After a record breaking year where Still Serving Veterans (SSV) was named the Huntsville – Madison Chamber’s Nonprofit of the Year, the local nonprofit was starting the process of what would become a months long, nationwide search for a new CEO when Richard Landolt was still settling in to his new home in Madison.

The distinguished Navy Rear Admiral (ret.) had spent the last four years serving as Secretary of Defense Representative to NATO and Europe/Defense Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO in Belgium. Before his time there, Landolt was the Public Safety Director in Mobile for newly elected Mayor Sandy Stimpson.

After moving to Madison in late 2021, Landolt started working for Hill Technical Solutions. The company wanted to expand their business into foreign military sales and the navy retiree was certainly qualified for the job. However, Landolt and all other new hires would be let go when the company was bought out a few months later.

Two weeks later, Landolt was at a veterans happy hour event when he bumped into Paulette Risher from SSV. Risher was looking to wind down on her 11 year tenure as CEO and after talking with Landolt for a bit, she had one piece of advice for him: “You should come apply for my job.”

Landolt did as she advised and after interviewing with the SSV’s Board of Directors in January, he was told the same week that he would be named the nonprofit’s third ever CEO.

HBJ was able to sit down for an interview with new CEO and talk about his first months on the job. When asked about what specifically got him excited about the prospect of working with SSV, Landolt says it was the potential to work on something positive with U.S. veterans.

“It was the empowerment side of the spectrum. You know, when people think about the programs and nonprofits that are out there, they tend to glide towards the suicide or mental health aspects because there are plenty of nonprofits out there that do that,” he explained.

“We specialize more on what I call the positive side of the spectrum, empowering veterans to provide for their families and helping them with their resumes. The whole transition process from being in the military is so consuming that once you leave, there’s almost a grieving process. And it helps if you can transition smoothly into a civilian environment with a job and a well-paying job. So, we do a lot of mentorship around here, helping people with their resumes and we do what I call murder boards where we find job interviews, practice for those interviews and then help them negotiate for their new position. One statistic that I know Paulette loved to use was the fact that 43% of veterans will change their jobs during the first year. So practicing those things is especially beneficial,” Landolt continued.

Landolt also went into detail about how Huntsville is specifically a great location to help veterans find work and also find a place they will call home forever.

“This is a very large veteran community. With the Arsenal being here, a lot of people retire out of the arsenal because they like the community and they see all the defense industry that’s here,” he elaborated.

The numbers back up everything Rich has to say. The VA benefit team at SSV expects to help veterans in North Alabama secure $10M in benefits this year (compared to $6M in 2022) and the employment team is on track to achieve their goal of helping 1,330 veterans find jobs this year. The 2023 average salary so far is $71,000 compared to $69,000 last year.