Major General Melvin Spiese Named Executive Chairman of Veteran Job Corps (VJC)
May 21, 2013 (Los Angeles, CA) – Veteran Job Corps, a solutions based, job incubator for military veterans, announced today that Major General Melvin Spiese will be the Executive Chairman. General Spiese and Dylan Ratigan founded the organization to help develop and train veterans to take on the core challenges facing our country. Major General Spiese retired after 37 years of active duty in March of 2013 as the Deputy Commanding General of Marine Expeditionary Force and Commanding General of 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
At VJC, General Spiese will help service-members transition from their military life into civilian life by developing the training and education necessary to prepare these veterans for the career paths that VJC is developing with business leaders from around the country.
General Spiese stated, “What truly attracted me to Veteran Job Corps, is that it’s changing the narrative on veteran unemployment. We are showing the world that veterans are highly capable of solving difficult problems through education, training and job preparedness. Instead of simply trying to find jobs for veterans, we are focused on creating new industries for our soldiers that allow them to take over their own businesses and share in the mission of fixing their communities.”
Veteran Job Corps’ first project is Archi’s Acres and the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program founded by three tour Iraq War veteran Colin Archipley and his wife Karen in 2007. VJC will be working with Archi’s Acresto expand their business model, a 1 acre hydroponic organic greenhouse that yields 3 times the amount of crops using 90% less water. Each farm creates approximately 10 jobs and VJC is putting their resources behind a nationwide expansion training the workforce (veterans), raising capital and awareness, while building the farms to be run by service members.
Co-founder and former host of MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show stated, “General Spiese signing on as Executive Chairman validates this whole concept that we have developed. He was responsible for preparing thousands of men and women to serve in the military, and now he’s working with us at VJC to continue to prove that our military veteran’s skill sets are highly capable of taking on the biggest challenges facing the country.”
VJC is a for-profit, solutions based, veteran jobs incubator that is turning to military veterans as investment partners. General Spiese just joined Cubic Defense as the VP for Training, Strategy and Effectiveness.
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ABOUT VETERAN JOB CORPS
Veteran Job Corps (VJC) is a solutions based, job incubator for military veterans. Founded by Major General Melvin Spiese and Dylan Ratigan, VJC’s goal is to help develop and train veterans to take on the core challenges facing our country. At VJC we believe veterans are highly capable of solving America’s problems from their experience and training in the military. Our role is to find ways to let this unmatched population of men and women loose to find the solutions.
General Spiese, and Dylan Ratigan are partnering to change the narrative and reality for veterans transitioning into civilian life.
ABOUT GENERAL SPIESE
Major General Mel Spiese is the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Veteran Job Corps with Dylan Ratigan.
As a general officer, he served as the Commanding General of Training Command, Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, and Marine Corps Training and Education Command, in addition to serving as the Deputy for Strategy, Plans and Assessments as US European Command.
He retired after 37 years of active duty in March of 2013 as the Deputy Commanding General of Marine Expeditionary Force and Commanding General of 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
ABOUT DYLAN RATIGAN
Dylan Ratigan is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Veteran Job Corps.
Ratigan is also a Partner and Director of National Development for ArchisAcres LLC, which is among Veteran Job Corps’ initial investments. Ratigan is a New York Times Best-Selling author, and the former host of MSNBC’s highest-rated, non-prime time show, The Dylan Ratigan Show, on MSNBC which he resigned voluntarily in June of 2012.
Prior to his 3 years at MSNBC, Dylan spend 6 years at CNBC, where he created “Fast Money,” co-hosted “The Closing Bell”, and was outspoken about the financial crisis leading up to his resignation in 2009.
