Executive Biography

Full Bio Available Here

Joseph Simms’ understanding of conflict, strategy, and human performance is grounded in direct experience—from the battlefield to the boardroom, from being taken hostage aboard a Turkish Airlines flight to the disciplined study of Japanese swordsmanship. His background spans active and reserve service in the United States Marine Corps, corporate security, consulting, entrepreneurship, and academia.

Underlying these diverse experiences has been a lifelong inquiry into conflict, reality, and the human condition. Never absent, it has moved between foreground and background—at times a demanding struggle, at others a quieter influence on Joseph’s choices, pursuits, and understanding. More than thirty-eight years ago, it took recognizable form as a restless search for purpose, direction, and fulfillment and has since matured into a disciplined practice.

Joseph’s business experience spans corporate and government security, business continuity, risk management, and entrepreneurial ventures across industries and national boundaries. Through this work, he gained firsthand insight into entrepreneurship, decision-making, and the power of relationships.

In 2020, Joseph was designated successor to the current headmaster of Ittō Tenshin-ryū® and tasked with serving as head instructor. He also received the highest licenses in Yamate-ryū® Aikijutsu and Goseki-ryū® Aiki Heihō. These recognitions marked a decisive turning point: carrying the traditions forward to a new generation became the sole focus of his work. He approaches this responsibility first as a student, committed to continued study and practice while finding meaningful ways to share their teachings beyond the dōjō.

The enduring wisdom of these traditions lies not only in their teachings on strategy and the act of cutting but also in their methods for cultivating a person capable of cutting and living with the consequences of their actions. This wisdom transcends culture and context. Its strategic teachings extend far beyond martial conflict, while its methods for developing the human spirit are timeless.

In fulfillment of this responsibility, Joseph serves as an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, where he introduces students to these martial traditions’ teachings on conflict, strategy, and human performance. He wrote the foreword to the second edition of Frederick J. Lovret’s seminal work, The Way and The Power: Secrets of Japanese Strategy. He also hosts The Way and The Power, a podcast devoted to conflict, strategy, and human performance that examines how the teachings preserved within these martial traditions can be practiced in contemporary life.

Joseph’s work has spanned the battlefield, boardroom, courtroom, classroom, and dōjō, yet beneath them all lies a single realization: the essence of life is struggle, and its goal is to overcome. The reality of life is conflict. From this fundamental understanding arises the question at the heart of his work: How can one live a balanced and meaningful life amid conflict? His answer lies in realizing an orderly, unfettered, and powerful way of being—and then serving something greater than oneself.

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