Michael “Fjet” Fjetland, CEO, Armor Glass, began his career as an international attorney, global troubleshooter, strategic and security advisor, and then became an entrepreneur, author, and speaker whose career has taken him from an Iowa farm to assignments and experiences across approximately 50 countries.
Fjetland grew up milking cows before sunrise on his family’s Iowa farm. Education changed the direction of his life. He learned to fly, earned his law degree, moved to Texas, and began a legal career that would ultimately span more than five decades.
His international career began in the corporate world and developed into extensive experience in international business, negotiations, contracts, disputes, and complex cross-border problems. Working around the world taught him that international problems rarely fit neatly into a single category. Law, business, culture, politics, personalities, security, and negotiation often collide—and solving the problem requires understanding all of them.
Some assignments went far beyond conventional legal practice. In Europe, Fjetland became involved in investigating a sophisticated multimillion-dollar international fraud involving activities in Amsterdam and Brussels. In another extraordinary case, he traveled to Syria with a Texas mother attempting to recover her 12-year-old daughter.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Houston’s FOX 26 called upon Fjetland as a terrorism analyst. He appeared regularly on television discussing terrorism, the Middle East, and emerging threats during a period when Americans were trying to understand a dramatically changed security environment.
A lifelong pilot, Fjetland also served with the Civil Air Patrol after 911, the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, participating in search activities including those associated with the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
After serving as a TV Terrrorism Analyst after 911, he brought his security experience into the private sector as President of Armor Glass International, Inc., focused on strengthening one of the most vulnerable components of buildings—the glass protecting the people inside. That work reinforced a principle that now forms an important part of his strategic philosophy: every organization has a weakest link, and the time to find it is before a crisis does.
Today, Fjetland advises and speaks on international affairs, global risk, security, emerging technology, geopolitical change, organizational vulnerability, international negotiations, and America’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing world.
His experiences also led him to develop The Fjet Doctrine: Think Ahead. Build Ahead. Lead Ahead. The doctrine challenges leaders to look beyond today’s problems, identify tomorrow’s risks and opportunities, question established assumptions, and prepare before circumstances force them to react.
Whether examining an international business problem, a security vulnerability, an emerging geopolitical threat, or an organization’s long-term strategy, Fjetland begins with a deceptively simple question:
“What are we missing?”
After a lifetime spanning an Iowa farm, aviation, law, international negotiations, television, crisis situations, and entrepreneurship, his central message remains equally straightforward:
The future belongs to those who prepare for it.
