ARLINGTON, Va. — Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been announced as a speaker at the 2016 NACDS Annual Meeting.

Gen. Martin Dempsey (Ret.)

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores said Dempsey is slated to speak during the Business Program on Tuesday, April 19.

Last month, NACDS announced that John Boehner, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, will deliver the keynote address during the Business Program on Sunday, April 17. The NACDS Annual Meeting runs April 16 to 19 in Palm Beach, Fla.

“NACDS members are going to hear from the very leader and patriot whom the president and secretary of defense heard from, as recently as a few months ago, on the most pressing national security topics,” NACDS president and chief executive officer Steve Anderson said in a statement. “With former Joint Chiefs chairman Martin Dempsey and former House Speaker John Boehner on the program, the NACDS Annual Meeting will present the best-qualified and most-timely speakers on issues continuing to unfold in the national and international arenas.”

Dempsey concluded his 41 years of military service and his tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in late September. He had served as Joint Chief chairman since October 2011. Prior to that, he was Army chief of staff from April to September 2011. In 2015, Dempsey was named as one of the “100 most influential leaders in the world” by Time magazine.

During his Army service, he commanded a cavalry troop, tank battalion, cavalry regiment and tank division, as well as the U.S. Central Command, where he was responsible for securing U.S. interests in the Middle East and South Asia. He served in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, accumulating 42 months in combat.