[2] The original university was conceived and founded by Nirmalya Bhowmick, with co-founders Michael Corcoran and Sheldon Greaves.
The school was named to honor American Revolutionary War intelligence officers Colonel David Henley and General Israel Putnam, each of whom personified a different approach to the practice of espionage.
Henley, contemplative and precise, specialized in organizing streams of raw data and extrapolating from it an enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.
Putnam focused on acquiring intelligence through the active use of agents, debriefing deserters, and interrogating prisoners.
Its faculty comes from the military, law enforcement, and the counterterrorism and intelligence communities, with an emphasis on "real world experience".