Our Team
Executive Team
Kathy Leodler
Owner and CEO, WA DOL Private Investigator License #3555KATHY LEODLER is founder and CEO of Rampart Group LLC, Seattle, Washington, a security consulting, and investigations company founded in 2012. Before establishing the Rampart Group, Ms. Leodler had a distinguished 23 year Federal law enforcement career as an FBI Special Agent and Acting Special Agent in Charge of one of the FBI’s top 12 field offices in San Diego, CA. Post FBI retirement and prior to establishing the Rampart Group, Ms. Leodler served as Chief Security Officer for a US based high net worth family; Director of Security for a global medical technology company, and as Director of Anti-Piracy investigations for the Recording Industry Association of America-West Coast. In 2017 Ms. Leodler was named as a Board Director, Timberland Bank, where she continues to serve.
Ms. Leodler’s combined law enforcement investigative experience, global resource network and security and investigation expertise spanning over 38 years has also gained her great respect and acknowledgment among clients.
Ms. Leodler has been called upon by the TV news media to comment on several significant security related topics such as school shootings and the dangers of online dating. She has also been invited to speak at business meetings regarding personal security and situational awareness. Ms. Leodler has trained businesses and organizations in active assailant survival, bank robbery survival, workplace violence prevention, security awareness, incident response, crisis management, business continuity, and workplace investigations.
Paul Leodler
Executive Vice President, WA DOL Private Investigator License #4180PAUL LEODLER is the Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Rampart Group LLC, and has over 40 years security and investigative experience. He served 16 years in public law enforcement, first as a Deputy Sheriff, Ascension Parish, Louisiana, and later as a Police Officer and Sergeant with the Houston Police Department (HPD).
During his service in local law enforcement, Paul served in many roles including tours in the HPD Internal Affairs Division where he conducted police corruption investigations, and the Narcotics Division where he served on a joint drug task force with the FBI charged with investigating international drug trafficking and money laundering.
Paul’s private sector experience includes 9 years as Director of Global Security with a Fortune 50 medical products and services company where he was responsible for ensuring the security of all operations in the Western US, Latin America, Middle East and Southeast Asia, a region employing approximately 12,000 people in pharmaceutical and medical products distribution centers, medical device manufacturing plants, research and development facilities and nuclear pharmacies that manufacture and distribute radiological medicines.
Mark Nichols
Executive Vice President of Rampart Group LLC – East Coast OperationsMARK NICHOLS is Executive Vice President of Rampart Group LLC – East Coast Operations based in Charlotte, NC. Prior to joining the Rampart team, Mark served as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC), FBI Seattle Field Office, where he developed highly effective domestic and international interagency relationships with Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, government leaders, and private sector teams, and led a number of successful multi-agency task force criminal investigations and tactical operations.
Before retiring from the FBI in Seattle and prior to joining Rampart Group, Mark had a combined and distinguished 30-year Federal law enforcement career in the Detroit, San Diego and Atlanta FBI field offices, the FBI Academy at Quantico, VA, FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC., and with the US Customs Service for 8 years prior to joining the FBI in 1999. During his 22 year FBI career, Mark served in multiple investigative and leadership roles at the FBI Academy’s Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) as Assistant Section Chief of the Investigative and Operations Support Section, Unit Chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit’s (BAU) -1, tasked with international terrorism, domestic terrorism, counterintelligence, and weapons of mass destruction investigative programs; Supervisor of both the FBI’s Arson & Bombing Program and the FBI Behavioral Analysis Program with Counterintelligence/Insider Threat investigations; and as Unit Chief for the FBI BAU - 4/Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) unit.
Strategic Alliance Partners
Our partnerships with subject matter experts allows us to go broad and deep for our clients
Allison Williams
Attorney
Allison is an actively licensed member of the Washington and Oregon State Bar Associations. Allison has spent over four years prosecuting criminal cases at the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office in Portland, Oregon. During that time, she handled a caseload that included general misdemeanors with an emphasis on DUI cases, misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases and felony drug cases. Her legal background gives her a unique ability to understand the goals and challenges of an attorney preparing a case for trial.
Andrew Holmes
Strategic Partner
Andrew Holmes has over 25 years of legal, investigative, and security experience that includes over 20 plus years of protective operations experience working both in the private sector and for the US government. He is a former combat veteran with the US Army, a Protective Services Specialist with the US State Department, and Executive Protection Specialist in both the United States and Mexico. Andy has worked on and managed executive protection teams for some of the wealthiest billionaires in the world. He has developed and taught executive protection courses including the Discreet Close Protection course to executive protection specialists. Andy has extensive medical and driving experience both in austere and stateside settings and provides expert surveillance resources and documentation capabilities.
Don Robinson
Strategic Partner
Don Robinson is the Founder and Principal Consultant for Clinical Security Solutions, LLC, a security risk management consulting firm specializing in behavioral threat assessment and management, workplace violence prevention and related training and curriculum development.
Don retired from the FBI in 2015 after 23 years of service. During his Federal law enforcement career he specialized in counterterrorism, organized crime and narcotics investigations. He also served as a Crisis/Hostage Negotiator for most of his career and has been certified as a law enforcement instructor in multiple states. Upon his retirement from the FBI Don began a second career in behavioral health. He is a recognized expert in the field of crisis negotiation, behavioral threat assessment and management, verbal de-escalation, and workplace violence prevention and has extensive experience in crisis management and response.
Jerry Robinette
Strategic Partner
Jerry Robinette, former Assistant Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Money Laundering Coordination Center and Executive Deputy Director for Customs’ Terrorist Financing Unit brings over 25 years of broad-based leadership, investigative skills, and exemplary service to the Rampart Group team. During his Federal law enforcement career, Jerry led the largest Special-Agent-in-Charge Homeland Security Investigations office in the country with over 600 employees, covering 58 Texas counties with approximately 500 miles of Texas/Mexico border. Most recently, Jerry served as Executive Director/Vice President of Global Financial Crimes Compliance at JPMorgan Chase. While at JP Morgan he directed and managed anti-money laundering teams comprised of over 150 compliance analysts and investigators who focused on counter terrorist financing and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Caroline Hoag
Forensics Genealogy Expert
Caroline Hoag is a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent. She has adapted her 22 years of investigative experience into a unique business called Forensic Genealogy Investigations. During her FBI career, she specialized in the dogged pursuit of Money Laundering, Financial and Securities Fraud, and many other crimes. This sharp analytic ability taught her to discern and cull myriads of documents and records to successfully prosecute complex Federal cases.
Bettina Stefanak, PCI,
Strategic Partner
Bettina Stefanak, PCI, has been an investigator for over 15 years, specializing in pre-employment screening and insurance fraud investigations. Her areas of expertise include successfully investigating suspected fraudulent insurance claims and conducting public-trust pre-employment background investigations for local and state law enforcement agencies to determine employment suitability, and background investigations on individuals seeking a Tier 5 TS security clearance. Her investigations experience spans two countries; beginning her career in Canada specializing in surveillance operations and skip tracing, building to highly varying degrees of more complex cases. She is skilled in conducting and analyzing extensive interviews with individuals of various cultural, educational and employment backgrounds.
Bettina is a Board-Certified Professional Investigator and serves on the Human Threat Management Council with ASIS International. She is also a member of the International Association of Marine Investigators and is experienced in a wide range of maritime-related investigations.
Kelsey Jost
WA DOL Private Investigator
Kelsey is a licensed member of the Washington and Oregon State Bar Associations. Kelsey graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2018, and started her legal career at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Seattle, Washington. During her time as a prosecutor, Kelsey handled thousands of cases ranging from misdemeanors to felony sex offenses. She tried cases to verdict, worked with law enforcement to direct investigatory follow-up, and resolved hundreds of cases through negotiations. After nearly four years as a prosecutor, Kelsey transitioned into civil litigation. It was in civil litigation that Kelsey realized her favorite part of her job was talking to people. She then decided to focus her career on investigatory matters, such as workplace investigations and litigation support.
Kelsey joined Rampart Group in 2024. From her background as a litigator, Kelsey has extensive experience interviewing a diverse range of witnesses including children, civilians who are in distress, law enforcement officers, victims working through significant trauma, and medical professionals. She is trained in trauma-informed investigation methods. She approaches each interview with empathy, and is thorough and efficient, maximizing her fact-finding ability.
Rose Nicolas
Web Designer / Developer
Rose is the technical advisor for Rampart Group as well as the Chief Website Developer and CEO of TechMondo.net. She also has high profile experience with Seattle based organizations such as Microsoft, Starbucks, and Safeco Insurance Company, to name a few. Rose prides herself in having a high level of both technical expertise and business acumen, and has been bridging those two skill sets through-out her career.