2017 Guest of Honor A.J. Tata

General Anthony J. Tata has more than three decades of public service as a military officer and in leadership roles at the county and state level. His last combat tour was as the Deputy Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division and the Joint Task Force in Afghanistan, commanding nearly 25,000 troops. He is also an acclaimed novelist with nine fiction novels, including national bestsellers Foreign and Domestic,Three Minutes to Midnight, and Besieged. Kensington Books will release Direct Fire December 2017.

General Tata is president of defense, transportation and energy services company, KaylaTek, LLC. He also frequently speaks on matters of foreign policy to companies such as Google, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, MetLife, Bank of America, Glaxo Smith Kline and other major corporations. Previously, General Tata served as the North Carolina Secretary of Transportation, leading the state’s 12,000 NCDOT employees and serving as a member of the Governor’s cabinet. Immediately prior to that, he served as the Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, leading the state’s largest school district of 18,000 employees and 150,000 students to record academic heights. 

General Tata served two tours of duty in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He also served as a brigade commander in the 101st Airborne Division and as the Deputy Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division. Among his military decorations, he has been awarded the Combat Action Badge and Bronze Star, served as a Master Parachutist and graduated from the U.S. Army’s Ranger School. He is listed as a distinguished member of the 502nd, 504th and 505th Parachute Infantry Regiments.

Tony received a Bachelor of Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Master of Arts in International Relations at the Catholic University of America, a Master of Military Art and Science in Strategic Planning at the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, and was a National Security Senior Fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

Tony is the National Security Expert for One America News Network and reliably comments on foreign policy matters on dozens of programs and networks, including Fox News (Hannity, Bill O’Reilly Show, Megyn Kelly, Fox and Friends Weekday and Weekend, Geraldo Rivera Show, Fox Weekend News, America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, and others), CNN New Day and with Brooke Baldwin, CBS News with Harry Smith, The Glenn Beck Show on The Blaze, and The Daily Buzz.

General Tata has two children, Brooke and Zachary.