Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday announced the start of “DIUx 2.0,” a shakeup to the office that focuses on Pentagon partnerships with Silicon Valley’s top innovators.
Carter touted the successes the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental hub in Silicon Valley has had in the eight months since it was created, including connecting with more than 500 entrepreneurs, hosting several forums and creating a “funding pipeline” for almost two dozen technology projects.
But the secretary also said the department, in seeking to be more innovative, is learning from its failures and making changes quickly to the Pentagon’s innovation hub to help it be more effective.
Some of the changes include opening a new DIUx hub in Boston, requesting more money to engage with non-traditional companies, and changing the leadership style of the hub to a multi-headed flat structure unlike the rigid ranks characteristic of the military.
“We’re taking a page straight from the Silicon Valley playbook: we’re iterating, and rapidly, to make DIUx even better. As a result of all this great experience and in view of technology’s and the world’s imperative to stay agile, today we’re launching DIUx 2.0,” he said at DIUx in Mountain View, California, during his fourth trip out there since become secretary of defense.
“Because the missions now assigned to DIUx are far broader than any one person can oversee, I’m establishing a partnership-style leadership structure for DIUx, one that includes technologists, investors and business executives,” Carter said.
The four new leaders named by Carter on Wednesday are: Raj Shah, a national guardsman and CEO of a tech start up; Isaac Taylor, who headed Google’s research and development facility; Vishaal Hariprasad, an Air Force reservists who also co-founded a cybersecurity start up; and Chris Kirchhoff, who previously served as a civilian adviser to the Joint Chiefs chairman.
Doug Beck, a Navy reserve commander who works in Apple leadership as a civilian, will also oversee a new team of reservists stationed at DIUx.
Carter also announced that DIUx will report directly to him from now on.
“This is to signify the importance that I attach to this mission and also the importance of speedy decision making,” he said.
George Duchak, the former director of DIUx, will now work on improving innovation in other areas of DoD outside of the Silicon Valley hub, Carter said.
