To see the menu, please view on a larger screen.

About

Executive Biography and Track Record

Dr. W. Ethan Eagle is an enterprise strategy and organizational transformation leader who helps organizations build the people, systems, and capabilities required to adapt, innovate, and execute in complex environments.

Portrait of Dr. W. Ethan Eagle

Why leaders bring him in

His work sits at the intersection of enterprise strategy, leadership development, organizational psychology, and systems thinking. Rather than stopping at analysis, he translates strategy into organizational action through executive facilitation, leadership development, and capability building.

Known as a master facilitator, award-winning presenter, educator, and executive coach, he creates clarity, engagement, and shared ownership across executive teams, technical groups, and cross-functional organizations facing difficult change.

Leadership impact

14 Project Mercury cohorts
80+ organizational coaches developed
400+ program graduates
2,000+ workshop participants
22 installations reached
5 countries supported

Business identifiers

D-U-N-S Number
14-299-9500
U.S. Government Unique Entity Identifier
DJH2VG8EL964
Employer Identification Number (EIN)
41-3096529
NAICS Codes
541611 / 611430

Areas of expertise

  • Enterprise strategy
  • Organizational transformation
  • Leadership development
  • Executive facilitation
  • Discovery-driven strategy
  • Systems thinking
  • Capability design
  • Executive coaching
  • Innovation ecosystems
  • Stakeholder engagement

Current work

  • Founded Build the Change in 2026 to help senior leaders build measurable systems for discovery-driven strategy, experimentation, and organizational learning.
  • Designing the Edwards Innovation Acceleration Pathway to develop high-potential innovators through coaching, experimentation, and stronger Air Force ecosystem connections.
  • Leading governance, participation, and ecosystem assessment work for the NATO Innovation Network.
  • From 2019 to 2025, led Project Mercury training programs and coached thousands of military and civilian personnel across the United States and NATO.
Air & Space Forces profile War on the Rocks essay

Earlier industry experience

  • Before his defense and NATO transformation work, Dr. Eagle partnered with Fortune 500 organizations including Toyota, Bosch, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Lear Corporation, and ITC on strategic innovation, organizational development, and leadership initiatives.
  • That earlier work sharpened the same strengths that define Build the Change today: translating complex concepts for technical and operational audiences, facilitating cross-functional collaboration, and helping leaders turn analysis into aligned action.
  • His PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, post-doc work at Sandia National Labs, and years of professorial experience add technical depth to that strategy, facilitation, and capability-building background.

Every organization is building something.
The question is whether it is building deliberately.

Executive philosophy

Blog

Latest from Substack
open Substack

Loading latest posts...

Pricing

Capability Building Engagements

Offerings are organized into three engagement tiers so leaders can match the level of support to the problem, team, and decision tempo.

Package Pricing

Leadership Alignment + Team Acceleration

$20,750 workshop, review, accelerator + 3-month coaching

Sr. Leader Innovation Workshop

$2,250

Align senior leaders around sponsorship, decision criteria, and where to focus innovation effort first.

Innovation Review

$4,500

Pressure-test a live initiative, identify the key gaps, and leave with a practical action path.

2-Day Ideation Accelerator

$9,000

Turn promising problem statements into stronger concepts, assumptions, and next experiments.

Executive or Team Coaching

$5,000 / 3 months

Sustain momentum after the event work with structured follow-through, accountability, and strategic guidance.

What the package is designed to do

  • Give senior leaders a common frame for sponsorship and decision-making
  • Clarify the most important project or opportunity before broader team work begins
  • Accelerate ideation and evidence planning in a facilitated two-day engagement
  • Carry the work forward with three months of follow-through coaching

Workshop and accelerator pricing is typically scoped per team. In-person facilitation is billed separately from travel. Custom engagements are quoted to scope.

Tier One

Workshops and Accelerators

Structured sessions for leaders and teams that need alignment, fast feedback, or a stronger starting point for concept development.

Sr. Leader Innovation Workshop

$2,250

leadership workshop

Best for: Senior leaders aligning sponsorship, priorities, and decision rules.

Includes: Innovation landscape brief, leadership framing, and next-step recommendations.

Innovation Review

$4,500

project review and triage

Best for: Teams or sponsors who need fast direction on a live initiative.

Includes: Project assessment, gap analysis, and a prioritized action path.

2-Day Ideation Accelerator

$9,000

two-day facilitated accelerator

Best for: Cross-functional teams shaping opportunities, concepts, and next experiments.

Includes: Facilitated ideation, concept refinement, and evidence-planning outputs.

Custom Engagements

By Request

custom scope

Best for: Teams that need something tailored to a specific mission problem or event format.

Includes: Scope built around the objective, participant group, and delivery timeline.

Tier Two

Coaching and Facilitation

Longer support for teams that need continuity after a workshop or a strong facilitator in the room for a strategic event.

Executive or Team Coaching

$5,0003 months

recurring coaching engagement

Best for: Leaders or teams who need accountability, strategic feedback, and continued momentum.

Includes: Structured coaching cadence, targeted advisory support, and agreed follow-through priorities.

In-Person Strategic Event Facilitation

$4,000full day

$2,500 half day plus travel expenses

Best for: Leadership offsites, strategy sessions, and decision-oriented team events.

Includes: Facilitation design, live delivery, and structure to move the room toward concrete decisions.

Tier Three

Advisory Support

Flexible access when you need a senior thought partner without committing to a longer engagement.

On-Call Advising

$350per hour

as needed

Best for: Leaders and builders who want rapid feedback, framing, or strategic input on demand.

Includes: Office-hours style advising with focus defined by the immediate problem.

Testimonials

Feedback from Participants and Peers

Across Project Mercury, AFWERX-adjacent work, and leadership-development engagements, the same themes show up repeatedly: psychological safety, clarity, rigor, and momentum.

“The level of psychological safety created during the experience by Dr. Eagle was one of the most fortifying professional environments I've encountered.”
AFWERX Fellow October 2024
“Dr. Eagle changed my life.”
Project Mercury participant
“Dr. Eagle's storytelling is magnetic, making complex ideas relatable and inspiring those 'aha!' moments.”
Program participant learning and facilitation assessment
“Ethan's ability to distill complex concepts into understandable and actionable advice was invaluable and his approachability and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure our comprehension and progress were exceptional.”
Program participant coaching and instruction assessment
“Best facilitator for an AF training that I have seen.”
Air Force participant
“Ethan is a gem. His intelligence and wholehearted dedication were pivotal in enhancing my learning experience. His mentorship not only expanded my knowledge, but also instilled a sense of confidence and drive to continually strive for growth.”
Program participant leadership development assessment

Product

How Build the Change Moves Ideas Into Evidence

Build the Change is designed to move organizations from innovation activities to a repeatable capability grounded in leadership behavior, experimentation, and disciplined execution.

01

Frame the mission problem

Identify meaningful problems, align stakeholders, and challenge assumptions before resources are committed.

02

Coach innovation in practice

Use challenge-based learning, facilitation, and coaching to turn promising innovators into capable practitioners.

03

Generate evidence fast

Design experiments, run stakeholder interviews, prototype rapidly, and convert learning into leadership-ready recommendations.

04

Leave capability behind

Develop facilitators, connect teams to wider innovation ecosystems, and build repeatable systems that survive turnover and mission pressure.

What the offering builds

Discovery-driven strategy

Shift from idea volume to disciplined learning, problem framing, and evidence-seeking decisions.

Leadership development

Give senior leaders and high-potential practitioners a common language for sponsorship, experimentation, and change.

Experimentation discipline

Build repeatable habits for testing assumptions, reducing uncertainty, and producing credible decision packages.

Executive communication

Strengthen storytelling, stakeholder engagement, and the translation of complex work into action.

Ecosystem connection

Link local teams to broader Air Force and NATO innovation communities so momentum does not stay isolated.

What success looks like

  • Innovation practitioners who know how to identify meaningful problems, engage stakeholders, test assumptions, and move solutions toward implementation.
  • Projects that produce evidence packages suitable for leadership decisions, pilot funding, or operational ownership.
  • Teams that maintain momentum after workshops because experimentation, coaching, and review cycles are built in.
  • Organizations that measure progress by people capable of creating change rather than by the number of ideas generated.

From activity to capability

Current state

  • Innovation energy exists, but projects stall after workshops.
  • Leadership support is strong, yet evaluation and scaling are inconsistent.
  • Too many ideas compete with too few experiments.
  • Ecosystem visibility and facilitator capacity remain limited.

Build the Change

  • Accelerator design and practitioner coaching
  • Experimentation frameworks and challenge-based learning
  • Evidence generation, project acceleration, and review cycles
  • Ecosystem connections and executive communication support

Desired state

  • Trained innovation practitioners and facilitator depth
  • Repeatable experimentation and evidence-based decisions
  • Leadership-ready projects connected to wider Air Force resources
  • Innovation treated as an organizational capability rather than a series of activities.

Success will not be measured by the number of ideas generated. Success will be measured by the number of people capable of creating change.

Edwards Innovation Acceleration Pathway executive summary