BG (ret) McGuiness is President of American Ordnance LLC, a premier manufacturer of ammunition to the United States Military and the operating contractor for the Milan Army Ammunition Plant and Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. American Ordnance’s capabilities encompass a wide array of development, load, assemble and pack requirements for medium to large caliber ammunition and other explosives. Prior to joining American Ordnance, John was President of JJM Ventures, providing consulting services for a wide array of clients such as foreign companies, Fortune top 10, major defense contractors, small business, private equity owned firms, and providing due diligence for private equity investors for mergers and acquisitions. As part of JJM Ventures, BG (ret) McGuiness also provided consulting services for The Spectrum Group, Alexandria, VA; Dezenhall Resources, Ltd, Washington, D.C.; and Guidepoint Global Advisors, N.Y., N.Y.

General McGuiness completed a distinguished 31 year career in the Army culminating as the Commanding General of Picatinny Arsenal and the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Officer for Ammunition, being designated as the DoD Single Manager of Conventional Ammunition. In this role, he led an 1100 person organization responsible for the development and fielding of high tech military systems by managing over 600 distinct ammunition, counter IED, artillery and mortar programs with an annual budget of $3.5B. Other General Officer assignments include Deputy Commanding General NATO Training Command, leading a 1900 person organization from 32 different countries. He was responsible to run the day to day operations of over 70 Police and Army training centers increasing the daily student population from 18,000 to 34,000 during his tour. After returning from Afghanistan, McGuiness was the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army RDECOM and Commanding General Natick Soldier Systems Center. Previous acquisition assignments include Assistant Deputy Acquisition and Systems Management, ASA(ALT); Project Manager Soldier Equipment (2008 SECARMY PM of the Year), PEO Soldier; Product Manager Bradley and M113’s, PEO Ground Combat Systems; Executive Officer for the AAE/ ASA(ALT), Department of the Army Systems Coordinator (DASC), and DAU Research Fellow, co-authoring, “From Chaos to Clarity: How Current Cost Based Strategies Are Undermining the Department of Defense”. During OIF-I, then LTC McGuiness was Deputy Director ASA(ALT) South West Asia Operations, Kuwait, and later deployed into Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division.

General McGuiness has earned a Bachelors of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Masters of Science degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Operations Research and the U.S. Army War College in National Security Strategy. He is also a graduate of the Program of Management Development, Harvard Business School.