Over 27 years, Francisco J. Leija rose from Army Private to Colonel with combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He earned the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Ranger Tab. He served as a 2014-15 White House Fellow, working at the Department of Homeland Security, and delivered the White House’s Spanish-language Veterans Day message in 2014.
Leija taught at West Point and helped develop the Army’s approach to emerging technology through Army Futures Command. In the civilian world, he founded Modern Phalanx Solutions, advising early-stage technology companies, and he serves on various university, private, and nonprofit boards. As a trustee of Norwich University, Manhattanville University, the STARTedUP Foundation, and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, and across a multitude of roles, the veteran, entrepreneur, senior advisor, board director, and leader wants to broaden Latino understanding of military leadership and show the next generation that a military commission can open doors far beyond the armed forces while fulfilling a noble role in America.
But Leija believes the more important story is not what he has accomplished. It is what his journey says is possible.
“I’m not saying that everybody needs to serve in the military,” Leija says. “What I am saying is that if you serve and go back to corporate America, you’re going to think in a completely different capacity.”
Leija wants to broaden the conversation about what military service can mean. In Latino communities, he says, families often recognize medicine and law as paths to professional success but don’t necessarily associate those careers with the armed forces. Their understanding of military service may come primarily from watching neighbors enlist, not from seeing the physicians, strategists, attorneys, technology specialists, and logistics experts who serve as commissioned officers, and that is an important distinction.
He wants young people to understand an option they might otherwise overlook and to realize that serving as an officer can give them experience and training that, more often than not, puts them in a league of their own in the civilian world due to deliberate professional development paths in organizational leadership, assessments, and decision making under less-than-ideal circumstances. For a young Latino considering college and wondering what comes afterward, becoming a commissioned officer can represent far more than choosing a first job. It can provide education, leadership experience, professional credentials, global exposure, responsibility, mentorship, and a network that can compound over decades.
As a former White House Fellow, Leija has taken that message to middle schoolers with a presentation he whipped up himself, focused not on military enlistment but on the steps students might take to become White House Fellows themselves. He wanted to make the impossible seem possible.
“If you don’t realize you’re in a race until the final lap, it’s too late,” Leija explains. “You have to understand there is a race waiting for you.”
The veteran and entrepreneur wants to give students and young people enough information to set ambitious goals before they decide the direction they want their lives to take. It’s a lesson Leija had to learn himself as he advanced through the Army and wondered whether he fit in alongside his peers.
“Don’t disqualify yourself,” Leija says. “Understand the kind of life you can build for yourself, set goals, and then remain open to what life has in store for you.”
Part of the reason Leija is speaking up is he believes corporate America can have difficulty understanding the valuable skillsets some Veterans can offer.
“I wasn’t exposed to the world of what I would call ‘professional Latinos’ until the last 18 months or so,” Leija explains. “Through organizations like LCDA [Latino Corporate Directors Association] and AVANCE Global, I realized that I could open people’s eyes from my own personal experience.”
The veteran says that whatever room he’s in, be it a dinner, a conference, or a meeting, he considers it his duty to demystify the route from Colonel to industry expert.
In Leija’s case, that route led to Modern Phalanx Solutions, which he founded in 2020 after retiring from the Army. As founder and principal, he advises organizations on strategy, organizational leadership, defense procurement, technology and sometimes acts as an angel investor. His work has included F1 companies out of Italy, university work out of Saudi Arabia, and robotics work out of Brazil. Colombia has also become a centerpiece of some of Leija’s work.
The executive also joined Del Toro Global Associates in July 2025 to help clients navigate national security, geopolitical, and economic challenges, mitigate risk, and identify business opportunities.
These are only a handful of Leija’s accomplishments this decade, but they offer startling proof of concept for what a career after serving in the military can look like. For now, he remains focused on corporate governance, technology, and higher education.
But back to Leija’s mission for today. He wants to ensure that you truly understand yourself and what you are capable of.
“When you get a little bit of clarity about who you really are, some incredible things open up to you,” Leija says. “In your life, that will help you know when you need to make a pivot or go in a different direction. That helps you validate and update your goals. And it will give you the confidence to go after those goals, and though you may not look like everyone around you, you slowly begin to understand you are enough and that you belong…”
