Dana French is an experienced leader, change agent, developer of leadership and executive development programs and a consultant to organizations in both the public and private sectors.

He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree and subsequently earned a Master of Science degree in Personnel Management at the Naval Postgraduate School.

His first career was in the Navy and included duty at sea in various cruisers, destroyers and minesweepers. He commanded an Ocean Tug, a Riverine Assault Division in combat in the Delta of South Vietnam and a Guided Missile Destroyer.

Ashore, he served on the staffs of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Personnel. He designed, developed and implemented the Navy's first centralized program for training and development in leadership for all officers and enlisted (LMET). He also developed and operated a Navy-wide system of internal organizational consultants to support command effectiveness. He commanded the Recruit Training Command, San Diego, and with a staff of 500, acculturated 50,000 recruits into the Navy. Finally, he served as the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, a senior war college in Washington, D. C. As a combat veteran with more than 30 years of Naval Service, he retired as a highly decorated Captain.

He successfully transitioned to a second career as a self-employed organization development consultant and trainer based in Maryland, offering consultation and training in executive leadership, visioning, strategic planning, teambuilding and change management across America. He was also a senior partner in INTENTIONAL FUTURES, a small group of community and organization development consultants.

As a consultant, he has facilitated dozens of workshops with consulting clients in both the public and private sectors. He was a member of the Secretary of the Navy’s Personnel Task Force Design Group, a project to modernize the personnel system of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps for the 21st century. He also served for 10 yearsas a senior lecturer for the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School, teaching a course in Senior Management in a masters program for Company Officers at the U. S. Naval Academy.

He was a Professor on the maiden voyage in 2007 of The Scholar Ship, a new venture to provide college courses for credit to 200 international undergraduate and graduate students from 35 countries on a four-month around the world cruise aboard a cruise liner converted into an afloat college campus. He taught three courses: International Security, Intercultural Communications, and Cross Cultural Management.

Now semi-retired, he now devotes himself mostly to pro bono work that promotes community development and social progress in his local county in Maryland. He continues to serve as a Lecturer at the Center for Executive Education at the Naval Postgraduate School.