers who between them have over 75 years of command, operational, staff and business experience. They have both taught at the university level.
- Tom Gallagher was a career Navy Surface Warfare Officer. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, he commanded a Navy frigate with a crew of over 260 Sailors and later a Navy Destroyer Squadron. In the latter job, Tom was responsible for the organizing, training, and operational employment of six of the Navy’s most sophisticated warships with crews totaling over 1500 Sailors and equipment assets of $3 billion. As a planner on the Joint Staff during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Tom was recognized as an Action Officer of the Year. In his final assignment on active duty, he served in the Pentagon as the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy where he helped to organize the activities of 406 senior civilian and military officials. Following his naval service, Tom led several highly successful analysis teams in the private business sector for Anteon Corporation and General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). The teams recommended courses of action for program development and the allocation of scarce resources and personnel. Tom holds two advanced degrees and taught graduate courses at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and undergraduate courses at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
- Mike West was a career Navy Surface Warfare Officer. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was commissioned via the NROTC program. Mike's sea tours included command of a frigate with a crew of 265 and assets of over $400 million, being the executive officer of a frigate (that was nominated from a group of 35 ships to be recognized as “the most improved ship in the Pacific Fleet” while he was aboard), in the weapons and operations departments of guided missile destroyers and as the chief engineer aboard a large amphibious transport. His shore duty included teaching and coaching rowing at the U.S. Naval Academy, as a planner in the Middle East/Africa Branch of the Joint Staff where he helped negotiate the treaty with Bahrain that resulted in U.S. basing rights in that nation prior to Desert Storm/Desert Shield. Mike spent one year in-residence at the National War College in Washington, DC, where he received the equivalent of a Master's Degree in National Security Affairs. Since he retired from the Navy, Mike has worked as a defense consultant, and has started two businesses in Bethesda, Maryland, one of which is the only company of its kind in the country. Mike's thorough knowledge of the marketplace, coupled with particularly aggressive and targeted marketing, has resulted in that company’s continued growth every year since its inception. Mike is a nationally published author on subjects relating to naval history.