About Jerry
Jerry grew up in a military family during which his father was reassigned to several US Air Force bases from New York to Washington state, Florida, and three locations in between. He worked throughout his elementary, junior high, and high school years to supplement his family's income, working as a construction laborer and framer, garbageman, dishwasher, and newspaper delivery boy, and bucked hay bales on ranches and dug worms to sell to fishermen.
His father, Juan Manuel Torres, born in Puerto Rico, was a combat veteran who served in the US Army in Korea and the US Air Force in Vietnam and earned the Purple Heart. After retiring from military service, he served as a US Marshal and later earned a PhD in Biblical Studies, eventually becoming an ordained minister. Juan passed away on May 7, 2020, and is interred in Arlington National Cemetery with military honors.
Jerry's mother, Diana, was raised on a farm in West Kansas and attended a one-room schoolhouse. She was a working mother who raised Jerry and his brothers while working a dizzying array of jobs, including serving as one of America's first US Marshal Matrons. Diana, 92 years young, continues to inspire her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with her industrious farm-girl spirit.
At age 18, Jerry enlisted as a Private in the US Army and, for the next 30 years, served his country in the US Army, Army Reserves, and Army National Guard on five continents, ultimately retiring at the rank of Master Sergeant.
Upon returning to the United States from the US Army after his last combat assignment, Jerry built an Information Technology and application development company. Within two years, Jerry's company, Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions (Torres AES), won multiple technology, linguist, subject matter expert, security, cyber security, and training contacts with the US and NATO governments and Fortune 500 firms in locations across the globe. Over the next eight years, he grew his company to over 8,600 employees on five continents, generating nearly $1 billion in total revenue.
Jerry is a prolific philanthropist who has developed humanitarian, environmental, and wildlife programs both in the US and around the world. He is also an active volunteer and donor to causes serving the needs of US armed forces veterans, as well as veterans of federal, state, and local law enforcement. He also supports vulnerable communities in the greater Washington DC area, particularly those local to his Northern Virginia home.
Successful Global Entrepreneur and Job Creator
Jerry built a global award-winning Information Technology and application development company after returning from his last combat assignment in Afghanistan. Within two years, Jerry's company, Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions (Torres AES) won multiple technology, linguist, subject matter expert, security, cyber security and training contacts with the US government in locations across the globe.
Over the next eight years, he grew his company to over 8,600 employees on five continents and generated nearly $1 billion in total revenue and over $2 billion in continuous government and commercial contracts.
Jerry established his headquarters in his adoptive hometown of Arlington, Virginia, and prioritized hiring locals as well as veterans to staff his company. Throughout the company's history, Jerry's top priority has always been the safety of the men and women serving the mission.
​While Jerry served as President and CEO of Torres AES, his US and host nation employees and partners worked on extremely dangerous missions during which several lost their lives. Years later, Jerry still felt the weight of these losses and traveled in the US as well as overseas to console the families of his lost employees.
ENTREPRENEUR
GREEN BERET
HUMANITARIAN
Proud Green Beret and Combat Veteran
Jerry is a decorated combat veteran of the US Army Special Forces - The Green Berets. During his military career, he served in combat, counter-drug counterterrorism, peacekeeping, foreign internal defense, and anti-human trafficking missions in the US and around the world, including the southern border with Mexico. While on active military duty, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with minors in Marine Biology and Oceanography from Saint Martin's University, two Associate degrees, and a computer programming certification.
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​Jerry was serving with US Special Operations Command - South (SOCSOUTH) in Argentina on 9/11 and volunteered for assignment to Afghanistan at the earliest possible opportunity. After completing his Joint US-Argentina Special Operations and Armed Forces assignments at the US Embassy and border locations throughout Argentina, he deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and is a combat veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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Jerry does not consider himself to be a hero. When asked about his service, he simply says that he served faithfully side-by-side his fellow American troops of all branches of service during times of peace, conflict and war. Jerry retired from the US Armed Forces after completing his last deployment to Europe on a joint peacekeeping assignment with other NATO nations and a counterinsurgency training assignment with the US Army Counterinsurgency Directorate at Ft. Polk, Louisiana.
Leader in Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Investigation and Intelligence Operations
Jerry is a leading world expert in the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in conducting Cyber Investigations (CI), and in Cyber Intelligence, Cyber Counterintelligence and Cyber Counter-Threat operations. He is co-founder and Chairman of Torres AI CI headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with operations on three continents.
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Torres AI CI has implemented multiple turn-key Cyber Investigative Units (CIUs) with fully trained and capable Cyber Investigative Analysts that today are bringing top crime organization leaders to justice for democratic governments around the world using his company’s integrated technologies. Those being brought to justice include leaders of transnational Criminal Cartels, Drug Traffickers, Weapons Traffickers, Human Traffickers, Organized Gangs, Money Launderers, Terrorist groups, and more.
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Jerry originally created, refined and taught his company’s AI-CI methods and systems under overseas law enforcement programs with the US Department of State in cooperation with the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Homeland Security. Jerry’s team of AI and Cyber experts enhanced both the methods and systems into seamless integrated resources that exponentially accelerate the crime to justice life cycle. Jerry’s daughter, Valeria, served on these AI-CI programs before being recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to serve as a Cyber Investigative Analyst at the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) in Clarksburg, West Virginia where she mentored FBI analysts and agents and earned multiple performance awards.
Torres AI CI will offer AI and cyber investigation services to US law enforcement organizations including police and sheriff’s departments, and state and federal investigative agencies in 2025.
Philanthropy and Humanitarian Work
Jerry is a remarkably prolific philanthropist with a passion for making a difference. His dedication extends to developing impactful humanitarian initiatives, championing environmental causes, and supporting wildlife programs on a global scale. For example, Jerry initiated and fully funded a program to reduce the high infant mortality rate of an Indigenous tribe in South America, helped fund new hospital construction in West Africa, funded a wildlife reserve and is planning another reserve in Kansas, gave donations to refugee camps for victims of the war in Ukraine, and has helped schools, food programs and vulnerable families in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church for ten years.
Beyond his philanthropic endeavors, Jerry selflessly became a certified Volunteer Firefighter and Multimedia Medical Technician, showcasing his commitment to helping others in times of need. Furthermore, his influence reaches far and wide through his authorship of business and technology textbooks that are recognized and utilized worldwide, shaping the knowledge and skills of countless individuals across the globe.
Torres Cares and Shares Team
Food for Others, Fairfax, VA
Family First
Jerry is closest to his daughter, Valeria. At a young age, she grieved with him over the tragic loss of her mother, Marcela, to cancer in 2005, shortly after Jerry returned from Afghanistan. Marcela was a veterinarian (DVM) from Bogota, Colombia, who worked with farmers and tended to livestock from the heights of the Andes mountains to the depths of Amazon rainforest.
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She was also a staunch advocate of the rights, health, and safety of indigenous tribes throughout Colombia. After she passed, Jerry founded and funded a project in her memory that reduced infant mortality in the Arhuaco tribe - which had been expelled from their fertile homeland by drug cartels - from about 65% to 5% within three years.
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Jerry is inexhaustibly proud of Valeria's impressive array of achievements. After earning an International Business Degree from Marymount University, she was recruited by the FBI as a Cyber Forensics Investigative Analyst. She served two years at the FBI's National Threat Operations Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia. During her two-year tour of duty, she received several performance awards including one presented by the Director of the FBI.
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Valeria resigned from the FBI to pursue a career in Dietetic Nutrition to help prevent the cancer challenges that her mother Marcela faced leading up to her passing. She attained her Master's in Nutrition Education from American University and was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement Award. Afterward, she earned her Dietician Certification after completing a ten-month internship at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Center. She intends to seek a Medical Degree from the University of Kansas.
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Jerry and Valeria have traveled to many regions of the world together to study and improve the health and quality of human beings and to preserve and protect our planet's natural environment: land, water, air, wildlife, and plant life alike. For example, they both joined a voyage to Antarctica, where they studied climate change and practices to preserve marine life on the Antarctic continent and its surrounding waters.
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Jerry remains very close to his mother, Diana. He still constantly keeps up with her by phone and often flies to visit her in her native Kansas. Jerry often remarks that his 92-year-old mother is sharper and more astute on matters of US and foreign policy than most of the politicians he's dealt with.
Meet the Daughter of US Congressional Candidate Jerry Torres
Jerry is a single parent who raised his wonderful daughter by himself after her dear mother, Marcela, passed away of cancer many years ago at an early age. Valeria was in elementary school at the time of Marcela’s passing and father and daughter faced Valeria’s future alone with the help of grandma and grandpa. Jerry and Marcela worked together in Bogota, Colombia when they first met and where Valeria was born and raised. After Marcela’s passing Jerry decided that the best place to raise Valeria was Northern Virginia where she could complete her education and learn English.
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Valeria went on to shine, working full time in Jerry’s company, Torres AES, while attending and graduating from Marymount University in Arlington. While working with Torres AES, the FBI came calling to recruit Valeria as a Cyber Investigative Analyst at the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) in Clarksburg, West Virginia. This is the first time father and daughter were apart since Jerry’s deployments to combat and peacekeeping assignments while serving with the US Army Special Forces.
Valeria received multiple performance awards with the FBI when she decided to pursue a medical career to help women at risk and recovering from cancer in honor of her mother. So, Valeria graduated from American University with a Masters in Nutrition Education receiving the “Outstanding Student Achievement Award”. She went on to qualify for a Medical Degree program at Alabama A&M then completed a year-long internship at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health Center in Richmond to become a Registered Dietician. She is now poised to complete her Medical Degree in the next 18 months.
Valeria is the founder and owner of non-profit “Nutriologic, LLC” and currently teaches diet and nutrition to vulnerable African and Latin American women free of charge. Check Valeria out at www.nutriologic.com.
