Deep Water Point announced that LTG Robert (Bob) Ashley, U.S., Ret. has joined its team in support of the company’s defense and intelligence business. General Ashley is a senior leader with 36 years of experience in operational combat, intelligence, global security, cybersecurity, analytics, and risk management. His most recent position was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 2017-2020.
LTG Ashley has led soldiers in combat, served as Commandant of the Army’s Intelligence School, and he has lectured extensively across the Army and Joint Force on leadership and leader development. He has supported the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Combatant Commanders, and policy makers in defense and Congress, and he has been a senior advisor to the Defense Department leadership and multiple Congressional oversight committees.
LTG Ashley established integrated cross-functional teams to build advanced analytics capabilities using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and computer vision to address complex intelligence problems against global threats.
At DIA he tracked threats across the globe for senior leaders; provided daily threat briefings; and covered all aspects of threats from nation-states to violent extremists across the national instruments of power, including diplomatic, information, military, and economic (DIME). LTG Ashley also established a risk management framework of indicators providing anticipatory intelligence on activity of U.S. competitors and adversaries across DIME.
Earlier, LTG Ashley was Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, G2 – the senior intelligence officer in the Army responsible to the Secretary of the Army for security, counter-intelligence, and intelligence systems development for an Army intelligence force of more than 60,000 soldiers. As the Commandant for the Army’s Intelligence Center and School and Senior Commander for Fort Huachuca, he helped train more than 10,000 soldiers annually in multiple intel specialties including cyber, counter-intelligence, analysis, Human Intelligence, open source intelligence, and development of enterprise intelligence surveillance, and reconnaissance collection systems.
LTG Ashley also has extensive combat experience in high pressure environments as a Commander and Senior Intelligence Officer for the Joint Special Operations Command, Central Command, and International Security and Assistance Forces Afghanistan. In all these assignments, he was integral in leader development, training new general and flag officers instructor for the Defense Departments CAPSTONE program, and training three-star flag and general officers in preparation for key leadership positions as an instructor in the Defense Departments Pinnacle Course.
LTG Ashley earned his BS from Appalachian State University (NC), his Master of Strategic Intelligence from Defense Intelligence College, and his Master of International Relations from U.S. Army War College. He also completed the University of North Carolina (UNC) Kenan Flagler Executive Leader Development program. LTG Ashley is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cyber, Space & Intelligence Association/Strategic Forces Association Leadership Award, the Top Ten Award of John Maxwell’s Annual Leadership Awards, the Wash100 Award for Leading Agency Modernization, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Patriot Award. He holds Active TS Security Clearance.
