Join Zack A Knight for a social and mixer at the Buckhead Club as we discuss integrating the business community with the veteran community.
Here’s a bit about our speakers:
Nkosi Leary is an accomplished United States Marine Corps leader. Beginning his career as a flight engineer, he flew over 2500 flight hours and earned 7 Air Medals in 4 deployments. Nkosi added to the Marine Corps’ dynamic capabilities by managing activities that positively affected technological innovation and Marines’ and Sailors’ capabilities. Additionally, he exercised process management techniques that rationalized and stabilized organizational routines across Naval amphibious warships, bringing efficiency to the launch and recovery of aircraft, personnel, and supplies.
Dually licensed in Hawaii and Georgia, Nkosi launched into real estate sales with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia – Midtown. In addition to his notable career as a specialized residential Realtor and “Top Ten” agent in the Midtown office, he is a dedicated Big Brother and Chair of the Veteran Entrepreneurs Group within the Atlanta Black Chambers.
Nkosi Leary is a Doctor of Business Administration student at Georgia State University, J Mack Robinson School of Business. His interests are in U.S. military veteran entrepreneurship and the African American experience. He holds an Executive MBA from Georgia State University, J Mack Robinson School of Business, and a BA in Business Administration from Morehouse College.
JD Fassett serves as Interim Director of GTRI’s Applied Systems Laboratory (ASL) and Executive Director of the Huntsville Research Center where he has been tasked to lead a substantial reorganization to ensure expanded support to ASL’s sponsors as well as creating new opportunities to collaborate across GTRI. In 2020, he established and currently serves as Executive Sponsor for GTRI’s Veteran Employee Resource Group and, in 2022, was elected to serve as Post Commander for the Atlanta VFW Post.
JD has over 27 years of experience in both military and civilian business and has been with GTRI since opening and managing their Patuxent (Pax) River, MD Field Office supporting GTRI’s Naval Aviation sponsors in 2013. In 2017 he was promoted to Associate Director at GTRI’s Electronic Systems Laboratory and from 2018 to 2019, he temporarily served as Interim GTRI Deputy Director and Director of the Electronics, Optics, and Systems Directorate while a permanent candidate was sought. Prior to GTRI, JD supported the PMA275 V-22 Joint Program Office as “Future Capabilities” lead, PMA272 Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protections Systems as “Flight Plan” lead, and the PMA265 EA-18G program where he developed the first EA-18G Roadmap and “Flight Plan”. As a NAVAIR Reservist, JD has deployed to Afghanistan supporting Air 4.5X as a UAS detachment Officer in Charge conducting counter-IED operations, was recalled to active duty for a 15-month tour supporting PMA265 as the Royal Australian Air Force Foreign Military Sales Military Lead, and more recently was mobilized to Japan to support classified testing as the Special Programs Director with an EA-18G squadron.