Chris Starling

Assistant Vice President, NPower SkillBridge

Chris Starling is a retired US Marine Corps officer with 26 years of active duty service. He completed 10 overseas deployments including 3 combat tours. Command assignments inclued leading the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of North Carolina and later the 23rd Marine Regiment out of California. Currently, he is the Executive Director of NPower SkillBridge, an organization that trains transitioning military personnel for critical cybersecurity jobs.

Chris received his commission as an infantry officer in 1988. Throughout his career, he served in all 4 US Marine Divisions. He participated in Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. His last deployment was to the United Arab Emirates in 2011-12 where he served as the US Advisor to the UAE Presidential Guard.

Other assignments included US Pacific Command’s Counter-Drug Inter-Agency Task Force in Alameda, California, instructor duty at the US Military Academy, West Point and as the Partnership Division Chief at US Africa Command.

Chris holds a Bachelors Degree from the Virginia Military Institute and a Master of Public Administration degree from John Jay College, City University of New York. From 2007-2008, Chris was a National Security Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University where he published his work on China’s expanding influence in Africa.