Christopher Michel, Founder and Chairman
Anne Dwane, General Manager
Tom Aiello, Vice President of Marketing
Vince Patton, Directory of Community Outreach
Ward Carroll, Editor
Fred Siegel, Site Manager for Fred's Place
Christopher Michel
Founder and Chairman
Chris is Founder & Chairman of Military.com, the nation's largest military membership organization. Military.com connects its over 8 million members to the lifelong benefits of military service and provides public and private sector clients efficient access to the military market. Members trust Military.com for career, education and financial services. Founded in 1999, Military.com has raised over $30 million from leading investors and strategic partners, including A&E Television Networks. In 2004, Military.com was acquired by Monster Worldwide (Nasdaq:MNST), the nation’s leading careers company.
Prior to founding the company, Chris was a strategy consultant assisting companies in the airline, entertainment, and financial services industries. In addition, he assisted in the founding of Initio Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on rational drug design.
Chris also served as a Naval Flight Officer in the United States Navy. While on active duty, Chris flew as a P-3 Navigator, Tactical Coordinator and Mission Commander in support of maritime interdiction operations in the Red Sea, NATO enforcement operations in the Adriatic, and counter-narcotics missions in Central America. Following his operational tour, Chris worked in the Pentagon as Aide to the Chief of the Naval Reserve.
An advocate for servicemembers and Veterans, Chris is a frequent speaker and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Financial Times, and others. He is also a regular guest on CNN and other national radio and TV programs. In addition, he writes the monthly "Charting your Course" column for U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine and is the author of The Military Advantage (Simon & Schuster 2006). He is an elected Director of the U.S. Naval Institute, a Trustee of the U.S. Naval Institute Foundation, a member of the General Council of the Naval Order of the United States, and a past Director of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and the USS Arizona Memorial Fund. Chris also serves on the board of advisors of a number of other companies.
Chris earned his commission from the NROTC program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was named a Distinguished Naval Graduate. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.
Anne Dwane
General Manager
Anne Dwane is the co-founder of Military.com. As the General Manager, Anne leads a team focused on developing outstanding member experiences and delivering value to clients - the quality companies, government agencies and employers that tap Military.com to reach the military community. Anne and the team actively seek out the information, products and services that meet the needs and interests of members. They are advocates for hiring Veterans, offering military discounts and accessing military benefits.
Prior to founding Military.com, Anne was in business development at Paul Allen's Interval Research Corporation in Silicon Valley and conducted due diligence for Vulcan Ventures. Formerly, Anne managed consumer research at Nabisco before transitioning to brand management for Nabisco's Planters Peanuts line. A pioneer in interactive marketing, Anne has been involved in this field since the days of 14.4 modems and the launch of Nabisco Direct, the online and direct response division of Nabisco.
Anne holds a bachelors degree in Marketing and International Management from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Tom Aiello
Vice President of Marketing
Tom Aiello is Vice President of Marketing for Military.com. He is charged with corporate and product-level marketing planning, product development, and strategic leadership for military recruiting at Military.com and Monster Worldwide. Tom joined the organization in May 2005.
Tom came to Military.com from advertising giant Leo Burnett, where he led McDonald’s Happy Meal business, developing programs to launch Mighty Kids Meals and Kid Dessert Menu, and overseeing the completion of hundreds of Happy Meal and Ronald McDonald ads.
Tom also supervised the ROTC brand and local advertising and field marketing for the U.S. Army account. Tom helped evolve the Effie-winning “Army of One” campaign, and volunteered his time to the Ad Council branding campaign. Tom is an ambassador for the Advertising Education Foundation, and in early 2004, was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Labor as a member of the President’s National Hire Veterans Committee, a position he still holds.
Prior to joining Burnett in 1998, Tom spent five years serving in the U.S. Army’s armored cavalry, leading groups of 50 or more people. Tom was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his accomplishments during real-world deployments to Panama, Korea, and Kuwait.
An Alabama native, Tom earned a BS in engineering management from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Vincent W. Patton, MCPOCG, USCG Retired
Director of Community Outreach
Master Chief Vince Patton is Director of Community Outreach for Military.com. In this role he is responsible for executing the company’s grassroots outreach marketing program, oversight of the installation ambassadors program and maintaining a close liaison with contacts at all levels in the military community. He joined the organization in September 2002, first serving on the company’s advisory board, then in full time capacity in November 2004.
Master Chief Vince Patton served as the 8th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard from May 1998 until his retirement from more than 30 years of active service in November 2002. His illustrious career included staff and operational assignments throughout the country, both afloat and ashore.
He received his doctorate of education degree from American University, a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Loyola University at Chicago, a B.S. in social work from Shaw College and a B.A. in communication from Pacific College. His extensive military education includes the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, U. S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, and the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Academy. He is a member of the Joint Military Intelligence College Board of Visitors, and serves on the editorial advisory board of the U. S. Naval Institute as well as a board positions on number of nonprofit organizations. He is also an ordained Unitarian minister.
Ward Carroll
Editor
Ward Carroll is the editor of military.com, responsible for all news, editorials, features, and other content on the site and in newsletters.
During his 20-year Navy career Ward served in four different F-14 squadrons based at NAS Oceana and was the operations officer for Carrier Air Wing One. His last tour on active duty was on the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy for four years, teaching English, leadership, and ethics. He was editor of Approach magazine and is currently a contributing editor for Naval Aviation News. Immediately following his retirement from the Navy, Ward spent three years in the civil service ranks, working as the public affairs officer for the V-22 Osprey program at the Naval Air Systems Command. Ward is also a popular novelist; his three books about a Tomcat pilot -- Punk's War, Punk's Wing, and Punk's Fight -- have been widely praised for their realistic portrayals of a Naval Aviator's life. He earned the Naval Institute Press “Author of the Year” honors in 2001. His latest novel, The Aide, was recently published by Signet.
Ward is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and retired at the rank of commander. His military decorations include the Strike Flight Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards). He is married with two teenaged sons.
Fred Siegel
Site Manager for Fred's Place
Prior to joining forces with Military.com, Fred founded Fred's Place (fredsplace.org) -- a large, high volume Web site dedicated to bringing together past and present members of the United States Coast Guard.
Fred has been awarded the Coast Guard's Meritorious Public Service Medal for Fred's Place. Fred's Place can now be found at www.Military.com.
Fred retired from the U. S. Coast Guard as a Chief Warrant Officer (W4) after serving nearly 25 years in military communications. Following his military career, Fred founded Siegel Consulting; a Washington DC based consulting firm specializing in training and software development.
Contact Fred at fred.siegel@military-inc.com
