Interim Superintendent, VMI
Board of Directors for Great Minds in STEM (GMiS)
Retired Major General, U.S. Army
Cedric Wins retired from the U.S. Army after serving for over 34 years. During that time, he led soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in various assignments and as a commander. He is a combat veteran.
He is currently the superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia after serving as vice president of business development for DoD and Army programs within the communications systems segment of L3Harris Technologies. He also serves as a board member on the Board of Directors for Great Minds in STEM (GMiS).
Wins' last assignment while on active duty was the commanding general of the U.S. Army Combat Capability Development Command (CCDC) where he led the transformation and organizational re-alignment of CCDC from the Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) into Army Futures Command (AFC). CCDC is the army’s largest research and development organization with a mission to discover, develop and deliver technology that produces capability to ensure decisive overmatch in unified land operations for soldiers and the joint warfighter.
Wins graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He holds a master's degrees in management from the Florida Institute of Technology and in national security and strategic studies from the National War College.
Throughout his career, Wins served on the army and joint staffs in a number of assignments, his last as the director of force development on the army staff. During his 34 years of service, he held leadership and staff assignments from the grade of lieutenant to lieutenant colonel in the field artillery serving in army divisions. As a colonel and general officer, he led organizations in army major commands, combatant commands and the army and joint staffs.
His operational deployments included a multi-national force and observers mission in Sinai, Egypt; and the NATO training mission for police development in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Wins was a highly decorated officer during his military career culminating with the Distinguished Service Medal.