Bernard Banks

General Bernard “Bernie” Banks joined Sentinel in September 2022 as Senior Advisory Partner, Leadership and Inclusion. General Banks is considered a leading authority on leadership development and organization change across all sectors. He is currently the Director of Rice University’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders and a Clinical Professor of Management in Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. From 2016 to 2024, he served on the faculty and senior leadership team at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, including as its Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer.

General Banks graduated from West Point with a B.S. degree and served with distinction in the U.S. Army for 30 years. A trained combat helicopter pilot, he led multiple U.S. Army Apache helicopter organizations in the U.S. and abroad. His final operational position involved leading an Apache helicopter squadron in South Korea that was designated as the top unit of its type globally in the U.S. Army during his tenure at the organization’s helm. Later, General Banks was competitively selected to serve as the Department Head (Dean) for Behavioral Sciences & Leadership at The U.S. Military Academy-West Point. As a young professional, General Banks was selected from more than 40,000 officers to receive the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award in 1994 (the Army’s top award for early-career officers). As a cadet, General Banks also distinguished himself as an elite athlete and was a running back for West Point’s Varsity Sprint football team for all four of his undergraduate years.

In addition to his military accomplishments, General Banks has extraordinarily distinguished academic credentials. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, an MA in philosophy from Columbia University, an MBA from Northwestern University, a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and a PhD in social-organizational psychology from Columbia University.

*Non-Sentinel employee.