Jesse Nuese is a combat veteran, strategist, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of defense, geopolitics, and technology. After serving as a paratrooper and infantryman in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, including a combat deployment to Afghanistan, Jesse came to higher education through Warrior-Scholar Project. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, a Master of International Business from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a Master of Science in Cybersecurity from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He studied Mandarin Chinese at Peking University on a U.S. State Department scholarship, conducted security and intelligence research at Cambridge, and is now a doctoral researcher in Defence Studies at King’s College London, where his dissertation, Innovation Under Fire, examines how militaries and private industry innovate under wartime conditions.

Jesse is Managing Partner for Research & Technology at Palisade Bergschrund, a cross-border defense technology research and advisory firm operating across New York, London, and Kyiv. He joined the firm from Forward Horizon Group, which he co-founded in 2023 with three fellow veterans to support reconstruction, technology testing, and field research in Ukraine. As Forward Horizon Group’s CEO, he led repeated field expeditions to Ukraine’s Eastern front and expanded the firm’s operations to Taiwan. He is also a co-founder of the New York National Security Forum.

Jesse has been a Lead Fellow for both WSP business and humanities boot camps, leading more than 12 cohorts of student veterans through the program, including over 10 students who have returned to serve as Fellows themselves.

For Jesse, WSP represents both personal transformation and a sacred responsibility: to ensure other veterans access the same opportunities for impact he received. His ongoing commitment to the organization reflects his belief that veteran leadership, properly developed and deployed, remains essential to America’s ability to meet this era’s global challenges.