Bernie brings an extraordinary background and set of skills to his position as Founder and CEO of BJ Dunn & Associates. He retired in January 2022 as President of Boeing Middle East, Turkey and Africa, culminating a career of over four decades of leadership and managerial experience – nearly all of it international – in both the United States Army and in Corporate America. Well over three decades of that period was spent living and working in the Middle East region, holding positions of increasing responsibility and scope during his military career in Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and The Pentagon, with combat experience alongside Arab Forces in Kuwait, and separately in Iraq. This was followed by long years as the senior regional executive for two U.S. Fortune-500 corporations in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates during his business career.
Trained and educated by the U.S. Army as both a combat arms officer and as a Middle East area specialist, Bernie speaks Arabic at the professional level. His hands-on work with regional military forces in both peace and war gave him insights into the thinking and inner workings of this key pillar of national strength across the region. This, combined with a total of 18 years of commercial and business experience as the corporate senior regional executive of both ITT Defense (now L3Harris) and later The Boeing Company, affords Bernie access to key leaders across the region, and he brings to the table an unparalleled network of valuable influencers across the spectrum of aerospace, defense, and the commercial aviation sector.
During his time at Boeing, Bernie was consistently named by Forbes Middle East as among the top executives in the Middle East. He was twice named to Forbes Middle East’s “Global Meets Local” list of the Top 50 Business Leaders in the Middle East, in both 2019 and 2020. He was also named to Forbes Middle East’s “Top 100 Executives in the Arab World” in both 2017 and 2018.
Bernie is a graduate of Arizona State University (Bachelor of Science, Political Science), and the Naval Postgraduate School (Master of Arts, National Security Affairs). He is also a graduate of the Jordanian Army’s Infantry Officer Advanced Course and the U.S. Army War College. He established BJ Dunn & Associates in January 2022, immediately upon his official retirement from Boeing.
Bernie is a charter member of the Advisory Council of the Dubai International Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Advisory Boards of Fortem Technologies, SparkCognition, and the Bauer Aviation Advisory. He has bases in both the United States and Dubai, which provide him a platform from which to operate globally and with the agility and responsiveness that clients need.
