Major General Mick Ryan, AM (retired) spent 35 years in the Australian Army and had the honour of commanding soldiers at troop, squadron, regiment, task force and brigade levels. He served in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as on the U.S. joint staff in Washington DC.

Mick is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College (2002), the U.S. Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting (2003), and a distinguished graduate from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC (2012).

He is a keen author on the interface of strategy, innovation, advanced technologies, and people.

In February 2022, his book War Transformed was published by USNI Books. His next book, White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan, was published on 4 May 2023 by Casemate Books. His latest book, The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire, was published in August 2024.

Because of his writing about the war in Ukraine, and support for its efforts, Mick was sanctioned by the Russian government in 2022.

Mick runs his own strategic advisory company and is a strategic advisor to several Australian, U.K. and U.S. companies including U.S. drone company Skydio, the Washington, DC-based Special Competitive Studies Project, and the UK-based Janes. He is also a regular commentator on ABC TV Australia, CNN and the BBC. In his spare time, he is completing a PhD in creative writing.

Mick is the inaugural Senior Fellow for Military Studies at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.