Meet our Leadership

 Steve is a Citadel graduate and former US Marine Corps logistics officer who has worked in corporate, governmental, and national security roles. 

Steve has led or been deeply involved in large organizational change, enterprise transformation, modernization, process improvement, merger and acquisition, security, project and venture finance, and start-up/scale-up efforts for the Department of Defense CIO, FBI CJIS, Headquarters Army (to include nuclear weapon detonation response and weapons of mass destruction interdiction), Headquarters Marine Corps, the North Carolina Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, Cigna, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, and other corporate, state, local and federal government entities. 

Early in his career, Steve performed or led thousands of commercial and industrial real estate assessments and construction inspections, hurricane and disaster recovery, and environmental cleanup projects across the United States. 

Before founding FIR, Steve served as Vice Chair, FBI-InfraGard National Disaster Resilience Council, co-authored two of their books on infrastructure resilience, and is the recipient of their 2023 Cross-sector Council Leadership award.  

Rob Hartwell is a native of Alexandria, VA, and former Congressional Chief of Staff to Reps. Dick Schulze (R-PA) and Nick Smith (R-MI). Hartwell also worked for Reps. Mike Oxley (R-OH) and Mac Sweeney (R-TX) and as Chief of Staff for Schulze was an Associate Staff Member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Since 2001, Rob has served as President of Hartwell Capitol Consulting, a full-service lobbying business development and Capital access firm, and has conducted business here and abroad in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. His firm currently engages 101 consultants including past National Security Council Staff; 3 Admirals; 2 DoD Assistant Secretaries; the past head of DoD Labs, Los Alamos National Lab and DHS Science and Technology; 3 retired Congressmen; 3 Retired Colonels and a total of 24 retired Veterans from every service branch. 

During his career, he has orchestrated over $23 billion in appropriation and tax provisions and raised over $4 million for charities and campaigns. He has obtained millions in funding for specialized ethanol production, advanced batteries out of Ft. Monmouth NJ, women Veterans’ health care, transportation projects and advanced UAV helicopters from Ft. Eustis, VA.   

Rob is currently Vice President for Public Affairs for the Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience (FIR) and the past Chairman of the National Disaster Resilience Council (NDRC) Public Policy Working Group educates the Congress on electric grid security, critical infrastructure security, Electromagnetic Pulse and Solar Storm issues. 

He was also a Member of the Fairfax County Planning Commission and the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin.  

Luke spent over 38 years in uniform and is a soldier for life. He earned several Master's Degrees, one in Public Administration from the University of Wyoming, the other in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate and Bachelor’s degrees in Accounting and Education from Concordia University, Seward, NE.

Luke spent most of his military career as an Active-Duty Guardsman, working through the ranks both as a Field Artilleryman and as a domestic operations response officer.  He spent years working closely with Mayors, County Commissioners, Sheriffs, County Emergency Planners and others; preparing for and responding to disasters. Luke deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II in 2004 where he successfully served as the Mayor of a 10,000 man deployment camp; responsible for feeding, sheltering and securing all those passing through the camp and ensuring their life support needs in terms of reliable power, water, wastewater, sanitation and fire / emergency medical response were met.  He retired in 2019 after serving eight years as Wyoming's  Adjutant General (TAG).  During his tenure as the TAG, Luke was a regular instructor at the US NORTHCOM Dual Hatted Commander course and a leader in the Adjutant Generals Association Homeland Security Subcommittee. 

Luke  successfully served for four years as the Director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), the largest and most diverse agency in the State of Wyoming after retiring from the military. This experience broadened his knowledge of state government and allowed him the opportunity to support state disasters from a different seat. 

As the TAG, he took a special interest in the threat and potential effects of a long-term power outage (LTPO) and worked closely with the Governor's Office, the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security and Public Service Commission, County Officials, utility companies and others to prepare for and plan a respond to that potential event. He continued his LTPO efforts with a focus on emergency communications (part of his portfolio) as the Director of WYDOT. 

Retiring in 2023, Luke made the decision to stay involved in dealing with this critical threat.