Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Lyle RHODES PRESIDENT THE RAMARO GROUP, LTD. Lyle (Ray) Rhodes was commissioned in the U.S. Army in 1968 and served in a variety of Infantry and Military Intelligence command and staff assignments, retiring from active duty in 1992. His assignments included two years in combat as an infantry advisor to the Vietnamese Airborne Division. Additionally, Ray was a member of the elite Foreign Area Officer Program, serving as a soldier-diplomat in South and Southeast Asia. In this latter capacity, he spent over seven years living and working throughout Asia as a politico-military specialist. Ray attended the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College, following which he served as the Assistant Army Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. He subsequently served as Director of Asian Studies at the U.S. Army's postgraduate School of International Studies. Later, Ray spent three years as Army Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, returning to the States in 1989. In that position, he represented the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Army to the Government of India and advised the ambassador on military issues. Following his assignment in India, Ray became Chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency's South Asian section. At the start of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990, Ray was chosen to serve in a specially created DOD senior executive billet of Deputy Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism. In that capacity, he was responsible for managing all DOD intelligence collection and analytical assets focused on the region and interaction with all other Executive Branch organizations and Congress. In July 1992, Ray became the first Security Manager for the newly formed Exxon Exploration Company (EEC) in Houston and served in that capacity until 2000. As such, he was responsible for managing the security for Exxon's very diverse world-wide exploration activities including host government negotiations, seismic campaigns, drilling operations and venture office operations. On average, Ray's organization simultaneously stewarded security activities on four continents and in more than twenty countries. Following the merger of Exxon and Mobil, Ray initially served as the Senior Security Program Advisor for Special Operations and Management Systems Interface. In this capacity, he managed field operations for the new corporation in high-threat areas and coordinated other trans-regional issues. In September 2003 Ray assumed responsibility for the security of ExxonMobil’s natural gas production operations in Aceh, Indonesia. This environment was one of the most complex and challenging within the corporation as Aceh was the site of the longest running insurgency in Asia. Following the cessation of hostilities in Ache in mid 2006, Ray was reassigned as Security Manager for Mobil Equatorial Guinea, Inc. This company was unique in that it encompassed both major on and off-shore activities in the demanding West Africa environment. In March 2007, Ray returned to the United States and was responsible for the security aspect of ExxonMobil’s emergency response and business continuity planning. In this role, Ray developed and implemented a system that could support the corporate response to natural or man-made disasters both domestically or internationally. Ray retired from ExxonMobil in February 2008 and launched The Ramaro Group, Ltd. Among other activities, The Ramaro Group is involved in international risk management and business development. Ramaro’s clients include Fortune 500 and other smaller companies. Recent security management projects have been undertaken in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and West Africa. Ray received a BS from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY and an MA in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. Ray was designated a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in International Relations by the University of South Carolina.