David Gillespie
Executive Vice President,
Program Development
Ret. U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel David L. Gillespie, PMP, serves as Executive Vice President of Program Development, for The Integrity Group. In this role, David provides portfolio/programmatic & executive grant management oversight, and relationship management activities for The Integrity Group’s deep, and growing client base.
David brings a combined 35+ years of professional leadership, strategy formulation & execution, policy, and program/grant management experience via executive leadership roles with the Florida Chamber Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) apparatus, and U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal justice community of interest.
Immediately prior to joining The Integrity Group, David served as the Executive Vice President of the Florida Chamber Foundation. In this role, David led the foundation in building momentum to secure Florida’s future through the management, execution, and advocacy of the Six Pillars Framework and 39 goals outlined in the Florida 2030 Blueprint – the emphatic strategic roadmap on what Florida needs to do to continue its climb towards becoming a top 10 global economy by the year 2030 while preserving Florida’s quality of life, brand, and reputation for the betterment of Florida’s 22+ million residents, and ~ 130 million annual visitors to Florida and its 67 counties.
His professional career began upon earning his commission in the U.S. Air Force through the Florida State University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). David then proceeded to serve in a variety of executive and operational ISR leadership capacities across the globe from 1987 to 2007. During his career, highlights include David deploying and serving in six major operational conflicts and/or campaigns including: Operation DESERT STORM, the NATO-led STABILIZATION FORCE (SFOR) peacekeeping mission in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Operation NORTHERN WATCH (Turkey), Republic of Korea campaign, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, and as a senior intelligence advisor deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, as a member of the Joint Intelligence Operations Center – Afghanistan where he was charged in part to advise the Commanding General of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the ISAF Director of Intelligence, and international staff on threats to nation building and coalition forces.
After retiring from the U.S. Air Force, David was selected to design the concept and serve as the senior project leader for a transformational intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance event designed to better optimize collaborative information-sharing practices among globally distributed DoD intelligence fusion centers. This effort resulted in the event, and by extension, the project team being honored with the 2009 General George C. Kenney Award—an award presented each year to the team that is deemed to have made the most significant contribution in the field of lessons learned for the entire U.S. Air Force.
Shortly thereafter, David and his family returned to his native city of Tallahassee, FL where he joined a company with a proven history of promoting greater efficiency and effectiveness among local, state, tribal, and federal criminal justice agencies on behalf of U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. David’s specific contributions to the company included serving as a senior manager for a team that developed and promoted law enforcement officer safety and wellness initiatives nationwide. David followed this experience by joining a team of dedicated professionals within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that was responsible for rolling out key criminal justice information-sharing initiatives for the State of Florida.
David holds Master of Science degrees in criminal justice studies from Florida State University and business administration from Boston University, a Master of Military operational art and science degree from The Air University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Florida State University. He is also a graduate of The Air University’s Air War College (correspondence) and holds a variety of professional certifications including the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
