CEO, Board Chair
CEO, Board Chair
John Givens has over 20 years of experience as a board member, entrepreneur, and corporate executive. In 2010, Mr. Givens founded Bohemia Interactive Simulations Inc, and as president, took military simulation products from inception to production. During his tenure he established the first game-based military Program of Record, “Games for Training”.
Prior to BISim, Mr. Givens created a gaming group in the Army Solutions Division of General Dynamics where he introduced the first game-based training in the US Army and DOD using the Un-Real game engine. Mr. Givens has achieved numerous awards and honors, including appointment to the board of directors of the National Center for Simulation (NCS), an association of defense companies, and the “Pioneer Award” for outstanding contributions and innovations to the training and effectiveness of U.S. and overseas soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
Mr. Givens graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology and proudly served in the United States Army.
Independent Director
Independent Director
Jeffrey Brown has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1993 and a financial planning service provider since 2004, in which he performed financial services for a wide range of companies. Mr. Brown was the CFO and Controller for Gold Canyon Candles, helping increase the annual gross revenue during a period of growth from $8 million to $55 million.
Mr. Brown joined VirTra’s Board of Directors as an independent director in 2011. Previously, he worked for Ernst & Young, performing audits for multiple organizations. Mr. Brown received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from California State University, San Bernardino, and his CPA designation in 1993.
Independent Director
Independent Director
Gregg C.E. Johnson, KM, LL.B., J.D. has served as Chief executive Officer and was Director of Serenus Therapeutics, Inc. from its formation in May 2021. In July 2016, Gregg was one of the founding officers and directors of Vivos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVOS), and was a director and Secretary of Vivos from July 2016 until March 2018, and later as a director from December 2019 through May 2020.
Gregg has also served as the CEO of Upeva, Inc. since January 2017. Upeva provides strategic business consulting services to growing businesses. Among other transactions while at Upeva, Gregg was seconded to the management team of Harvest Health & Recreation, Inc. where he oversaw the restructuring, finance and go-public transaction that resulted in its listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).
Independent Director
Independent Director
Lieutenant General Maria Gervais (ret.) is an accomplished senior executive whose leadership, training, and workforce development skills were refined during 36+ years of Army service. Before retiring, Gervais served as the #2 Executive at the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, where she directed the recruitment, onboarding, and training of 100K employees and the workforce development of over 800K employees each year.
Gervais is a transformational thought leader in the virtual & gaming field. As the Army’s Deputy Commanding General for Combined Arms Training and the first Director of the Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team, Gervais was responsible for overseeing the Army’s collective level training efforts in Live, Virtual, and Constructive environments. She spearheaded a $2 billion modernization initiative that reduced Army training time by three years while enhancing readiness. Her leadership of the US Army’s Synthetic Training Environment project established the vision to revolutionize Army training using emerging virtual and gaming technologies. She pioneered new virtual, AR, live, and 3D terrain technologies which immediately improved training readiness within the Army.
Serving at all echelons and in diverse positions within the Army has provided her strong backgrounds in problem solving, training, leader development, education, finance, and budget, along with Army requirements and acquisition processes.
Independent Director
Independent Director