DIU - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team
• Director of Defense Engagement
• Director, Defense Engagement / Boston

Col Aneel "Cramden" Alvares is the Director of Defense Engagement, Air Force Lead, and Boston Lead at the Defense Innovation Unit. His military background includes experience as a B-1 pilot, terminal attack controller, and operational test and evaluation leader, with ground and air combat time in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In his current role, he leads DIU's Defense Engagement Team in framing new projects by leveraging commercial sector technologies to address priority DoD problems, while also working to engage the greater Boston and east coast innovation ecosystems.

Job Titles:

• Deputy Portfolio Director, Space

Job Titles:

• Director of Acquisition

Cherissa Tamayori is the Director of Acquisition and Senior Contracting Official for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). In this role, she serves as the senior acquisition advisor to the Director of DIU and is responsible for the development, implementation, and execution of all phases of the DIU project lifecycle across the six technology portfolios.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team
• Director / Mountain View, CA
• Director of the Defense Innovation Unit
• Member of the Secretary of State 's Foreign Affairs Policy Board

Doug Beck is the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense. In this role, Doug oversees efforts to accelerate the Department's adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and also serves as a senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on technology innovation, competition, and strategic impact. In his previous experience with DIU, Doug founded and led its joint reserve component from the inception in 2015 through 2019. Prior to joining DIU, Doug was Vice President at Apple, reporting directly to its CEO, Tim Cook from 2009-2023, At Apple, Doug co-led the worldwide business development and sales functions, led the company's businesses across Northeast Asia and the Americas, including five years resident in Tokyo, and, most recently, led several of Apple's purpose-driven businesses worldwide, including in health, education, and other institutions of public impact. Before joining Apple, Doug served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Charles Schwab. Prior to Schwab, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company, co-leader of McKinsey's global strategy practice, and a leader of other industry and functional practices in the United States and Asia. In 2000, he was elected as one of the youngest partners in McKinsey history, while resident in Shanghai. He has lived and worked for many years in Asia, including in Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across China. Currently a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Doug served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006-2007 with a joint special operations task force. He has also served extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region during his 26 years of service, including command of a large joint reserve unit supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, His personal and unit awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation. As a civilian, Doug has served as a member of the Secretary of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board, an executive advisor to three Chiefs of Naval Operations and to Special Operations Community leadership, and, for over fifteen years, as a formal and informal advisor to senior civilian and uniformed Defense Department leaders. He also served from 2015-2023 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for a New American Security. He is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, which oversees the Rhodes Scholarships worldwide, and a member of the Advisory Board of Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs. Doug holds a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Yale and an M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Energy Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit
• Director, Energy Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

Dr. Andrew Higier serves as the Director of the Energy Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), where he leads the team in delivering strategic energy capabilities to the military by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology and strengthening the national security innovation base. Dr. Andrew Higier serves as the Director of the Energy Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). In this role Dr. Higier leads the Energy Portfolio in delivering strategic energy capabilities to the military by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology and strengthening the national security innovation base. The Energy Portfolio is focused on two primary lines of effort: Installation Resilience and Operational Energy. Dr. Higier has spent over a decade focused on bringing innovative technologies to the warfighter. He has extensive experience across the Department of Defense (DoD), including multiple positions in the U.S. Navy, USSOUTHCOM, and OUSD R&E as well as diverse experience in both private industry and academia. Dr. Higier holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. He has authored a number of journal articles and has presented at a number of conferences across the globe and also holds a number of patents.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Human Systems Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit
• Director, Human Systems Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

Christian is the director of the Human Systems portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The portfolio's mission is to accelerate the transition of commercial innovation and technology to government and defense personnel, covering a wide area of problem sets from safety and survivability, training and simulation, to prevention and treatment of combat injuries. Prior to joining DIU, Christian served in several roles within the military science and technology (S&T) community, most recently as the Chief Scientist for Detection and Diagnostics within the ChemBio Defense Program, and as the U.S. S&T representative for a collaborative agreement between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. With 15 years of government service, Christian is a strong advocate for thinking beyond the conventional requirements process and delivering new technologies that can help our warfighters succeed and survive. Christian received his BS in chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Martin and his PhD in analytical chemistry from Ohio University before completing postdoctoral studies at the FBI's Research Unit. He is a lifelong student, most recently attending business venture courses at the Berkeley Haas school. Additionally, Christian's side gigs include parachute rigging and sports photography. When he's not working, Christian enjoys hiking and camping with his family.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team
• Senior Advisor
• Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives / Mountain View, CA

Dr. Jared Dunnmon is the Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). Prior to DIU, Jared was an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow in Computer Science at Stanford University, where he was advised by Prof. Chris Ré. His research interests focus on combining heterogeneous data modalities, machine learning, and human domain expertise to inform and improve decision making around such topics as human health, energy & environment, and geopolitical stability. Jared has also worked to bridge the gap between technological development and effective deployment in a variety of contexts including foreign policy at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, solar electrification at Offgrid Electric, cybersecurity at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, emerging technology investment at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, nuclear fusion modeling at the Oxford Mathematical Institute, and nonlinear energy harvesting at Duke University. Jared holds a PhD from Stanford University (2017), a B.S. from Duke University, and both an MSc. in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing and an M.B.A. from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Artificial Intelligence
• Director, Artificial Intelligence Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

Jeff Klugman is the Director of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). He leads a team of military officers, commercial entrepreneurs, and technical experts to field and scale leading-edge, commercial AI solutions that help solve high-impact defense challenges. Jeff brings over 30 years experience as a Silicon Valley executive to his work at DIU. For 16 years, Jeff was a senior executive (Executive Vice President of Products and Revenue) at TiVo, a public company that transformed the TV user experience. TiVo was the first device to combine linear TV with internet video and audio from Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Hulu, Pandora, and Spotify (including search, discovery, and collaborative filtering-based recommendations across all content sources). Jeff was a member of TiVo's corporate development team. This team assessed over 20 M&A candidates, then negotiated with and acquired three companies. In 2006, Jeff received an Emmy for Technology & Engineering. From 1992-1999, Jeff was an executive at Quantum Corporation, a leader in the computer storage industry. While there, he founded and was Vice President of the Consumer Electronics Business Unit. This was the storage industry's first ever focus on consumer electronics products and led to widespread use of mass storage devices in consumer devices such as DVRs and portable audio players. Jeff has also been an advisor to technology companies for human interface design, strategic partnerships, product/service recurring revenue models, consumer technology, and digital media. Additionally, Jeff has prior experience at Hewlett-Packard and Deloitte Consulting. Jeff earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He is also an Elected Trustee to the Portola Valley School Board and has served as the School Board President.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team
• Chief Information Officer / Mountain View, CA
• Chief Information Officer of the Defense Innovation Unit

Mr. Chen is the Chief Information Officer of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). As Chief Information Officer, John oversees the information technology (IT) department and leads DIU's strategic IT initiatives. His team leverages cloud technology and the latest software to improve collaboration and cybersecurity. Before joining DIU, John served in different industries ranging from agriculture, education, intellectual property law, healthcare, software start-up companies, and a winery, culminating in over 20 years of experience. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Information Assurance and Cybersecurity. He is currently working on his Doctorate Degree in Information Technology.

Job Titles:

• Acting Technical Director, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Job Titles:

• Director of Congressional Affairs and Policy / Washington, D.C.
• Director of Congressional Affairs and Policy at the Defense Innovation Unit

Katherine Koleski is the Director of Congressional Affairs and Policy at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). In this role, she leads DIU's congressional engagement and provides analysis and assessment of the impact of existing and proposed U.S. policy, regulations, and statutes on DIU and the dual-use innovation ecosystem. She previously led DIU's global partnerships, guiding collaboration with allies and partners around dual-use technologies. Prior to joining DIU, Katherine served as the Research Director for the Research Working Group and a Policy Analyst for the Economic & Trade team at the congressionally-created U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission (USCC). In these roles, she managed the Research Working Group's contracted and staff research and regularly provided analysis to Congressional members and staff related to China-Latin American relations, China's industrial policies, and China's pursuit of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum information science, and 5G. Prior to rejoining the USCC, she interned at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and served as a Research Assistant at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), where she co-authored several publications on Chinese loans to Latin America. Katherine earned a Bachelor of Arts from Colby College and her Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She was a MIT Seminar XXI Fellow (2022-2023) and has advanced proficiency in both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Katherine has published several articles on China that include: The 13th Five-Year Plan, China's Engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, The New Banks in Town: Chinese Finance in Latin America, USCC Backgrounder: China's 12th Five-Year Pla n, among others.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Joint Reserve Detachment
• Director, Joint Reserve Detachment / Mountain View, CA

Kim Guedry is the Director of the Joint Reserve Detachment (JRD) at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) where she provides specialty reserve personnel from across the Services in direct support of DIU's six portfolios. She also dual-hats as the Service Lead for the U.S. Coast Guard's reserve efforts at DIU. Kim brings over 23 years of military experience across a wide spectrum of capacities. While on active duty, Kim's roles ranged from Commanding Officer of a Coast Guard cutter (ship) to Command Duty Officer in the Service's busiest command center. Following her transition to the reserves, Kim held various liaison positions within the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including her role as Chief of Operations at U.S. Southern Command's Crisis Action Center and as a Coast Guard Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer to FEMA Region II. Kim is the former co-founder of two startup companies, one in the AgTech industry and one in business continuity consulting. She is also the Director of Business Operations at Lumen Technologies, a Fortune 200 tech company, where she also serves as Chief of Staff in the North America Field Operations organization. Kim holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the US Coast Guard Academy, a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Phoenix, and certificates from the US Naval War College and the National Defense University. She is also a George W. Bush Institute Scholar and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

In his private-sector capacity, Maj. Gobberg is an independent consultant and currently advises a range of public and private technology companies on issues related to product-market fit, product-led growth, customer acquisition and growth, enterprise sales and customer success. Prior to this, he served as Head of Client Sales at WalkMe, where he built a multi-million dollar annual recurring revenue business segment and helped take the company public in summer of 2021. Before launching into enterprise go-to-market leadership, Maj. Gobberg spent time at Google[x], leading communications for Project Wing and other moonshot programs.

Job Titles:

• Acting Director of DIU 's Autonomy
• Acting Director, Autonomy Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

Mike is the acting director of DIU's Autonomy portfolio, which seeks to accelerate the Department of Defense's adoption of autonomous technologies across all domains. Mike is also an active program manager, leading DIU's efforts in ‘fighter' autonomy, supporting multiple Air Force Vanguard programs seeking to advance missionized autonomy for contested environments. Mike is an activated reservist and based at the Mountain View, CA location.

Job Titles:

• Chief Medical Doctor, Human Systems

Job Titles:

• Cyber Warfare Officer
• Director of the Cyber & Telecommunications Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit
• Director, Cyber & Telecommunications Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

Patrick Gould is the Director of the Cyber & Telecommunications Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in Mountain View, CA. Patrick also serves as a Cyber Warfare Officer in the United States Air Force Reserves specializing in incident response and cyber threat hunting on airborne weapon systems and offensive cyber operations planning. Patrick holds a Masters in Information and Cyber Security from UC Berkeley, an MBA from Oklahoma State University, and a BS in Biology from the United States Air Force Academy.

Job Titles:

• Chief of Staff / Washington, D.C.
• Chief of Staff at the Defense Innovation Unit

Pete Prabhakar is the Chief of Staff at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). In this capacity, he is an advisor to the Director and leads people operations (HR), contracting, security, facilities, and test & range, which directly impact all DIU portfolios. Before joining DIU, Pete served as the Executive Officer to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General. Pete was responsible for ensuring IG initiatives were expedited and successful, strategic change management, training, people operations, executive correspondence, and overall operations for the Immediate Office of the Inspector General. Prior to this, Mr. Prabhakar served within the VAOIG Office of Audits and Evaluations as an Executive Assistant and a Lead Auditor. In addition to his experience within the OIG, Pete also served as a Staff Accountant at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Financial Process Improvement and Audit Readiness group which is tasked with decreasing the number of deficiencies identified within their Financial Statement Audit. Prior to joining the OIG, Mr. Prabhakar was a senior auditor at the Defense Contract Audit Agency in New York. His expertise was in high-dollar proposals and incurred cost audits. He joined DCAA in 2008 after working in the private sector for Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Mr. Prabhakar served in the United States Army and New York Army National Guard. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Hofstra University.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team

Job Titles:

• Director of the Space Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit

Steve "Bucky" Butow is the Director of the Space Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). He joined the team in 2015 as an early plank owner when DIU was known as the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) and helped establish the organization's operating locations in Silicon Valley, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and Austin, Texas.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Portfolio Directors Team
• Director, Space Portfolio / Mountain View, CA

In his reserve capacity, Butow is a Brigadier General serving as the Commander of the California Air National Guard where he leads 4,900 Airmen assigned to five wings and a headquarters staff. Prior to this assignment, he was a Special Assistant to the Director, Air National Guard. Butow is a former Commander of the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Federal Airfield in California, where his responsibilities included organizing, training, equipping, and maintaining 970 combat-ready forces and $1 billion dollars of special mission aircraft and equipment supporting the U.S. Air Force's combat rescue and personnel recovery missions. He has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Joint Search and Rescue Center for U.S. Central Command in 2005, and as Chief of Personnel Recovery for U.S. Air Forces Central in 2007 supporting Operations IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM. Prior to joining DIU, Butow was the Vice Chief of the Joint Staff, California Military Department with responsibilities including cybersecurity, incident awareness and innovation. He has more than 3,500 flying hours in T-37, T-38, C-130, HC-130 and MC-130P aircraft. As a researcher with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, Butow worked on instrument concepts for Mars surface soil analysis at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He later served as co-principal investigator for a series of airborne science missions for which he was recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the Space Science Division in 1999 and received an Ames Honor Award as a member of an Astrobiology Mission Project Team in 2000. Butow graduated from San Jose State University with a B.A. in Physics & Astronomy and earned a M.S. in Management with specialization in Air and Space Strategic Studies from the University of Maryland. He has also completed executive courses at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was a member of the National Leadership Preparedness Initiative (NPLI) Cohort 16. Butow is a lifetime member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for academic achievement.

Job Titles:

• General Counsel / Mountain View, CA

Tom is an active duty Marine Judge Advocate and the General Counsel for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). As General Counsel, Tom is responsible for advising the Director regarding all legal matters and services performed within DIU; managing DIU's legal function; examining and creating draft agreements; maintaining knowledge of and providing legal support to DIU operations; coordinating significant legal issues, including litigation involving DIU and other legal matters in which DIU has an interest; providing advice on standards of conduct involving DIU personnel; and serving as the Ethics Counselor for DIU. Prior to joining DIU, Tom was the Senior Legal Advisor for the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton, California. He previously served as the Senior Legal Advisor for Marine Corps Installations Command (Pacific Region) in Okinawa, Japan and before that as the Senior Legal Advisor for the 1st Marine Logistics Group at Camp Pendleton. He also served as Associate Counsel for Contract and Fiscal Law for the Department of the Navy Office of General Counsel and as the Contingency Contracting Attorney for the Regional Contracting Center in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. During an assignment to the Pentagon, Tom led the Marine Corps' Ethics Office and was responsible for managing the Marine Corps' government ethics program. During his career, Tom has served as both a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney, as well as Agency Counsel for the Department of the Navy. He has deployed on multiple occasions to Iraq and Afghanistan. In a nonlegal assignment, Tom served as the Deputy Commander of a 2,300-member multinational Task Force based in western Iraq and assisting the Iraqi military in its fight against the Islamic State. In May 2018, the French Defense Minister awarded him the Médaille de la Défense Nationale (National Defense Medal) for his support to French Army forces in Iraq during this deployment. Tom has a bachelor's degree from the University of Montana; a law degree from Gonzaga University Law School where he was an Associate Editor of the Gonzaga Law Review; a postgraduate law degree in Contract and Fiscal Law from the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's School; and a second postgraduate law degree in Taxation from Georgetown University Law School.