Michael “Bret” Hood spent 25 years as an FBI Special Agent investigating complex cases while specializing in financial crimes, corruption, and money laundering violations. Upon his retirement in 2016, Bret opened 21st Century Learning & Consulting, LLC, a training and consulting business designed to help prevent people from making the mistakes that lead that first lead them down the slippery slope.
Since retiring, Bret has been recruited by both the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and the university of Virginia to become adjunct faculty members. Bret teaches fraud, leadership, corporate governance, implicit bias, and ethics for these organizations and was awarded the ACFE’s James R. Baker Speaker of the Year award in 2020. Bret currently serves on the Southern Illinois University Board of Accounting and is a former advisory council member for Mt. St. Mary’s University forensic accounting program.
In 2023, Bret was selected t
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Michael “Bret” Hood spent 25 years as an FBI Special Agent investigating complex cases while specializing in financial crimes, corruption, and money laundering violations. Upon his retirement in 2016, Bret opened 21st Century Learning & Consulting, LLC, a training and consulting business designed to help prevent people from making the mistakes that lead that first lead them down the slippery slope.
Since retiring, Bret has been recruited by both the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and the university of Virginia to become adjunct faculty members. Bret teaches fraud, leadership, corporate governance, implicit bias, and ethics for these organizations and was awarded the ACFE’s James R. Baker Speaker of the Year award in 2020. Bret currently serves on the Southern Illinois University Board of Accounting and is a former advisory council member for Mt. St. Mary’s University forensic accounting program.
In 2023, Bret was selected to do two separate TedX talks on ethics. Bret has presented completely interactive instructional programs on ethics, fraud, implicit bias, and leadership to Fortune 500 companies from all over the world. In addition, Bret has served as an expert witness for financial crimes and money laundering while with the FBI as well as since retirement from the FBI.
Some of the top public and private entities in the world have sought out Bret to assist them in creating, adapting, and modifying anti-fraud, anti-corruption, and anti-money laundering programs to interweave the latest behavioral and neuroscience research into their prevention programs. Bret continues to publish articles on best practices in Fraud Magazine, Compliance and Ethics Professional magazine, ACAMS Today, National Mortgage Professional Magazine, and Law Enforcement Bulletin.
While with the FBI, Bret received multiple Special Agent of the Year awards as well as two FBI director’s awards for leadership and innovation. Bret has received commendations from the Internal Revenue Service, various police departments, and international partners in law enforcement.
Bret is the author of the critically acclaimed books, Eat More Ice Cream: A Succinct Leadership Lesson for Each Week of the Year & Get Off Your Horse! 52 Succinct Leadership Lessons from U.S. Presidents.
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