>> i met professor and political scientist. fascinating to listen to the i study women in politics. nondefense aspect of government, so seeing these insights. i have a question, and you just mentioned in your advice, don't shy away from the hard security issues. makes totally good sense, but i was curious with the best and the question about should it be an mos or a career path. this is a question to both of you. we find with women in legislatures com, videos and otr countries and oftentimes if they pursue women's issues that's not good for the grid because they seem to be -- though special topics. i'm curious if you think, clearly fet has been useful. takes training to make it work. do you think this might be a dangerous career path for a woman seeking a career in the

military? >> so my worry about institutionalizing the fet is that at this stage in the develop of this issue, my worry is that that is a fet issue pixel becomes like i am a male infantry officer, i don't have to worry about this because that's a fet issue. or i'm the senior general, i don't have to really think about this because, i worry about it being used as a way to sort of we have these special women who do with these women's issues, as opposed to really mainstreaming and integrating this into how we think about approaching these operations writ large. again, i think that part of this will depend on how a broader integration of women into a range of career fields. but in my perfect world you would have women what they can pass the standards, you would have women in a broad range of ground units who essentially can

also be trained, you know, as a special part of the training to have that as sort of a part of their additional duties, if you will, that it would just be totally integrated. you wouldn't have to we created or is a special thing that others may therefore kind of marginalized the issue. >> wonderful. let's go to this site. >> good morning. i'm a first year student. my question is -- my question is what about racecourse what conversations are happening was looking around the room, very few people of color here. very few people of color in the military. so what conversations are happening about race in the military, in defense, and

security that you've had experience with? >> when you look at national security with large, actually the statistics from the military has been a better job of integrating people of color than the rest of the national security apparatus. this is a real, it's much easier to find qualified women in the pipeline that it is to find people of color. you look at the ph.d programs. they don't look like america, that pipeline is not there. one of the things we are doing as a demonstration project at my think tank and we're partnering with thurgood marshall college fund, to create a pipeline for interns to be trained and then be able to launch into public service and the federal government. and we are kind of our tiny little think tank but our point is we're going to prove the concept, if this works, you can find qualified talent, trained

them, make them successful and immigrant to go to every other think tank in washington and shame our brother in into doing the same thing so we create more of a pipeline. because when i was undersecretary and trying to hire the pipeline was appalling with regard to people of color. >> that's great. thank you very much. i think we have time for one more question before i break. >> i am a retiree in the department of political science at texas a&m university. i read with great interest about the two women and the two women and the special units or special forces or whatever it was in the army, it was breathtaking what they accomplished and went through, for men and for women. and i couldn't help but think in reading about this. is this really necessary? and i know you mentioned a little bit that maybe some

analysis was being done on exactly what is necessary to do these jobs. we've done it in police departments. we've done it in fire departments. and we found that the was a lot of stuff that was a really necessary. is there any work being done, is their analysis being done, is that even touchable? >> i think that work will be done, to the extent that a large number of waivers are ultimately requested. that will drive a much more rigorous approach to sing okay, do we really have the standards right? because the truth is, the standards for marine corps platoon are going to be different than a standard for joining the ranger battalion. the rangers art elite. they are among the most, most men washed out of ranger training. most men washed out so that the

cream of the crop that they're doing extraordinary things that we don't ask other people in the military to do. so you're going to have to go specialty by specialty and really defined, no kidding, what are the standards to do the job well. and that's going to take some time. i think the scope of the effort will depend on how many waivers are requested. but where waivers are requested i'm quite confident that kind of work will be demanded. >> automatic. >> is being done in a haphazard way that is not necessarily rigorous and objective pics i mean, i think some of this has been done internally. i don't think i will be found to be acceptable. i think you'll be a much more impartial and objective approach that sort of says, you know, that's looking at this issue. if again, if the waivers are pursued on a large-scale. >> thank you very much. we about to take a 10 minute

break, but before we do join me in thanking michele flournoy for her remarks upon tha. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> today republican presidential candidate ben carson speaks at liberty university in lynchburg, virginia. senators ted cruz and bernie sanders have also spoken to students at liberty. live coverage starts at 10:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span2. ..

and all i saw where the parties and the meeting people and i never worked harder in my life. >> nancy reagan served as long time political partner, for russia's protector and ultimately caretaker for president ronald reagan, and involved first lady, she was active with key staff decisions, policy-making and campaigning, made drug use her signature initiative with her just say no campaign. nancy reagan is sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's original series' first ladies, influence and image, examining the public and private lives of

women who fill the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency from martha washington to michelle obama sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> c-span has the best access to congress, watch live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate on c-spanand 2, watch on line or on your phone on c-span.org, listen live any time on c-span radio apps, the best access from behind the scenes by following c-span and capitol hill reporter craig kaplan on twitter. stay with c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org for complete access to congress. >> the u.s. chamber of commerce held all day long summit entitled transition looking annexes to create jobs upper 20s that elvis translation to civilian life.

this includes david head, storer -- former senior advisor to president obama. it is an hour and 40 minutes. >> my name is suzanne clark, executive vice president of the u.s. chamber of commerce. let me be officially the twelfth person to welcome you all here to this rebuilding today. one of the great privileges i have at this chamber is leading the foundation where we spend a lot of time thinking about america, its competitiveness, our future. we all know that america is a special place. i came across the quote recently that some up perfectly. america is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. it is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and -- help me -- barbarism. education at your corn. this country, once an experiment

unique in the world is now the last best hope for the world. we know our military men and win in know this. you served for it, sacrificed for it, we all know america is the special place and for that to continue, a strong country needs a strong economy. it needs a strong business community, a strong, skills, able work force. my message to the military community is this the your opportunity to serve your nation doesn't end when you hang up your uniform. doesn't have to stop when you retire or transition into civilian life. you can continue to serve your country, in new, vital and valuable ways. america needs to. our economy needs you. our businesses need you. to talk about hiring our hero's, programs to help best friends and military spouses to

participate in the work force. i say that as a start. is really about and how bring them to lead in the workforce, to propel innovation, to drive our economy and create opportunities for so many other people. many of the industries we saw highlighted in this video represent the future. this is where we are headed. we believe and hope and pray our military men and women will help lead the way. let's match up this great generation of talent with the next great generation of american business. if we do, if we harness our industrial might and unleash our human talent there is no question america will remain the greatest country on the earth. the nation with the most resilient economy, the most innovative business and the greatest opportunities for individual advancement and reward. this is a new opportunity for service for america's he rose and there is no one better

suited for the job. thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome general peter, erik ebersol, ross brown and sandy. [applause] >> good afternoon. is my privilege to be part of this today and should use these three gentlemen, and individuals doing so much from our veteran community. sandy is from the blackstone group. ross brown from jpmorgan chase, and erica seems to be everywhere doing everything. we have 20 minutes, we won't spend a lot of time on

introductions, we ask each of these gentlemen to tell us about their organization, what they accomplished and the lessons they have learned. >> first of all, i consider it a privilege and honor to be here. >> for us to continue -- from a business point of view. for -- to 50,000 veterans relative to some of the numbers people have been accomplishing. we still have a lot of work to

do. we have been at it for two years now, we hired 28,000 veterans so far and we think the 0 regional commitment we sat we can meet and exceed. for us it is a very practical matter of getting it done, as we went to our ceos and 80 different companies that are led by excellent management team this and is there something we can do and they came back to us and said we think so and relative to that, first thing was to ensure we had leadership from the top. that sounds almost like a cliche but when that has done is given permission for every one of these organizations to run hard at it. it creates that sense of

permission and alignment to go. once we secure leadership at the top, the second thing we asked of those leaders is we need a number and a champion and the number was not something we forced, but asked them and needed to come from the man represented ambition, this requires ambition in order for it to happen and that number was representative of that and with that number we needed a champion and we have a couple champions in the room here today, one person who without his leadership and guidance as our champion at blackstone, michael mcdermott, derek blake is here, robert moses and melissa hear

from hilton. these are the people who are making this happen day in and day out. [applause] >> a number and the champion. once we had a number and a champion we knew we needed to mobilize and our theme of mobilizing something like this is to think big. we wanted to have a big bowl number but to start small and not try to overwhelm, to build momentum. with that mantra we have been able to get this initiative mobilized. i would say the second thing beside leadership and ambition that has been extremely important for us is the partnership that has developed

with the government. people told us in the beginning of if you'd try to part with government people they will try to slow you down. that has been exactly the opposite of our experience. from veterans affairs, the people who helped from labor that helped us from dod, helped us from veterans affairs, we got together the first time we run the summit once a year, we got together and we said there was all this talk about having a warm handoff. our service members need a warm handoff and bull. what we need is to build a bridge and the people that were in that room have done is to build a bridge and there have been very practical things that have been delivered by the team

at the va and the team at the department of labor and the team at geo they to help us to build this bridge and essentials the, i thought public-private partnership was a machete or that it is real and it is working and is helping to accelerate the way so we are getting this done. a big thank-you to all those people and even bigger thank you to the champions that i hear, representative of the group that is making this happen so thank you all. >> thank you very much to you and blacks and and your portfolio companies, jpmorgan chase. >> it is a privilege to be here today to represent jamie dimon and the rest of the leaders of jpmorgan chase and the commitment the firm has for veterans. there are three pillars that comprise veterans efforts at jpmorgan, employment, education and training and housing.

employment alone this year we hired over 900 veterans at jpmorgan chase alone and avert the past four years over 9,000, probably what we are most proud of is being a leader of the 100,000 child initiative and over 200 fortune 500 companies has hired 242,000 veterans since 2011. we are extremely proud. [applause] >> the second pillar for our firm is education and training. under this to the we partner with syracuse university and we focus on two things, we committed $1 million recently for study at seven university's and colleges to see what could

be done to facilitate the success of veterans as they pursue their education and there will be great lessons learned from this and we can provide to the va and other organizations. the other programs eluded to initially and i will follow-up, veterans transition program that we helped sponsor that allows service members and their spouses to be certified under different certifications that will afford them opportunities to be employed, i t is one of them, another's program management. we continue and look forward to continuing to work on education training. finally housing. jpmorgan chase alone provides 900 homes to deserving service members throughout the country. we provide these homes as they are available. we look at partnerships with private partners to help the va

and others fight veteran homelessness as well as continuing to look for opportunities to provide veterans the opportunities to own homes. i would like to thank our partners and the support we are receiving and look forward to working with him as we move forward. thank you very much. >> eric? >> thank you. >> we started our program over three years ago with a pretty simple mission. we wanted to utilize the vast network of state and local chambers to connect with businesses on all parts of the country. we were going to do that through hiring events and most people thought we would do a couple hundred. we have done over 900 in the last four years, but icing that is one aspect, hiring events the

we do. a lot of what we have done, what we have been guided by is the thousand euros campaign, partnered with capital one on that, that is about going out in local communities and getting businesses of all sizes, first and foremost make the commitment to hire veterans, starts from the top down but more importantly the tools and resources to actually >> reporter: the great talent in the work force. we have a great privilege of working in community, businesses large and small, veterans and families make the transition into the civilian sector and not just finding jobs but find them the right jobs. >> you got what microphone, if you don't mind, the gaps that

remain and what are the next step? >> one of the biggest gaps we heard from the veterans side, how to sell or market their valuable skill sets, no course -- to help service members undersigned the value skill sets, a meaningful and impact tollway, but also i would encourage the industry leaders, business leaders not to sell their industries, these young men and women are tremendously talented but they don't know what they don't know and they are looking at our economic opportunities in this country and businesses responsibility to sell those opportunities to young businesses, let them understand when they come to work for your business they're

continuing their service, slightly different uniform, still serving this great country so those of the gaps i would focus on. >> the one gap by will talk to is data. in the financial services industry numbers mean something as you might imagine, we all know the right thing to do but a beneficial thing to do. we believe there is an opportunity to provide more data in support of this case so we pursue a steady where we will look at the retention and performance of veterans in the coalition and in jpmorgan chase because we think we all know it is absolutely beneficial we want to demonstrate that to the organization which large by providing this data and these

numbers to support that. we need to provide more on the business end for veterans even though those of us who are veterans or served in hire veterans, across the coalition there is an opportunity to do that. >> i see two issues, one is accelerating a firing. with the help of miguel and eric, what are the things that can be done to move faster. accelerating hiring would be number one. we now have 28,000 veterans, what are we going to do to retain them and keep them excited and held them develop a

career? we didn't take this on to hire people because we have a number of businesses where people come and go a lot. people take inventory in the middle of the night at walmart. those people come and go, the veterans stick around and they stick around at a higher rate than others but you have to capture them in the right way. with our summit, we balance efforts, we said we would do thing, we got busy doing that. we need to accelerate that but with the population we have we got to dig in on this second issue which is how are we going to transition from a job in to something that is a meaningful career if raja and the team if

they bring someone and get him trained up, running the front desk or the hilton hotel, we want them to stick around and find ways to continue to leverage off of the investments in these people, we have interesting data we could potentially, we will share in terms of the business case because we see each of these veterans, not only the skills, a lot of other benefits that bring tangible things with them. we think we have the evidence to say not only is it the right thing to do but it is smart.

>> you mentioned and it is absolutely true there's huge difference between providing jobs and careers. to the extent we held folks in the koran 1/2 that is an accelerator. we have enough time left for one more question. i ask each of you to go down the line. a service members sitting in front of you right now, 60 seconds to give the man elevator speech about what they should be doing, what would you tell him or her to benefit the transition? >> the thing we did at the summit this past fall which blew everybody away, sitting in the room, is not literally this way, you have a bunch of people representing various aspects, various aspects of the government that have done great work, on the other side of bunch

of people representing these businesses putting people to work. in front of the room five veterans we have hired collectively that we had hired and went down a row of the five veterans and it practically made people jump out of their shares a i got to get me some of that. these people were amazing to a person. one person was driving a humvee in iraq and another person was a fighter pilot from the navy who is now an assistant general manager in one of the hotels. the thing that i would say if i were sitting in front of a veteran would be this notion of translation, what it is you bring to the party, sometimes there is a little bit of shyness

about what it is i am bringing that could be beneficial to this business. is important to do a little homework to understand a little bit deeper into that enterprise. what is that i bring to the party day is going to help to translate why would you higher at snipers? i thought that was a pretty cool thing, there are lockhart of reasons you would hire the sniper. it is almost like we need to fight each other. the business has the need and the veteran really has the skills and we don't want to see it get lost in translation. >> 30-second elevator. >> i encourage them to harness the energy of their network. you have a network in the military, those that have gone before the have transitioned. i suggest they make contact with those they respected and served with previously and that the lessons learned in the transition whether it is the communication, how to communicate with you have done or equally what you are interested in doing from the

lessons of those who have transitions. >> you got the last word. >> thank you. i will tell service members you have to own your transition like you own your military service, peter like you prepare for any mission and go out and execute it and do it early on because if you don't do those things you will come up short-handed is no different than any day in the military, own it and execute. >> thank you for your -- organizations doing for veterans. thank you all. [applause] >> my husband is a sergeant in the united states army. we have two kids, a 6-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, money was tight and we were not sure

how we were going to have a for christmas. the most heartbreaking feeling for a parent. it is the best thing especially for a military softball kid. i was able to put be enough away to justify what i am doing glee >> my contribution, and i sat at home, mom goes to work every day, if i can go out every weekend and make a couple hundred dollars i can contribute. >> i am able to earn income and provide time with my family that is needed with the military. when i left my job the next week was valentine's day and it was the first time in five years i was able to volunteer myself. i was able to be at home in this

important time. >> the biggest thing is the convenience of my schedule. i turned my phone on and activate it myself when i choose to. >> good morning, everyone. a privileged to be here. the chamber, i will thank them for their tremendous work on hiring our hero's. obviously we are appreciative of the amazing work president bush and first lady laura bush doing on this program, remarkable leaders in the military who are doing what they can, take care of those who take care of us. when i work at the white house one of the things i'd love to do most, particularly family friendly, at night sometimes

very late on the weekends take a run, one of the great running routes in the world partially because gravel on my knees but a great reminder of the people who built the country and i live in san francisco but made sure i did this one. it is what i enjoy doing and it is a reminder of those who built this amazing country we have the privilege to live in. we won the lottery and you see who founded this country. and the korean and vietnam memorial. and continuing tomorrow. the true heroes in america, they never let us down and to all of us have the opportunity to help some when they are done serving, there is no more important job.

we are so excited to do our part, we have a program called uber military, which started with guidance and support of any military leaders including the chairman of uber and secretary gains. our goal was to bring 50,000 veterans on the platform. i am excited we're almost halfway there already in a few short months and we have expanded this to military spouses and military families. what is exciting is the opportunity for that. for those who haven't used timothy foster to "think fast!" is -- uber is a technology platform, an entrepreneur driver, isn't 311 cities, but 50% of the people in the u.s. one of the reason veterans have gravitated so much to it, we are all about serving cities and you

see with veteran driver are is that is what draws them. to deliver somebody home safely after a few drinks at the blog. someone breaks down, taken to college, takes the lead to the chemotherapy treatment. they get a great nourishment out of that. no surprise to highest rate of partners on the platform. a terrific service, they are so focused on serving, when you talk about uber, it is a great way to get reconnected to your community if you are serving overseas, you get veteran people all over the city, senior businesses are propped up, it is a great transition but we are pretty unique in that we are technology company but not just in the clouds but on the ground, veterans enjoy the opportunity to serve but it is the transitional job.

a lot of people come home, they may be searching for what their next career will be, and what we fallout is they can get on the platform. veterans love to drive. most have vehicles already. completely on their own terms. we can drive eight hours, one hour, three hours just doesn't matter. you turn that on and off when you want to. if people are coming home trying to figure out what is next is a terrific opportunity and we are so thrilled to play our part and what is interesting is we hope lot of veterans end of driving with us for a long time full time, but for many will be a part-time and short time endeavor but it is a remarkable bridge that we are excited to be a part of to allow this opportunity and in the d.c. area

we have a thousand veterans, really making a big difference. and helping the local economy. for a lot of people uber isn't the young people use on the weekends but we are a powerful economic engine. we have 20,000 people driving right now. there is no company, that many people in an income producing opportunity. we were 22,000, 24,000 in san francisco, these are huge numbers, veterans are coming in because all these people are going to. that is something we hear from veterans. a great affinity for small-business owners. a third of our trips meal or begin in a small business so people whose veterans are driving a going to local expo, going to local retail establishments, spending money and help with the local economy. some of the story there is

remarkable. served in the u.s. army completed for the middle east and came home and some are very close. he came to uber because he wanted to drive home at night, rather than endanger ring themselves, we are proud of a role, for people under 25 we know this from our research, they don't think about drinking and driving any more. someone is making that happen and increasingly, ec amazing veterans. you heard from teresa was a military spouse in seattle who for the first time ever was a restaurant manager and had in flexible hours, never volunteered, she was able to do that for the first time because of the opportunity platform

provides. bob and shawmut lost both of his legs in vietnam, lives in ohio, telephone operator, had to move to a warmer climate for health reasons, having a hard time finding work. a hand controlled vehicle on a platform and now he drives and what he said his uber is a way for a lot of us to get out, stuck at home trying to find something to do, a way to break down barriers. powerful opportunity. he served in the marine corps, has three daughters, spin disks at night, three girls and wants to see them. you log on for a couple hours, lot of, loved claude back on. is a powerful economic engine that works better than anything for veterans to figure out what to do next. we are going to continue this

commitment, thrilled with the progress we made, we can make a lot more progress. this is an opportunity, something we have a lot entrepreneurs bill nye please, small business is something we want to start partnership with us. a lot of people say i will do this for a few months or however many hours of the day. nothing our employees are more passionate about than uber military, it gets them up in the morning, our brilliant young in juniors and people who've run cities and focus on, how can we build this program for something that becomes a guarantee, veterans who served so ably come home. there is a guarantee as they are trying to figure out what is next to them they have this opportunity. in the bargain doing a great

thing because they are making sure people -- less people died after drinking, cut down on distracted driving deaths, held the local economy and help small business, held bring less cars on the road to the cities that are congested and we are eager for your advice. if you have ideas about how to run the program better, spread the word we are all years, if you have ideas in that regard we love to talk about them and if you see anything we can improve on please don't be shy to let us know. we are trying to build a business and our focus on that but in terms of uber military nothing is more important to us and making sure we get by these measures providing an opportunity, service and their families need. appreciate your time and look forward to the road ahead. thank you. [applause]

♪ >> good morning, thanks for being here. don't -- we are following a bunch of paparrazzis this morning. an organization to be part of the effort. really commendable and timely. i am retired u.s. army general, spent my life as a kid in the military and 30 years, i have been in business the last ten years, had a great honor serving with veterans, military folks in uniform and in my civilian

capacity and an opportunity to hire veterans, is a wonderful wonderful addition to any team. i am with a great team here, and pete carley. if you will please take a few minutes to introduce yourselves. >> eric in the chamber, hiring our heroes and a veteran caregivers program, obviously focus on employment opportunities for wounded veterans and care givers who have events around the country, very successful, fort carson, i also have my own business as an inspirational speaker and leadership consultant. >> karen hymen, lieutenant commander in the united states naval reserve acting as public affairs officer and in my civilian role i work for bp america helping grassroots efforts and political action

efforts, i am an iraq war veteran and delighted to be here. >> i am pete corelli and i did not run the army. i want to make that clear. it has happened twice. you don't like to correct the president of the united states. i just want to make that clear. i was for a place she staff of the army and i currently run a not-for-profit that is trying to to get the biological cause of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress to find iron masks and treatments. >> the objective is to find talent and retain talent for business and i want to start with you, in your research tangor efforts can you dispel some of the myths and stereotypes to set the record straight in terms of ets and

what that means? >> i am proud of this generation of warriors about posttraumatic stress, an injury of this generation of warriors are absolutely wrong, nothing could be further from the truth which has been with us since war was fought and that is a good thing but at the same time is a double-edged sword. there is the belief that anyone who was ever deployed has post-traumatic stress, couldn't be further from the truth, there is believed there are no treatments, nothing could be further from the truth. jpmorgan chase, to speak to a group of mid-level age our people and when you ask the question or pose a question to you believe anyone is deployed as post-traumatic stress you start to see bonking heads, yes yes yes. i look at them and i say 8% of the population have

post-traumatic stress at some point in their life, 8%. the numbers are not much greater in the armed forces. if you think by not hiring that see you can escape having anybody work for you that has post-traumatic stress you are absolutely wrong. i promise you you have got at least eight -- 8% or more of your population as today and you are probably not giving them the treatment because your insurance company probably doesn't cover post-traumatic stress in the same way the military is insuring these people that are willing to come forward, get the treatment they need. it is the real myth that you can avoid this. it is everywhere and what we really need to do with understand it, get better diagnostics to separate it from

the other depressions and types of invisible wounds we have out there and get to the roots. people need to understand we are so far behind in understanding it, we are not as far along as you are with the disease's. >> reporter: is important as someone with timothy foster --

pts to speak openly about it. at our events i'm mentioned for the wounded veteran caregiver programs. 01 day event where we have a workshop with caregivers in the morning and informal networking, you have one hour workshop for the employers, we are lucky we had marjorie morrison on our team, clinical psychologist, about dispelling myths about the wounds of war. we received great feedback because a lot of time folks in the audience are veterans themselves and have been doing this long time. this is at the first time heard from a veteran or a wounded warrior or a psychologist or both at the same time talking frankly and openly about pts and

traumatic brain injury, a quick forum with statistics, 8% in america have pts, that is 24 million people, the national institute of mental health says every year 3.5% of folks have pts, that is a million people in one year compared to and who knows what the exact stats are, 5 and did thousand of us -- over 12 years compared to 1,248 million in one year. what i do see, they love the opportunity, we are treated very differently and shouldn't be doing that. >> what are you guys doing to bridge the divide that has been described in terms of

understanding or even the understanding more importantly? >> i can tell you when i realized i was deeply in i had to tell my family, and by dumb luck he was a retired navy captain in the reserves. he understood the language and what needs to happen. i was able to tap into our h.r. system very quickly who understood the law and more importantly understood the spirit of the law and did everything to help me and my family transition to the active duty life and transition to iraq. when i came back they went by the letter of the law and spirit of the lot more so, take as much time as i needed or as i could. i chose for lee and opted to come back to work timothy foster four days of active-duty orders

and i knew at every turn that i could catch into our resources, the formal and informal ones and the informal ones were far more beneficial to me than calling in to our hot line or going from the official age our channels and i think that is because the culture of the network was one team. everybody is in it together a you can turn to everybody for help or turn to anybody to offer help, it was very beneficial for me to know i could do that if i wanted to, i just got to for quite sometime and it took awhile to come to terms with my experience in the deployment, but i doubt with the family first but took the opportunity to present itself to inform my boss, and my colleagues i was struggling and suffering heat the -- pts.

like most veteran there's the fear factor, and the support was astonishing. i am fortunate in that regard and my great wish is every veteran has the same experience i had because i do realize it is unusual but it goes back to the culture and the company where every employee matters, everyone is part of one team and it is similar in the military. i recognize that and reach out to the right people. >> a good organization. general dempsey published the piece last fall talking about stereotypes the civilian work force might hold for military, departing military members. if you could share with us your own personal perspective that some of those stereotypes you have experienced as service

members transition. >> one of the stereotypes was corporate employers out there feel those of us coming out of the military, we like the good work but good at following orders and doing what we are told and that couldn't be further from full truth. we are fortunate and our military in particular, that we train our troops to make it happen. leaving marines there, whether it was another officer or a noncommissioned officer, we could be on a mission talking on principle because we couldn't see the attorney general targeting him and we start receiving charges and what do you think we should do? it is also important, quickly come up with an exit strategy or find the one we already had.

it is invaluable, and whether it is a supervisor making it happen. and taking orders or initiatives. >> one of the great stereotypes, out in the general world, veterans or members in the military are robotic and we just follow orders. that could be further from the truth. we choose to do this because we have a passion for service and getting things done in the right way and we do that remarkable team work and ingenuity. we are not robotic.

we are able to think on our feet. general eisenhower said plans are uses but planning is essential and that is absolutely true. we are flexible. and click to different situations. and everything is broke and robotic, we all think the same way, feel the same way, i would offer even when i have my uniform on, differences are celebrated with rings up and down and sideways, when companies embrace that we will see people flourish and succeed. >> karen stole my stereo tight.

going into the civil sector one of the things that makes people think we are robotic is the fact the we dwell on trying to to improve in everything we do. i really like going to the national training center and having a good day against the operational force and winning a battle. we would sit down after words and take five minutes talking about the good things we did and another hour and 55 minutes criticizing and looking at how we could have done better, and it went quicker and faster. that is what i see as part of the robotic system that we ought to imports into civilian business. morning often than not i see a tendency there to spend all the time talking about the great success you had very little time taking the opportunity to sit back and say how could we do this better? what are the things we could do

the changes we could make that make us even better than we are today. >> in my experience this lovehate relationship we have with our h.r. professionals and general counsel, a matter of routine when you are looking at firing, you look at a position description, paragraph and line numbers and specific skill sets. we want veterans to the job ready. they may be job ready but they are 65% to 75% of later because of the foundation of the character. let's hire someone who has magnificent talents. we can get job ready, we can get job ready. >> in conclusion what would you fix moving forward if you working or queen for a day, ceo, president of the organization in

trying to dispel stereotypes there's an element of time but what would you institute to try to fix this? any thoughts? >> for all corporate america to understand, because there is a stereotyped out there, what people do in the military is not in the private sector. someone getting a job -- what good is going to hotel, you have responsibilities, managing budget, all these are in tangibles which is impossible to occur everywhere else as robustly, and also a lot of education courses going on in the military. a lot of folks have more from the military, i started

secondary education in the private sector or the civilian sector. people have to understand how robust we are. >> i would ask that people not label all veterans as people looking for a handout. people who expect something in return for something we all did voluntarily and i think there is -- i would implore people to remember that every veteran is unique. we all had unique experiences, we have been part of something that is part of the greater good and we have done something in the team atmosphere, we all have unique skill sets, unique personalities and character traits and to embrace that and run with it if you will, don't see a veteran group as a large block, see it as individual people and what we can do for you. >> i would love to dispel the myths of everyone who comes out

of the military has post-traumatic stress or brain injuries, nothing could be further from the truth. the large majority of people get stronger by the experience of iraq and afghanistan, that doesn't mean we can't take the focus off of helping those who need our help, if everybody in here would go back and ask their h.r. person or whoever and put together a point paper or briefing, and lay out whether or not anyone in the company with any kind of problems with any of the depression, posttraumatic stress, whether or not there insurance covers the treatment for that in the same way the military takes care the marines and coast guard when they need that help. you find some surprising

surprising facts, that is really not the case. that is and really important thing, that we make sure not just in the military but civilian society as a whole, these invisible wounds to help the treatment they need. >> it is good for the bottom line. the narcissistic about your decision and at it from your discussion with your board of directors and say this makes a lot of sense for us. any final thoughts before we depart? any comments? wonderful, see you, thanks. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome sean monasco. [applause] >> everyone is getting up and

clearing the room. that is not a good sign. i don't know about you but this conference for me has not only been inspiring but also encouraging. for some of us who have been part of this activity last four five years it started very fragmented. to see the chamber bringing companies together, the coalitions that are forming, i am really encouraged about the future. my name is sean monasco, proud army veteran. last time the army won against navy i have a lot more hair but today i have the privilege of being part of a great company and being part of the executive team said any u.s. aa member is out there? as you know, it was formed by the military for the military so hiring veterans was a practice

long standing, you have all seen the commercials, at least i hope you have, we know what it means to serve. when you make bold statements like that you have to walk the walk. if you were to take a stroll with me or one of my teammates down the hallway at any of our locations and talked to our employees this is what you would learn about their lives. one in four have either worn a uniform or the spouse of someone who has. one in four. as someone who has worn the uniform myself i can tell you this subject matter we are talking about his personal to me. given our commitment to veterans i will tell you at@ making the

decisions hopefully we have more than up here. the great picture of morgan. maybe we will find it. let me tell you a little about morgan. before joining usaa morgan was a standout in the u.s. air force. absolute stand out. in 2005 morgan was a young enlisted air men with a bright future. she excelled and took on apposition at the national

security agency and over the next few years she did exceedingly well and rose through the ranks. 2010 came around, her turn to deploy and the destination was baghdad, iraq. if you remember at the headlines in 2010 it went something like this, baghdad bombings, american killed in the green zone. car bomb kills 100. a tough time to be in iraq, not exactly d.c. in the summer time. morgan was fair through it all, gunfire, rocket fire, explosions, during her seven months, morgan witnessed it firsthand. she finished her deployment, came back and i year later got out of the air force and it left an indelible mark on her. if you talk to morgan, she would

tell you she had a difficult time reintegrating back into the normal world, she moved from job to job and never had a place she could call home. if you think about it, one minute you are deployed forward, your purpose is noble, your mission is clear and the work you do is important. you are proud to serve. the next minute you're and listen ends, you take off the uniform and all those famous are somewhat lost. morgan will tell you when she left the air force she lost a lot of confidence caught a lot of confidence. she didn't feel she was important anymore. there are tens of thousands of veterans that feel the same way morgan did. the good news here, we got morgan's picture up here, in

2013 while at a job fair morgan's trajectory took a turn. she matt a usaa i t recruiter at the time usaa was looking for a few good to plant women to join this new program that had been developed in concert with local colleges and texas workforce commission. the program was called veterans for i t or that's --vesit for short. the course was designed especially for warriors in transition to develop skills needed for them to be a java software developer. 22 people were selected. they joined usaa as full time employees and each week during

their training was the equivalent of one semester in college. one semester focused on being a job developer. all 22 people graduated and still employed with usaa today and i'm excited to tell you we have a class that is currently form, 28 in that class all doing quite well and i fully anticipate that they are going to be graduates of that program and will elaine fellow developers in our icy shop. at the end of the day when morgan was selected she was surrounded by people with similar experiences that she had. she was also working for a company with a true mission she could connect personally with.

and a company she was proud to work for that was caring when she thinks about it she gets the emotional. the sense of confidence she lost had come back. this is a picture of the first graduating class, there is the class leader, morgan, i love this dog, front and center. she has done exceedingly well and she is not alone because others are doing exceedingly well in this program. what worked for morgan is the fact she was doing something meaningful. was again surrounded by people that had the same kind of

experiences that she did and it was just the lift that she needed to get back on track. at this point morgan is employed, our work here is done, right? it is really not. we are talking about retention here. even act usaa when i sit back and look at the numbers, veterans still turn over more than any other population and here is what we learned. we learned again not only do you have to make the right kind of decisions that connect them to each other. this is one of the ways in which employees at usaa and veterans in particular can connect with one another. our most popular is a network called vet net which is designed specifically to connect veterans and spouses. if you are part of the network

you get access to career and inventorying, access to team building activities and learning events and it is really impact full. in a recent conversation i had with morgan, i met her the first day, she is a very different women right now. ..

not all companies today are equipped to be up for it but what i would argue companies that are successful can team together and can help others and that is what i think this conference is really all about. now, we believe that successful transition, again, is about retention because the more people are retained the less candidly we have to hire and we've proven we can hire them. let's focus on retaining them. i would argue it is not just about the job, it is about veterans finding the right place for them. so not just about the job, but it is finding the right fit. so i always ask myself the question, could we do more? and the answer is yes. and the question is, can you all do more? and i dare say same answer is true. you know general mcarthur said no good plans ever survives,

anyone know, first contact with the enemy. there is a lot of great planning going on. there is a lot of data we can analyze and that is important work that should continue, make no mistake. we believe that companies that allow their employees and their veterans in particular to learn about their organizations and follow their own interests in aptitudes and give them the flexibility to go and explore new things. that is going to be the key for success. at least what i would tell you it is one of the keys for success at usaa. so here's what i challenge you to do. motivate your recruiters to go find the morgans out there who are seeking their place in the quote, unquote, normal world. hire them. connect them, connect them not only to each other but connect them to the organization.

develop them and then watch them flourish. make it personal for you and for your organization. that is what we try to do. when that happens they, like morgan, can declare mission transition accomplished. thank you. [applause] ♪ >> i hope that is not me. welcome back, everybody.

we're talking mission transition, hiring our heros and magnifying your impact. i want to introduce you to our panelist. we'll jump right into our interview. far on the other side is barbara carson. she is acting associate administrator for the office of veterans business development at the u.s. small business administration. nice to have you. she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the united states air force on her graduation day and she served as intercontinental ballistic missile crew member and achieved senior combat crew evaluator for the peace keeper icbm force while she served on active duty. she earned her master's degree in management from leslie university in cambridge, massachusetts. in 1998 she left active duty. joined the u.s. air force reserve and earned a second specialty code, public affairs officer and is currently a colonel. she is at the u.s. sba where she

pursues the office of veterans mission development. to promote policies and programs to support veterans small businesses. nice to have you with us. thank you very much, we appreciate it. vivian greentree, dr. greentree i should say. she joined first data as senior vice president and head of military and vet an affairs in february of 2014. in this role she created first data salutes, with which is a companywide military engagement strategy to provide the military community with access to career opportunities and best in class education resources while offering premier business solutions to veteran-owned businesses. before she joined first data she helped found blue star families, largest chapter based military support organization in the country. nice to have you with us as well. a lot of paperwork here. >> you can just say my name. after that it is not going to matter. >> i want to give everybody a

good sense of context who is on our panel before we start our conversation. craig is vp of global service delivery and chief procurement officer at usaa where he and his team are responsible for enterprise sourcing strat, governance, procurement, global delivery enabling all internal business customers to better, develop, and simply and holistically manage their third party relationships. enlisted in the coast guard in 1984 was able to have a wide variety of roles and experiences in his four-year career there. joined usaa in august of 1997 bringing with 10 years of services information and business experience. you know who is on our panel. barbara i will start with you. walk us through specifics what the sba is doing to help veterans who are fred in small businesses. >> i would love to hear that you heard multiple speakers say entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, i'm listening for it. i know i heard it.

i'm very grateful that the small business administration has partnered with the defense of defense, labor, and va and education in transition assistance program because there are options as you leave the service both for military members and therapy spouses. you can get a job, you can go to school or make your own job. that has been the choice for 2thousand people who have gone through what we offer -- 27,000. with we offer boots to transition. there is something i want to amplify. transition assistance. we use that in military life, what disit mean? the minute they walk through the door in active duty, they and their spouse is able at that moment to learn what it means. when you're just at beginning of a military career. entrepreneurship takes a long time to plan to do well. so, quickly, tell you what sba does, capacity building, teaching a spouse and military member, training them on what it takes to a be business owner and helping them make the choice to do that and learning what they

must have in place before they do that. second, is access to capital. getting money. i have partners had this room, in the financial associations, sba also guaranties loans so the bank will take bigger rick on veterans and military spouses. i have deals for you i can tell you about later. finally we find opportunity for you. whether that is federal procurement or supply chainses from corporate partners we have here or going back to main street and rejoining your community in a farm, family-owned business a franchise. this is the things that sba is engaged in right now. >> what is usaa doing and what have been some challenges, some of those things thaw listed, that transition. we spoke very briefly is hard. it is completely different mind set to be an entrepreneur. what is usaa do for those who are interested in making that shift? >> well, we clearly want to do more. shon gave awe great example what we do from the hiring side. from the procurement side i'm constantly looking for small

businesses that have services that align with usaa and, a lot of what we talked about here today, small business owners that have the same character and willingness to serve, continue to serve through usaa because of our membership as well. finding the right people to connect my procurement organization to like the small business administration and that finds us those sources is very hard to do but that's where we're actively working with the rosy network. i know some of that work going on and coalition for vet an owned businesses is trying to get into the networks where these small businesses and entrepreneurs live. another thing we want to do is help build entrepreneurs as well. so i'm actually, somebody mentioned the american corporate partners earlier. i'm on my third mentorship right now. the gentleman i'm working with is a young enlisted guy who is 18 months out. so for the employment road map he is thinking ahead. this is awesome but everything we're talking about in the

mentorship is not about going to find a job. it is about starting his own business. and i'm at a loss almost to do that. so i need to connect him to the right places where he can take his passion and skill and go develop it. whether that is concept like the bunker, we've been talking to the bunker, other acceleratetors out there and help them thrive and as private organization i can come back and procure in source with them. >> what is recida doing? >> i have resources greg. i won't take too long, i promise. every community sba is there with free mentoring to counseling and legal advice and taxes. that is where you send them. >> what is first data doing? >> first data has been leading the charge with coalition of veteran-owned business which is first of kind platform to support veteran, service member, military spouse, small businesses by connecting them to

entrepreneurial education and training. small business resources and products and opportunities for commerce and supply chain. and it was built ponch like the 100,000 jobs mission was bringing companies together to wanted to hire veterans and military spouses, bringing companies together to want to support veteran entrepreneurship. many of whom are represented in this room. we would like many more represented. we're certainly represented very well, hiring our heroes, usaa and sba are founding members. which allow us to say we will provide unparalleled and access to education, resources and training to veterans and military spouse-owned business. >> what is the challenge has been? clearly a lot of ways and interest in providing education and training. where have you seen sort of the hurdles and what are you doing to get over those hurdles? >> well, i'll, way out of my league on this comment but the

whole transition process which i think, somebody mentioned earlier today as well being revamped but when someone self-declares they want to be a small business owner or an entrepreneur even, don't even know they want to be a small business owner yet, they have an idea. so where can i start to think about how do i do that, access to capital. access to an accelerator. access to those things. or am i willing to sell my idea to a private company, look i'm not just coming from a job but coming with an idea. this is how you can use it for your customers. what we do at usa a is create opportunities. it is past career and innovation and how we leverage those. if we can't use them at ourself at usaa we have supplier network that is rather large and how we offer them up to our suppliers as well. >> what kind of pressure can you put on suppliers? is it a challenging conversation? is it a easy conversation. >> i had a great conversation just today.

we what we've seen, medal of grs want to bring into their supply chain to do business with. we're asking corporate america to be a good citizen like those you're about to hire and make a commitment to them. they're looking, when i had a call to action, i said what can you do? i tell you what you can do. you can pay your vendors within 15 days within getting valid invoice for them. that would show your commitment back. he accepted that challenge. we need pathfinders like this in i'm already seng i'm already sl for that. >> is there an argument beyond, listen, be a good citizen, that you can point to your supply chain and say, this is a really brilliant business decision that is going to help you make a lot of money? >> i will talk about first data as supplier to usaa actually.

when general was declared at usaa 30% of all new hires would be vets or spouses i turned to our supply chain, not only do i want you to do it, i'm not writing it in the contract, but i like you to do that as well not because you're a supplier to usaa but it makes good business. you heard the business case from several people today. i found overwhelmingly almost every supplier we worked with today, we want to do that as well because we see the value of doing it but the question was, how do i do it? so much over last couple years was teaching people how to hire veterans and spouses of the we need to focus how we retain them in their careers. now we're moving into this other part, how do we bring innovation as well. first data has been a great partner. >> we have on any given day we have six million clients in 70 country who is use our products and services to securely transact 2,000 transactions per second. that is leveraging that and

activating that network, leveraging the resources, access to capital from our coalition partners. the supply chain opportunities like with usaa, with walmart. we know that entree into supply chains across the country is something that veteran entrepreneurs, military spouse entrepreneurs are very eager to explore. they just don't know where, how or when to go about it. so bringing everyone to the table, the veteran entrepreneurs that need access to capital and resources and training and networks and mentoring with the companies, non-profits and federal agencies want to, it is like nextwave of now, vet hiring thing, doing retaining thing but we know from sba statistics 25% of servicemen and women transitioning out want to pursue entrepreneurship. so we definitely want to do everything we can to engage them wherever that is where they want to be transitioning out. >> sound like navigation is challenge for sba as well. there is sort of the knowing and

actually doing. what are you doing to for people transitioning is big life change anyway. trying to transition into something another big life change, what does the sba offer? >> a lot of things with partners. veterans and military families is our largest partner and i'm grateful for that. dr. haney, thank you. getting word out is biggest thing i need to do. military spouse-owned businesses and military members don't know we saved $8.6 million in fees on loans to veterans. and that military spouses are eligible for those too. they don't know it. i'm counting on partnering with folks that help us make that connection. those of you who don't think you care about entrepreneurship, i know you will run into a brother or sister in arms who does and you heard this today and connect with them to get them started on their dream. so that is what i need from you. >> what are you finding is the best strategies in terms of

public and private partnership to make this happen? like if you could completely write the book on how to do it, where do you see the gap and what would you recommend is changed? >> you know, i hate to say the mission of the coalition for veteran-owned business but access to entrepreneurial training and education, small business resources and solutions and and opportunities in commerce an supply chain from the business-to-business and business to consumer models. and reaching that reaching that critical mass is next great thing we do for this next greatest generation of families and our veterans. >> to add to that, i think we need role models. >> how do you mean? >> not be folks like us who join organizations that are advisory groups that champion the efforts, i think that's important, but we need role models of young enlisted folks, men and women, who failed out of

college, went into the military, gotten their life squared away gone on to do something where other people can say, wow, they have done it, i can do it too. i don't think we communicate that enough around our industry that, you are not going to be senior vice president tomorrow, right? you're not going to leave the military and go to this title that's out there. you have to work for it. i know they want to work for it, but they're looking for role models to say who has gone before me that i can talk to? who can mentor me, share with me and connect me with resources and who can prove to me it will work? i may fail along the way. that's okay, that is part of innovation. there is some other enlisted person that get got out of the military and did this and i can do it too? maybe part of our challenge to tell the stories better. >> what is the platform for telling those stories? >> do you know anybody at media companies? >> much maligned media at times. let's be honest. happy stories where people achieve great things that are role models i could not sell

that to anybody and get it on tv tomorrow. you know, really. if you told me something that was gloom and doom and ended badly i could probably lead the newscast with that. that is being very serious. how do you tell those stories, right? role model type stories is what can motivate people but they're also to get out of the platform. is there strategy that you have for that? i would love to show you the national veterans small business week is november 6th. we're partnering with public broadcast system and with ibmf to get out some stories. the hashtag will be my vet biz. whether you're patron of the business or own the business i need you and communities to know where the veteran business is. so we become aware of it elevate it and open up more doors for them. many of you in the military heard an seen hometown greetings. hi, from wherever i am in the world? we'll try to do that with small businesses on affiliates. a little snapshot. so it will at least get people

curious what they can learn about. and then build into the peer-to-peer which you just mentioned which is incredibly powerful mentoring, preferred over commander type above to the lower in entrepreneurship. we want to see somebody just like us who has gone ahead and done it already. >> what are you seeing in retention? what are the challenges there and what's working? not everybody at once. i think that's the next level of conversation. it is not enough to say, here, we're going to have you have this opportunity. it is really saying that all the way through and i think that's a challenge. >> often inside the corporate world, hard to take someone who entered usaa at lower management job. they wanted to work with usaa, that was part of the transition and assume they run right through the chain and two years in, say, it is not working out, you haven't developed the way we

expected you to develop. that is on us as leaders inside of the organization to take these high-talented people and use their skills appropriately but it is also an indication of the poor hr function we have a lot of times that we don't do that for all employees. i don't want it to be special for only vets and spouses. we should be able to do that with any employee we have in our organization but we have to be appropriate about leveraging skills in the right place. >> are you seeing similar thing? >> we know for small business owner, on hiring side, no one wants to hire military spouses more than i do because i'm a military spouse. no one wants to hire vets than i do at my company because i'm a veteran. that is how our team feels. we're on board recruiters and hr team. same with small veteran-owned businesses f the they don't hire 50,000, but 50,000 small veteran-owned businesses hire, it is one, still the same. 50,000 veterans being hired and

military spouses. no one is more committed to that cause than fellow veteran or military spouse. so -- >> i will turn retention into business mortality and how long a business lives and veteran success there. veterans are 45% more likely to start a business. they completely flip the percentage on how likely they will be successful five years out. they're 65% more likely to be in business five years later than a civilian counterpart business. so it's, that's where you belong. seven out of 10 jobs are made in small business. veterans and military spouses have the skills and values as president bush said to create this opportunity for themselves. >> imagine how much more successful they'll be when we bring to bear the largesse, the passion, access to capital, training education and resources from our, the leading companies in a our country targeted towards veteran and military spouse-owned business. they're much more likely to raise that percentage and continue to start and own their

small piece of the american dream. >> even that statistic, goes back to idea of role models. that is great statistic to know. i did not know that i appreciate it very much. thank you to our panel. >> thank you. [applause] ♪

>> we made it. [applause] >> special round of applause to the dos amigos and their wonderful team and this incredible event. [applause] all right. i see my clock is tick. and i know everybody's probably hungry for lunch. i thought just for fun, when we all leave everybody request your uber at same time to see if they can keep up. [laughter]. my name is jim ray. i'm cofounder of fast port. for those of who don't know who we are, we have technology platform that matches veterans and civilians to great jobs in the trucking industry. we also have the great honor of providing the technology and the leadership for the hiring our heroes trucking track. the trucking track's mission is to get 150,000 veterans hired into great careers in the trucking industry, five years,

minimum. now, i have reliable source this is first time the convoy has been played here. and, when eric asked me to presented idea what he would like me to talk about at this conference, the idea of selling your industry to veterans, he said, yeah, the industry great job. end the conference and tie everything together, and help everybody go out into the world and sell your industry. i want you to start with convoy. and, we can even talk about, that is the rubber duck. everybody knows bandit. i was like, i'm not sure i want to do that. i have my biggest partners in the room. they're going to kill me. because it is not the way we want trucking, displayed to the world. but if you think about it, it is genius, all right? and the whole way, hiring our heroes presents veteran hire something smart. they take