The Honorable Mike Garcia

Principal

Former Member, U.S. House of Representatives 

Mike Garcia is a Principal at WestExec Advisors and CEO of Corner Speed LLC.  Driven by a love of country, Mike Garcia is a first-generation American who has served his nation in combat, in business and in Congress.  After graduating from the US Naval Academy with Distinction and earning a Master's degree from Georgetown University in National Security Studies, he set records in flight school to became one of the Navy's first F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter pilots. Mike flew over 30 combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, logged more than 1500 tactical hours and landed on an aircraft carrier more than 300 times.

Upon leaving the Navy Mike joined Raytheon, ultimately rising to a senior executive position over his 11 year tenure.  As a vice president at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems he was accountable for $5.5-7B in bookings per year and was responsible for profit/loss of a product line with revenue of ~$350M/year. During his time at Raytheon he captured nearly a dozen intensely competitive program pursuits valued in excess of $5B.

As a Congressman, Mike represented California's 27th District (North Los Angeles County). He sat on the House Appropriations Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the Science, Space and Technology Committee (SST). As such, Mike was the Authorizer and/or Appropriator for every DoD, Space (NASA, commercial sector) and Intelligence (CIA, FBI, DIA, etc) program with domain over nearly $1T in annual appropriations.

While in one of the most competitive seats in the Nation, Mike was respected by both parties and was viewed as the subject matter expert for all matters related to DoD and National Security. He is always the rational actor in the room and many of his legislative products were the backbone of what became or are becoming formal National Security Policies. His allegiances have always been to the Country and not to a political party. Mike believes our nation needs stronger leaders and weaker parties. Americans and legislators should be inspired to serve, not recruited.

He was the first member of his party to flip a seat in CA in 22 years and was the first Hispanic to serve in Congress from his party from CA since 1883.

Born in Granada Hills and raised in Saugus, he lives in Santa Clarita CA with his wife, Rebecca, and their two sons Preston (18) and Jett (8).