“No matter what, people are always the most important asset,” said Jennings, who retired as a Colonel in 2013 soon after he completed a one-year deployment in Afghanistan. He joined Empower AI a year later. “As a platoon leader, I could have 30 people, or as a PM, I could be managing 600. Whatever it is, if those people need something and I can help them do it, I feel a responsibility to help.”

Jennings said that’s what he enjoys - helping people be successful at what they do.

“That’s what has always attracted me to Empower AI,” he said. “That’s how they’ve always treated me, which encourages me to treat others the same.”

Jennings noted that he’s been trying to help others be successful his whole life, starting from his days growing up in a small town in southern Illinois, where he enjoyed sports and scouting (he was one of the first Eagle Scouts ever in his community). Those activities led him to an ROTC scholarship at Auburn University where he met his wife, Dianne. After graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the National Guard for a year, before he came on active duty in the Army at Fort Belvoir, Va. He graduated in the top 10 percent of his class, which meant he had his choice between going to Airborne School or becoming an Army Ranger.

“I chose Airborne School, because I liked my current body weight,” he joked. “Ranger School, that’s tough stuff.”