Col. Steve Rotkoff, USA, ret.

Steve Rotkoff is a Partner at Red Team Thinking, the former director of the U.S. Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, also known as “Red Team University” and one of the principal architects of the Army’s red team training program. After serving as a senior intelligence officer during the invasion of Iraq, Rotkoff led the “lessons learned” team at the Pentagon that first developed the idea of decision support red teams for the Army and went on to help create the Army’s red team training curriculum.  A graduate of West Point, Rotkoff had a distinguished 26-year career as an Army intelligence officer.

Steve has served in a wide variety of leadership and planning positions while a uniformed soldier and after retiring from the military.

• Served as the lead intelligence planner for GEN Clark for Kosovo ground options.
• Commanded a Brigade of 2000 soldiers with $1 billion worth of equipment.
• Was the deputy senior intelligence officer for all ground forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After retirement from active service, Rotkoff served as the lead for decision making transformation efforts for the Army. He helped stand-up and was the first instructor and curriculum developer for the Army’s Red Team education program, ultimately serving as the program director. In this capacity Mr. Rotkoff led all of the following efforts:

• Facilitated several problem-solving efforts on behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These efforts led to substantial changes to DoD strategic plans and operations.
• Led the effort to write the Applied Critical Thinking handbook – the industry standard for red teaming. This manual helped inform the book Red Teaming by Bryce Hoffman.

Since retiring a second time from the government, Rotkoff has joined Bryce Hoffman as a Partner in establishing the business consultancy group Red Team Thinking, providing education and facilitation built around red team tools and methods.