Terry Thiele

Terry is Synfiny Advisors’ Global Practice Lead for strategic planning as well as sustainability (https://synfiny.com). He marshals over forty years of experience helping government officials, corporate officers, and graduate students think about the future. He has authored a book applying strategic planning methodologies to explore the future survivability of our species (Our Fourth Age: a village elder’s story for young Homines sapientes about their future history @ Amazon books.)


From 2000 until 2018 Terry provided strategic planning and issues advocacy services, both at home and abroad, to Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol Corporation where he also pioneered Lubrizol’s growing involvement with environmental life cycle assessments. In the preceding decade Terry provided similar strategy and advocacy services to the General Electric Company and AB Electrolux.


Terry (TS/SCI) initially spent eleven years in the Federal government with service in the Treasury Department (as legal advisor to the Special Assistant to the Secretary for National Security), the Central Intelligence Agency, The Defense Intelligence Agency (as Legal Advisor to the DoD HUMINT Manager), and the Executive Office of the President (as White House representative on the Intelligence Community’s Legal Group, and Counsel to the Director, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs).


Terry is an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University where he has taught strategic planning at the graduate level, as well as at Cleveland State University’s Monte Ahuja College of Business. He has taught courses on competitive intelligence, disruptive innovation, and eco-efficiency at Baldwin Wallace University’s Carmel Boyer School of Business and Kent State University’s College of Technology. Terry also has lectured at James Madison University, the Defense Intelligence College, and the Customs Service Academy.


Terry received his B.A. magna cum laude in history from Princeton University and his juris doctorate from the New York University School of Law. He is a graduate of the National War College.
Terry served for 15 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General Corps, honorably discharged with the rank of captain. He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.