Andrew Wilson currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Quiet Professionals, LLC. He is married to Cindy Wilson and has three children and three grandchildren. He is an accomplished inventor holding a current patent on innovative navigation technology. He is a valorous combat decorated retired Sergeant Major of the United States Army, with 20 years of service working as a Senior Special Operations Non-commissioned Officer, 14 of which were served in 1st Special Forces Operation Detachment – Delta. Andrew also has over 10 years of proven Executive Leadership in various positions.
“As a retiring Sergeant Major who had primarily performed in an operational role, transitioning to civilian life was both exciting and terrifying. Trying to translate a lifetime of government military service into the commercial space was challenging. I quickly learned that I was a serial entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to be in business for myself and was challenged every day to learn new things. I find great satisfaction in both giving back by mentoring other transitioning service members and bridging the translation gap between commercial and defense industries.”– Andrew Wilson, President & CEO
After military retirement, Andrew established a company to provide specialized subject matter expert services to the Department of Defense and commercial customers. He successfully obtained a government facility security clearance for two of his companies to facilitate sourcing cleared personnel for classified contracts, conducted business development and strategic planning, and successfully grew his first company. With just over two years in that business, his company reached more than seven million dollars in gross annual revenue. Andrew successfully negotiated and completed the sale of his personal membership interest in his first defense contracting business.
One year later, Andrew launched Quiet Professionals, LLC in order to continue providing opportunities for seasoned experts in the defense industry field and to meet the ongoing demands of both the US Government and the commercial industry for a qualified and competent professional workforce. Since starting Quiet Professionals, the company has enjoyed more than 100% annual growth consecutively since 2013.
Q and A with Andrew
What inspires you? The single most inspirational part of my life is living in a country that affords me the freedom for limitless growth in innovation and opportunity. I am mostly inspired by listening to the tremendous accomplishments of others in their personal and professional lives. I am inspired by the speed of technological advances in everything from transportation to modern medicine to the advancement in space initiatives.
Is there a particular moment or memory that stands out for you? As a retiring Sergeant Major who had primarily performed in an operational role, transitioning to civilian life was both exciting and terrifying. Trying to translate a lifetime of government military service into the commercial space was challenging. I quickly learned that I was a serial entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to be in business for myself and was challenged every day to learn new things. I find great satisfaction in both giving back by mentoring other transitioning service members and bridging the translation gap between commercial and defense industries.
What would you say is a single achievement or contribution to the community you find the most rewarding? Why? Standing up the Tampa Satellite Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) was one of the achievements I am very proud of. There is no doubt that Tampa will be a leading city for innovative unmanned systems technology. Assisting to educate local government, commercial industry, local academia and the defense industry with the latest international initiative in all things unmanned will certainly pay dividends to the successful economic growth in our region.
What was the biggest challenge you faced? Trying to self-teach the art of starting and building a successful business.
What did you do to try to solve this challenge? Know that you must learn something new every day. Understand that you will be knocked down…a lot. Standing back up when you have been knocked down and learning from the experience. Giving back to others the lessons that you learned the hard way. Never quitting and always taking the hard right instead of the easy wrong. All of these things brought me through the hard path that led to building great businesses.
