Tommy Waller

President & CEO

Tommy Waller is the President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy. Waller retired from the Marine Corps Reserves at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after serving more than two decades on both active duty and in the reserves with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Waller joined the Marine Corps in 1998 on a NROTC scholarship, was commissioned in 2002, trained as an infantry officer, and then conducted multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq through 2006. During these combat tours he served in an infantry battalion, as part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and as a Reconnaissance Platoon Commander for 2d Recon Battalion.

In 2007, he accepted orders to Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, where he completed the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School and was the first recipient of the Captain Robert M. Secher Scholarship to the Wharton School of Business where he completed an executive education course on high stakes negotiations.

From 2009, when Waller left active duty, he would serve multiple roles in Marine Corps Reserves’ 4th Marine Division, with most of his assignments at 3d Force Reconnaissance Company, eventually rising to the position of Commanding Officer of the unit in July of 2019. During his time with 3d Force and 4th Marine Division, Company Waller conducted numerous missions on the continent of Africa and led a team of reconnaissance and intelligence Marines to Belize to conduct a counternarcotics/counterterrorism mission. He also completed the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and was cross assigned to serve as a key staff member of the U.S. Air Force’s Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF).

Waller joined the Center for Security Policy in 2014. He served as Director of Infrastructure Security until 2021, when he was officially named the Center’s Executive Vice President. He became President & CEO in 2023.

He holds a BA in International Relations from Tulane University.

Photo Credit: Lei Chen/The Epoch Times