Joe Bonavolonta: Lessons from 27 Years in the FBI on Risk, Leadership, and Decision Making

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Joe Bonavolonta,Bonavolonta. I’m good. Right, I got this. Yeah. Okay.

Joe Bonavolonta : You got it. You got it. That was perfect.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. Fantastic. So welcome to Joe Bonavolonta, principal at W1 Global and a former FBI executive with a distinguished 27 year career leading high stakes operations across the country. Joe served as a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Field office, where he led more than 1200 employees across a four state region overseeing major criminal and national security investigations. His career also included senior leadership roles in counterintelligence and cyber operations in both Washington, D.C. and Boston, along with extensive work targeting organized crime, including La Cosa Nostra. He’s led through some of the most complex and challenging moments in recent history, bringing a steady, disciplined approach to leadership under pressure. Today, Joe applies those same principles in the private sector as principal at WW1 Global, helping organizations navigate risk leadership and complex challenges. Joe, welcome to the show.

Joe Bonavolonta : Well thank you. It’s a pleasure being here. And you reading that bio. It was only three years ago. I left the bureau, but it feels like a lifetime ago.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s amazing how time really passes so fast, isn’t it? So, Joe, why don’t you tell us just a little bit more about yourself?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, once again, a really the the majority of my early and mid adult life was spent in the FBI through New York, uh, city, Newark, new Jersey, Boston, with a couple of stops in headquarters at Washington DC. And really, you know, it all started for me, you know, just to go a little bit beyond the bio that you went over is, for me, it really was a family affair. Uh, my father was an FBI agent for 24 years. And so I grew up in that environment. That’s what I knew. And even though it was something that was never once even remotely pushed upon me by him, um, you know, I look back on it now at, you know, in my early 50s. And I know that just through osmosis, you know, through the atmosphere and, you know, being an FBI agent Really, it’s a way of life. It’s not just a job. And so I grew up with that. And that was something that obviously resonated very heavily with me. Um, you know, and so I look back now really with fond memories of that. And it was just a tremendous experience.

Joe Bonavolonta : It was a way of life. And it was, I just had the I was the lucky individual in being able to work with some of the most talented men and women, um, for decades, uh, you know, that I’ve ever met. So it was just a real, a real joy for me to be able to carry on, you know, sort of that family tradition. But, you know, I’m sure we’re going to get into this, but from a leadership perspective, um, you know, even speaking to my father now who’s in his 80s and, and he, he, you know, held some very high profile positions in the FBI. And we would compare notes a little bit. And really during my last position, which was as the head of the FBI Boston division for almost five years. Um, just going through that, in addition to all of the changes in so many major, major events that were occurring in this country right at that time really made for some significant leadership challenges. And, you know, and something I look back on is tremendous learning experiences.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And I was very interested in having you on this on the show, Joe, because you have so much experience leading in chaos. You’ve led through very major national security challenges. So what for you? What is effective leadership look like when everything feels uncertain?

Joe Bonavolonta : It’s a great question. And there was during that time frame, there was more uncertainty than I think any of us that were in those positions that were running large field offices, uh, you know, cared to, you know, have to endure. But really what it comes down to, you know, to try to simplify it the best I can is really just making sure that when you, you ascend into a position like that. I am a firm believer that you have to have already put in the reps or the repetitions. Um, I don’t think there’s any other way to get around that or to avoid that or even to fake that. And what I basically mean is especially, you know, having the position that I held is running the FBI field office, which was one of the largest field offices in the country, covered all FBI operations in four states in the New England region. And if you don’t have that basic foundation from which to draw from, positions like that can really creep up on you, especially when there is chaos and major crisis or significant events going on. And by that foundation, I mean, you know, have you put in the reps to have been a very successful, uh, investigative case agent for the FBI? You know, that’s the foundation. And then from that, you know, comes dealing with so many different issues with United States attorneys offices, prosecutors working in task force environments with other agency law enforcement partners.

Joe Bonavolonta : And then as you ascend into the leadership roles, whether you’re a squad supervisor or you, you get into the the beginning stages of executive management. I was always a firm believer that getting the reps really would would make becoming a special agent in charge and being able to do that job much easier. Because when a crisis does occur, um, you can, you know, draw back on actual real life experiences. You could draw back on things that you did, you know, that worked very well or just as importantly, things that were done in the past that may not have worked very well, but you learned from. And so once again, there’s a lot of different dynamics to, you know, successfully leading, you know, such large groups or offices or entities. But what it comes down to is nothing can mask having that foundation or that experience to draw from. And I think that’s really vital when individuals are making those decisions to either enter into leadership positions or if they’re being recruited or mentored by others to enter into those positions. I think that, you know, being really self-aware in terms of where you’ve been and what you’ve done, and is this a position that you would be suited to fulfill?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So at its core, there’s always this question, Joe, are you born as a leader or do you become a leader? What are your thoughts around how someone lands in even an early leadership position? Were they born and meant to be there, or is it something that they went after and they actually learned it?

Joe Bonavolonta : Yeah, that’s the whole, uh, you know, nature versus nurture type, uh, concept, which is, it’s a great one. And really, you know, not I’m not in any way trying to be, you know, um, uh, evasive in answering the question, but I, I think it is, it’s a mixture of the two. I, I do firmly believe that early on, there are individuals that clearly show signs of, of having the potential to be very good leaders. You know, even as an investigative case agent, if you are a special agent in the FBI, because there’s many different job roles that are not special agent roles. But for the purposes of this discussion, if you’re a special agent, you start off as you investigate cases. You know, you’re you’re what they call a street agent or a brick agent. But even in that role, uh, you can absolutely exude leadership capabilities in the way you handle yourself and how you, you navigate certain challenges and issues. Um, and then you can build on those. So I do think there is some sense of an innate ability to, to be a leader. And a lot of that has to do with early life experiences. You know, the one thing about the FBI is remember that the average age of a brand new special agent over time generally tends to be about 30 to 31 years old. And that’s actually because the bureau always is looking for individuals with significant life experience behind them before they come in.

Joe Bonavolonta : And there’s good reason for that. So there’s a lot of individuals who come in that have already had experiences, whether it be military, previous law enforcement or corporate America where they were leading teams already. But to answer your question, I do think there’s a combination where some individuals seem to have it in their DNA, where maybe they were raised, you know, a mother, a father, a mentor, you know, a coach, uh, somebody early in life, um, you know, who really instilled those values with them and they just took naturally to it. But then there’s a lot of the nurture part, which is, you know, really aligning yourself with individuals that you see are very respected leaders and trying to learn as much from them as you can. And that’s what I did. You know, I look at, you know, growing up, you know, I’ve used my father as an example. I thought he was a former special Forces, um, you know, team leader in the Vietnam War. And then from there he went into the FBI. So I grew up with an individual who exuded a very confident leadership type abilities. Um, and then when I got into the bureau, I also made sure that I attached myself and worked with individuals that were much more senior than I was, who were greatly respected throughout the ranks. And, and that, in my opinion, that combination, I think, is what can make a very effective leader.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I heard you thing I heard you say things like getting in the reps and that really is getting out there and doing the things that and being the person that you want to be in the future and learning the things that you need to learn to just get better at the craft that you’re in front of. The thing that you want to do. And then you mentioned something about a lot of the agents coming in or on average, are 31, because we want them to have had life experience. So can we talk about decision making under pressure, because I think that is part of why we want more mature people in some of these leadership positions is because they do have life experience. So when there’s no such thing as perfect information, how do you make the right call under pressure?

Joe Bonavolonta : Well, you hit the nail right on the head, whether it’s information or intelligence that you’re relying on. Um, you know, waiting for the day for any of that to be perfect, that will make a potentially difficult or challenging decision seem easy. Um, you’ll be waiting a very, very long time. So, you know, it’s one of those things, you know, and I can give you a real life example is during my tenure as the head of the FBI Boston office, um, you know, let alone take away any other current event that was going on at the time. If you just put that aside for a second, it was one of the highest operational tempo offices in the country once again for states, um, all different kinds of national security and criminal threats that we needed to address on a daily basis. Um, so just the operational, uh, you know, atmosphere and tempo in its own right with literally hundreds and hundreds of active cases and operations going on at the same time during that five year period. And so with that comes a significant amount of strategic planning. In other words, where are we going to devote our personnel and our resources to best address all of these threats? So these were decisions that myself and my executive management team had to make, relying very heavily on, uh, intelligence and operational, uh, information and activities and try to combine them and make the best decisions there.

Joe Bonavolonta : But then there’s also working with a number of different task forces like Joint terrorism, task forces, safe streets, gang task forces, cyber and counterintelligence task forces. And then of course, there’s working with the prosecutorial entities, you know, different United States Attorney’s offices and doing a lot of proactive outreach to corporate America, academia, things along those lines. So when you take all that into consideration, then when you add on to that during the time period that we’re talking about, it’s incredibly significant in some ways, unprecedented. Um, current events were happening. You had the out, you had the Covid outbreak, which tremendously affected even the way government was operating at that time, let alone the rest of society. And then you also had, you know, uh, George Floyd, you had, uh, January 6th, you have all these different things that are occurring that are causing significant polarization within the country. And so you, when you factor all of these, you know, out things on the, on the, you know, the atmospheric things in to the everyday operational issues, it can create really significant leadership challenges in terms of how do you effectively manage and lead a 1200 plus employee workforce to make sure that in addition to everything else that’s going on, you can stay focused on the mission and the strategy? Because at the end of the day, I always took this to heart every single day is that I considered our boss to be the American citizen, the American taxpayer who expect a certain level of of professionalism from the FBI.

Joe Bonavolonta : So with all these things going on, you have to remember, and this was the biggest thing I learned is that FBI agents. You know, they’re not robots. They’re not machines. As much as you know, the general public may view them that way. They’re human beings. Their mothers, their fathers. They’re taking care of elderly parents every day. Um, they have children or relatives that live with them that have significant disabilities. So they have the same financial stresses, you know, that a lot of people do. So in and around these significant issues that were occurring in, in addition to having to carry on in the mission and execute it. Um, you know, from a leadership perspective, I just always kept that in mind to the best I could that you have to definitely strike that balance in terms of making sure the mission continues, but also making sure that the employees know and really believe that you care about them and that you’re also going to be making decisions based on that as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh. Yes. We’re all human and sometimes we forget, right? In this public entity that we expect to go and care for us and make sure that we’re protected, that it’s full of humans and not robots. And we should consider that when we’re thinking about that. Thank you for sharing all of that. It’s so, um, sounds so complicated. So, so many moving parts and you having to make decisions around all of those things that are happening around you. And thank you for your service. Really appreciate what you’ve done in the past. And I want to move into transferable lessons and your transition out and into entrepreneurship before we get there. I know that there are folks who probably want to learn more about Joe. So what is the best way for people to reach out or to connect with you?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So I’m on LinkedIn. You could under Joseph Bonavolonta, but, you know, you could look me up on LinkedIn. And then our current my my firm W1 Global. If you just simply, you know, very easy, just type in W1 Global incorporated and we have a website where you can see what we do and the bios of not only myself, but my fellow principals in the firm.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Thank you for that. All right, you guys, if you’re looking on LinkedIn, I’m sure that you’re going to be able to spell Joe’s last name. It’s BONAVOLONTA, so that you can find him on LinkedIn, or as he mentioned, you can go over to the W1 Global site. So, Joe, I want to talk about W1 Global, um, and how the transition was for you. So you retired. You’ll have to tell us a little bit about the transition from retirement into entrepreneurship and the transferable lessons that you brought with you.

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, leaving the Bureau, that’s something that’s been an age old, uh, source of major stress for so many FBI agents that, you know, are my colleagues and friends over the years. Because when you devote, whether it’s 20 or 30 plus years to a very, an incredibly mission driven, uh, agency like the FBI, um, you know, making that initial move into the private sector can absolutely be a daunting one. And everybody feels it. And especially for FBI executives, you know, historically there’s two, you know, there’s there’s always variables to this. But, you know, for the purposes of this discussion, there’s two, you know, general pathways that FBI executives follow when they do go back into the private sector. One is the pure corporate, you know, security route where, you know, they’re very well versed or adept at going into head of security, Global head of security for a major corporation, things along those lines. Um, there’s another pathway where it’s more the consulting or the entrepreneurial pathway just to do something completely different than what they may have done in the FBI, I was presented when I started to, you know, when it became firm when I was going to retire from the FBI, I had some really good, insightful conversations with a couple of trusted former mentors of mine that were FBI agents, you know, and had a successful transition into the private sector. But more just as importantly, I reached out to a couple of really trusted individuals, um, who I had developed within my network over the years that were pure private sector executives in different industries.

Joe Bonavolonta : And the question I would pose to them is, you know, how do you think somebody with my experience, um, would best be able to transfer my skills effectively into the private sector? And it was really those conversations that sort of guided me much more toward the entrepreneurial and the consulting pathway, simply just because I had spent 27 years, all of which I just loved in the f b, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But the FBI is a very big organization and it is a bureaucracy. And I was not necessarily looking to go back into a major institution or bureaucracy. I wanted to have independence a little bit more freedom to do things that I wanted to do, and really to continue solving complex problems, but for many different clients. So there would be a variety where I felt I could really draw upon my leadership experience, but also my investigative experience and everything else that I accrued during 27 years in the in the FBI. And, you know, it was a daunting move. It really is a leap of faith. And now that I’m more than three years into it and we’re doing extremely well at W1 Global, I couldn’t have asked for a better transition. But I will tell you, and anybody knows this who’s gone the entrepreneurial route when you’re really building a business is it’s it is, it is incredibly difficult.

Joe Bonavolonta : Um, you know, there are really hard days. It is a constant grind, but there’s nothing more satisfying than when you actually start to see all of the seeds that, you know, collectively, the team plants. And then all of a sudden it really starts building and the referrals come in, the word of mouth gets out, the client satisfaction is really high. You, you, you just have a sense of, of satisfaction that is hard to put words to, you know, when you’re in the middle of it. And so, you know, once again, very difficult decision because and I don’t mean this to be pejorative at all, because it’s not. Um, but when a lot of individuals that leave government service, in this case, the FBI, especially executives, many of them just historically are steered right into more, uh, they go from one institution into another because that’s what they’re comfortable with and that’s what they know. And they do a phenomenal job. But going more of that, that entrepreneurial route can be a little bit more daunting because there’s not as much security behind it. And you’re taking a little bit more of a leap of faith. But like anything else in life, when you start to see the success and you and I’m a firm believer that success breeds success. Um, then, you know, things start really making sense. And, and, and I look back at the decision I made and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. Okay. Tell us what W1 Global provides as a service.

Joe Bonavolonta : So W1 Global is a. There are three main lines of businesses, but lines of business. There was the foundational line of business for when the firm was founded is Investigative Advisory services. So that’s simply just providing some very complex investigative um services, but also helping ultra high net worth clients and corporations resolve complex problems, whether it’s regulatory compliance issues, um, you know, other kinds of high end fraud, insider threat type issues, due diligence, you know, type issues, uh, KYC, those kinds of things. The other line of business that is exponentially grown is our security consulting line of business. So that’s things like executive protection, threat vulnerability risk assessments for individuals and corporations. Um, you know, really ways that we, you know, one of the lines of business through that service that is really grown sadly. Uh, you know, since the, um, the assassination of the United healthcare CEO has been firms that may not have a full time or a large security team have asked us to come in and do all different kinds of physical assessments, but also, um, serve as almost like a virtual or a fractional chief security officer. So they have a firm they can trust with a pedigree to go to for those services. And then lastly, we have our own in-house Global intelligence office and intelligence. It was this way when I was post nine over 11, when I was with the Bureau, and even more so in corporate America is having the ability to produce, um, in depth, uh, you know, intelligence, uh, desktop research, Osint, but also Humint, human intelligence. And with the network, we have, um, you know, we have a Global reach and that combination of open source intelligence and human intelligence is something that I’ve seen the need just dramatically increase from a variety of different clients. So those are the three main lines of business that we’re engaged in.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, wonderful. So as we get to the back end of our conversation, I want to circle back to something that we started with early on. And you talked about the people you surround yourself with and the alignment of that. I know because you and I had a conversation before this that you chose to work with people that you already trusted. So how important is the, um, that alignment when you were building this next chapter?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, you mentioned the word trust. And to me, you know, if I if I were to have to answer that question in one word, that that’s what it would have been. You know, at the end of the day, the, the lines of service that we provide to clients are really derived from collectively, uh, you know, like well over 170 to almost 200 years of collective experience either within the FBI, the DEA or private sector, you know, as well. Um, you know, that is one thing in terms of, you know, actually executing the job and, and really cultivating clients and solving complex problems for them. But in, once again, in my opinion, based on the experience that I’ve had, that does not work well if you’re not working with a group where there is true inherent trust. And so when you look at our firm, The majority of us were individuals that actually knew each other from when we were in our early to mid 20s, when we were brand new investigative case agents in the FBI. And some of us were even Swat team members together. Where you over over the course of 30 years? You know, it’s a similar thing in law enforcement as well as military. If you’re working in the private sector with individuals that you worked with, whether it be law enforcement or military for almost 30 years, that level of trust is, is resolute. And there’s, there’s no doubting that. So when you’re going over a strategic vision for where you want to take the company, when we’re talking about whether to take on a certain client or not, or when we’re, when we’re talking about bringing, you know, growing the company and bringing additional people in, um, that inherent level of trust that already exists is is incredibly vital.

Joe Bonavolonta : And that’s one of the that’s really the main thing that every day I’m thankful for. And I know my colleagues are. And we talk about this amongst ourselves all the time to be able to effectively transfer our skills from the FBI into an entrepreneurial effort that is working very well, and to be doing it with like minded people, individuals that we’ve known for decades. What that does is that really negates, uh, the drama. There’s no personnel issues that we have to worry about. There’s no extraneous headaches that can take our focus away from doing the day to day job. And that’s something that in the private sector, and I’m sure, you know, Trisha, that’s not very common. Um, you know, to be able to work in an environment like that, um, is hard to put a price on. And so that’s why, uh, you know, looking back, uh, you know, I there’s no regrets at all in that level of trust is such an important part of what we do. And lastly, I can tell you unequivocally that in client engagements that we have when we’re on calls together and we’re talking through a problem, clients in corporate America pick up on that immediately when they’re dealing, or they’re engaged with an entity that they’re going to to help solve a problem for them. And they can just see by the way that that entity engages amongst each other that there’s really no tension, there’s no drama, and that they’re there to solve a problem, that that goes a long way because people are very savvy. Uh, C-suite level executives are very good at picking up on little nuances that can come forth if that level of trust isn’t there. Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And having that internal trust exudes the external trust that’s coming from your clients. This has been amazing, Joe. I know we’ve only scratched the surface. Unfortunately, we’re out of time today, so I may have to ask you to come back so we can take some of this stuff a little deeper. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I appreciate you taking the time to join me today.

Joe Bonavolonta : Well, thank you for reaching out to me. It was a pleasure. And also thank you. You know, I know you’re a veteran and, you know, it’s one of the the reasons why I agreed to come on because I really want to thank you for your service. And that’s something that’s very near and dear to me. So thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. I appreciate that so much, you guys. I will have the links in the show notes to everywhere that you can find. Joe, the website that I want you to go check out is w1-Global.com. That’s where you’re going to find more information about W1 Global. And then as Joe mentioned, you can pick or connect with him on LinkedIn at Joseph BONAVOLONTA. Did you see how I skirted saying your last name, Joe? I’ll spell it for everyone. Thank you again. I appreciate your time so much.

Joe Bonavolonta : Thank you very much.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Joe and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or Houston business leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show because it helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.