Born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio, Rick Lynch attended West Point where he ranked in the top 5% of his class. He was then commissioned as a regular Army Engineer Officer in command of both a combat engineer company and a mobile assault bridge company in the 17th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Division. He branch transferred to Armor and subsequently commanded both a tank battalion (1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division) and a tank brigade (1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division). In 2001, Rick was promoted to Brigadier General. Over his career, Rick has served as the Assistant Division Commander, 4th Infantry Division, Chief of Staff, Kosovo Forces, and Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations for Joint Force Command Naples, Italy. He served in Iraq as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Effects and the spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq from 2005-2006.

Rick commanded the 3rd Infantry Division from 2006-2008. During that time, he deployed the Division to Iraq as part of the Surge, and commanded Task Force Marne in Iraq for 15 months. After redeployment, he was selected to command III Corps and Fort Hood, TX, where he commanded a mobile army corps of 64,000 soldiers and the largest installation in the free world. Lieutenant General Lynch’s last position in the Army was as the Commanding General, Installation Management Command and the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management.

Over the course of his seasoned career, Rick witnesses and experienced vast changes both in the Army and across the globe. As a cadet, he welcomed the first female cadets into the Academy; during the Vietnam War, he saw the transition into an All Volunteer Army; and while stationed in Germany in 1989, he witnessed the collapse of East Germany and its reintegration into the West. From his deployment in the first Gulf War to Kosovo and Iraq, he acquired a unique perspective as a witness to the best and worst in his fellow man and was awarded a soldier’s medal for heroism while deployed in support of Desert Storm / Desert Shield.

Today, he is the executive director for the University of Texas at the Arlington Research Institute (UTARI), for which he develops strategic partnerships between faculty and staff and industry and government—both state and federal—to commercialize technology. He has authored two books, Adapt or Die: Leadership Principles from an American General, chronicling the culmination of lessons learned in leadership over the last forty years, as well as Work Hard, Pray Hard, in which explores seven steps that put the true power of faith into all actions.

“I have never met an individual who cares more about our nation’s military and their families than Gary Sinise. Gary invests his time, energy, and personal resources into helping those American heroes in their time of need. He is an American treasure.”

— Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch