Washington, D.C.-based Paladin Capital Group announced on LinkedIn the appointment of retired Air Force General Mike Minihan as a strategic advisor. The four-star general who spent over three decades in the Air Force now leads Mavericks Advisors LLC, an aerospace and technology consulting firm.
“While in the Air Force, General Minihan executed global air mobility missions with a fleet of over 1,000 aircraft and organized high-impact operations. With a proven track record in national security and defense technology, he will be an invaluable asset to the Strategic Advisory Group,” the firm said.
Other members of the firm’s strategic advisory group include chair Richard C. Schaeffer, Jr., a former National Security Agency official; Chris Inglis, the first director of national cyber and former deputy director of the NSA; Vice Admiral (Retd.) Jan Tighe, who served as deputy chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare and 66th Director of Naval Intelligence; and Richard A. Clarke, a former State Department official who served as counterterrorism czar.
Founded in 2001 by former Ullico executives Michael Steed and Mark Maloney, Paladin has invested more than $1 billion via multiple funds and investment vehicles. Its most recent fund, Paladin Cyber Fund II, raised $372 million to invest in cybersecurity startups. Besides its headquarters in Washington, Paladin has offices in New York City, Silicon Valley, London and Luxembourg.
Paladin focuses on cybersecurity, with its portfolio including startups such as Anomali, Decentriq, PhishMe and Virtuoso. It follows certain investment principles, including a pledge to uphold free and open societies grounded in economic liberty. Alongside, it considers it “everyone’s duty and responsibility to ensure that we are not investing with other investors who would do harm to the United States, NATO and their allies or are from countries that are sanctioned or have violated U.S. or international law.”
Commissioned in 1989 through Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at Auburn University in Alabama, he began his service as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules pilot, according to Wikipedia. Minihan, 58, served as the commander of Air Mobility Command from 2021 to 2024.
During his service, Minihan notably brought attention to mental health, once posting on Twitter a screenshot of his personal calendar revealing a mental health appointment with the text, “Warrior Heart. No Stigma.” Controversially, he also wrote a memo leaked in early 2023 that claimed “China would invade Taiwan in 2025 using the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan and the United States as an excuse and a distraction respectively,” according to Wikipedia. Later, he reportedly said via The Washington Post that he did not believe war with China was inevitable.
