Captain/Retired Ed Pope graduated from Oregon State University and immediately entered the U.S. Navy. During his twenty-five year career, he traveled extensively in the Far East, Europe and the Mediterranean. During his last 15 years in the Navy, his career focused on Research and Development and advanced technology program management. During his final tour at the Office of Naval Research, Captain Pope initiated and became the first director of a formal program focused on cooperation and funding of select science & technology opportunities in Russia and other republics of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) for the benefit of the US Navy. He also worked closely with other services/agencies and private industry on many of these technology projects and was invited to participate in numerous high-level US government advisory groups. He retired from active duty in March 1994.

Ed then accepted a position at The Pennsylvania State University where his responsibilities entailed identification and management of cooperative research and development activities with organizations in Russia and other republics of the Former Soviet Union (FSU).

In July 1997, he left Penn State and established a consulting activity focused on commercialization of technology from Russia, Ukraine and other FSU republics. In this position, he continued to work with Penn State, in addition to several private companies. Much of his past ten years have been devoted to identification and commercialization of advanced technologies from foreign and domestic sources. As a result of his working the Navy and subsequent years, he has a broad understanding and working knowledge of a wide breadth of technologies, to include materials, propulsion systems, instrumentation, manufacturing, energy, and other areas.

In April of 2000, during his twenty-seventh (27) trip to Russia, he was arrested by Russian KGB/FSB operatives and charged with espionage in a politically motivated event associated with the election of Vladimir Putin as the new president of Russia. After being held for 253-days in a Moscow prison, was convicted in a "closed" Russian court and given a 20 year sentence in Siberia. Immediately after the conviction, President V. V. Putin pardoned Captain Pope and allowed him to return home. He has since authored the book TORPEDOED and continues to do public speaking events on the incident.