John Nowell, Jr.

Meet John

John Nowell is a Senior Principal at McChrystal Group where he leads the Federal Practice responsible for business development, operations, and client team execution.

What did you do before joining McChrystal Group?

I retired from the U.S. Navy in 2022 as a Vice Admiral after more than 38 years on active duty. My experience includes multiple overseas tours leading large joint and multinational teams and conducting international negotiations. My operational tours spanned the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets to include commanding forward deployed naval forces homeported in Europe and the Western Pacific.

A career Surface Warfare Officer, I commanded at every level including command of an AEGIS Guided Missile Destroyer, a Destroyer Squadron, Combined and Joint Task Forces, and an Expeditionary Strike Group. Ashore, I had extensive experience on Capitol Hill with congressional liaison and coordination as well as the development and operationalization of the Navy’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Programs. Given significant experience in Human Resources, my last tour was as the Chief of Naval Personnel in charge of all talent acquisition, management, and workforce development for over 400,000 personnel with a global workforce of 26,000 and an annual budget over $35B. I led the transformation and modernization of Navy’s workforce development and HR Service Delivery process, conceptualized and effected a focus on Cultural transformation and led service-wide efforts in leveraging Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as the Navy’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

I am proud to sit on the Boards of the Abrams Marine Group, the Navy Memorial Foundation, and the Give an Hour Foundation.

Why did you join McChrystal Group?

I was fortunate throughout my Naval career to have been part of exceptional teams with strong and effective leadership, and I saw the power of the "Team of Teams" approach in both peace and war time. It has been exciting for me to continue to serve on a high-performing and amazing team at McChrystal Group that helps our partners achieve better results despite complex leadership challenges and amidst a rapidly changing environment.

What has been your proudest moment at McChrystal Group?

Seeing how proud and excited my junior teammates are when they realize what a profound difference the McChrystal Group team and their hard work makes in helping a client succeed.