Anthony Bourke

Early life

Anthony Bourke grew up in California, attending Palo Alto High School between 1977 and 1981. After graduating, he studied at the University of California, Berkeley between 1981 and 1985, where he earned a BA in history and French. As a result, he speaks French fluently. While in college, he also played soccer.

Career

During his time in the Air Force and California Air National Guard, Anthony ‘AB’ Bourke distinguished himself as one of the nation’s premier fighter pilots, accumulating more than 2,700 hours of flight time in numerous high-performance aircraft. After the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he was called upon as one of the first F-16 pilots to patrol the skies above New York City in homeland defence.

Following his accomplished, twenty-year military career, Bourke transitioned into civilian life by accepting a job as a mortgage banker for a prominent lending institution. There, he applied the tools and techniques that he learned during his Air Force training to the notoriously competitive world of American business. He thrived in this new setting, quickly becoming the lender’s top producer in the Western United States.

His stellar performance in the mortgage industry opened up new opportunities for Bourke, and he chose to accept an offer from a startup based in California. Along with his team of 40 other professionals, he grew the company’s revenue from $500,000 to over $65 million in only three years.

Building on the success of these two positions, Anthony Bourke partnered with two other fighter pilots to launch a new business, Afterburner Inc., a global management training company. Under his leadership as president and CEO, Afterburner Inc. was quickly recognized as a top-tier training company and was twice named one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies. The business was shuttered in 2007, after more than a decade of operations.

Concurrent with his rise in the private sector, in 2003, with the help of his wife, brother, and neighbors, Anthony ‘AB’ Bourke debuted his own brand of wine, producing an artisanal Chardonnay and Pinot Noir under the label Hale Mary. Four years later, they moved their winemaking operations to a vineyard in Sebastopol, California, located just north of San Francisco.

In 2010, Anthony Bourke founded Mach 2 Consulting, a management training company that harnesses his tactical knowledge gained from two decades as a fighter jet pilot and his vast experience in the private sector to train leaders and executives from a wide variety of industries. The company also serves as the platform from which Bourke organizes his many professional speaking engagements.

Since the inception of Mach 2 Consulting, Anthony ‘AB’ Bourke has traveled throughout the globe delivering keynote addresses. As of 2024, he has spoken in twelve countries and lectured to over 100,000 people. Some of the topics and themes he addresses in his speeches include leadership, teamwork, peak performance, communication, and innovation. His unique insights, undeniable stage presence, and ability to connect with audiences caused Inc. Magazine to include him on their list of ‘100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference’ in 2014.

Anthony Bourke currently sits on the boards of directors for the Merry Edwards Winery, the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital in San Francisco, and the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis.

Net Worth

Unknown