Ken Harbaugh

Ken Harbaugh is the President of Team Rubicon Global, a worldwide disaster relief organization that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. These teams have performed over 100 relief missions to communities affected by tornadoes, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, and other disasters. Team Rubicon has grown to over 42,000 members in the United States, and is currently building teams in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Education and Military Service

Ken earned his Bachelor of Science from Duke University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa cum Laude and was a Lord Rothermere Scholar at Oxford University. He attended Naval Officer Candidate School (OCS), where he served as Class President and Regimental Commander. In Navy flight school, he made the Commodore’s list, and was the top Navy graduate from advanced pilot training. During his time on active duty, he served as an Electronic Warfare Aircraft Commander, leading classified combat reconnaissance missions and deploying to remote locations around the world. He flew in support of Operations Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Southern Watch, and others, and held a Top Secret (TS/SCI) clearance.

Ken’s final tour of duty was teaching naval history at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. While there, he served as a commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered. Over the past 15 years, Ken has become a leading authority on veterans reintegration issues, and a sought after commentator on civilian-military affairs. He has been invited to appear on numerous national broadcasts, and his writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and the Yale Journal of International Law. His work as an advocate for veterans has been lauded in best-selling books by both Tom Brokaw and Joe Klein.

Following his Naval service, Ken earned his Juris Doctor at Yale Law School, where he travelled to Afghanistan as a human rights consultant. While at Yale, he founded the Yale Law Veterans Association, and co-founded The Mission Continues, a nationally prominent veterans service organization that empowers military veterans to continue serving their communities through a structured fellowship and mentoring program. Upon completing his law degree, Ken taught as a Guest Fellow at Yale University, where he lectured on the foundations and evolution of the American conception of citizenship.

Team Rubicon and Other Nonprofit Work

In his role as Chief Operations Officer of Team Rubicon USA, he grew the organization from a staff of ten to a staff of sixty-two, while tripling membership and seeing revenue increase by nearly 400%. During his tenure as COO, the organization was ranked the best nonprofit in America to work for, across all size categories. Ken’s strategy and management experience includes two years with McKinsey and Company, serving multiple Fortune 500 companies and government clients.

Upon leaving McKinsey, Ken served as Executive Director of ServiceNation, the nation’s leading advocacy organization for national service. In this role, Ken launched and led the Got Your 6 campaign, which leveraged the entertainment industry to raise public awareness of veterans' reintegration issues. Under Ken’s leadership, the campaign drew endorsements from Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift, Bradley Cooper, Harrison Ford, and other industry influencers.

Personal Life

Ken continues to write and advocate on behalf of military veterans, and is the author of the memoir, Here Be Dragons. He lives in Avon, Ohio, with his wife, Annmarie, and their three children.