Photo By Eric Bartelt | Retired Lt. Gen. and current CEO of LA28, Reynold Hoover, was the keynote speaker...... read more read more
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WEST POINT, N.Y. – Retired Lt. Gen. Reynold Hoover, former NORTHCOM deputy commander and FEMA chief of staff, described it as a startup with the visibility of a Fortune 100 company and a $7.1 billion budget to raise -- and “that’s a challenge.”
As the keynote speaker of the final evening of the McDonald Conference for Leaders of Character (MCLC), Hoover spoke to the cadets, officers, undergraduate student leaders and senior fellows about his role as CEO of the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028 (LA28), its connection to his military career, and his leadership insights.
Commencing in 2012, MCLC, a conference made possible by The Honorable Bob McDonald (USMA ’75) and Diane McDonald, is an annual three-day event that brings together top undergraduate student leaders from around the country and U.S. Military Academy cadets to participate in a team-based analytical exercise to bolster leadership skills, foster critical-thinking and collaboration, and develop potential strategies for addressing global issues. The conference is guided by senior fellows from a broad spectrum of industries.
During his keynote address with Col. Kate Conkey, PL300 (Military Leadership) Core Course director and moderator for the evening, Hoover talked about his journey to becoming the LA28 CEO, which started approximately one year ago amid enjoying retirement and being a senior mentor for the Army War College.
Unexpectedly, Hoover received an email saying there was a need for a CEO for LA28 and that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, provided his name to the search group. Mullen was chairman when Hoover served as a brigadier general in Afghanistan around 2010.
“I didn’t even know (Mullen) knew my name,” Hoover said. “(I was asked) if you’re interested, we’d like to talk to you.”
While he never thought he would receive the job, during the process he reflected back to July 2, 1979, when he took an oath on the Plain at West Point, and part of that oath was to “live a life of public service.”
“I couldn’t think of a better way to come back and capstone nearly 40 years,” Hoover explained. “To unite the world around sport, to unite the nation around sport, to unite the city of L.A. and the surrounding area in southern California around sport.”
It was after he was offered the job and made the trip to the Paris Olympics that Hoover knew his purpose, “I knew right then I had made the right decision when it came to the notion of a way to unite the world, if for one moment in time around sport, and when you see the athletes, I knew I made the right decision.”
As Hoover assimilated into his job and met his team, one of the most important and critical things he wanted to do is empower them to do their jobs.
“First of all, it’s the idea of just being humble and realizing that you’re not the smartest person in the room and you don’t need to be the smartest person in the room, which then brings the notion of teamwork and building the right team around you,” Hoover elaborated. “As a senior leader, or a leader of any organization, your job is to trust them and support them and make sure that they can do their jobs. That element of trust is a hard thing to do because you’ve got to be confident in yourself, but you have to empower them.”
Hoover said his team went six months without a CEO before taking the job in June 2024, but they were well-organized in what they needed to do, which was to raise money. However, they weren’t organized at the operational level.
“Basically, they hadn’t had somebody stand up, make decisions and tell them what to do,” Hoover detailed over the time they went without a CEO. “As a leader, that’s what people want. People will follow you if they trust you and being able to communicate to them and know that you listen to them and you’re being authentic about it.”
As he viewed the inner operations of both the International Olympic Committee and the Paris organizing committee, he realized the complexity of the operation.
“When I boiled it down to what I knew, the fundamentals of what I knew from the military, it was all about plans, operations and logistics,” Hoover stated. “If you get those three things right, the rest is going to fall into place.”
The 2028 L.A. Games will be the largest ever, involving 36 sports, with about 15,000 athletes participating and having to sell about 13.5 million tickets across all the sports. As Hoover put it best, “It’ll be the largest peacetime gathering in the history of the world in any one place.”
As his time on stage ended, Conkey asked him what advice he would give to the students and the senior fellows in the audience.
“First, never stop learning. After I retired, I got an associate’s degree using my VA benefits to become a professional pilot,” Hoover said. “You should never stop learning because that keeps your mind sharp.”
The second thing was to know the importance of relationships and to start networking now because you never know when you may need someone’s help in the future.
He also added that it was great for the senior fellows to take the time to help build tomorrow’s leaders.
“Your time here today is the most precious gift you can give these people,” Hoover directed to the senior fellows about giving their time to the future leaders.
Then looking at the undergraduates, he exclaimed, “Regardless of what profession you decide to go in, the senior mentors and the time they’ve spent with you, it’s just really invaluable because you are the leaders of tomorrow.”
Hoover offered a final anecdote about when he was a first lieutenant in 1984 and had a private first class come into his office saying he was getting out of the Army.
The Soldier really didn’t have a plan other than possibly going back to school, so Hoover suggested he should go to West Point. He did and graduated in the USMA Class of 1991.
Years later, after they lost touch, Hoover received an email from his former Soldier, now Lt. Col. Paul Brooks, who at the time was taking command of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade.
Brooks reached out to him and said, “You changed my life.” Hoover later went to Brooks’ retirement ceremony at 30 years, where he recognized Hoover as one of two of the most influential people that changed the trajectory of his life.
“The point of that story is you never know the people who you’re going to talk to as senior leaders or senior mentors and where (the mentees are) going to end up the rest of their lives,” Hoover concluded. “Since Thursday, when you all have been here, these conversations can be a game changer for all of them.”
| Date Taken: | 03.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.14.2025 08:45 |
| Story ID: | 492844 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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