Accelerate Defense

ACME General Corp. revisits the past three Accelerate Defense interviews, all focused on the role of innovation in addressing strategic challenges faced by the US Navy.

Captain Michael Brasseur (@brasseur_mdb) is the co-founder and current Commodore of Task Force 59. Logan Jones is the general manager and president of SparkCognition Government Systems. Bilal Zuberi (@bznotes) is a general partner at Lux Capital.

Bilal Zuberi, general partner at Lux Capital, joins ACME General Corp. to talk about investing in innovative technologies across industries to address some of the world’s most complicated problems. 

Bilal has led Lux’s investments in companies like Saildrone, Evolv, Applied Intuition, Ironclad, and more. He also cofounded GEO2 Technologies and serves on the Advisory Board of the Lemelson Foundation. Learn more about Lux Capital at luxcapital.com and on Twitter at @Lux_Capital. Find Bilal on Twitter at @bznotes.

Logan Jones, general manager and president of SparkCognition Government Systems, joins ACME General Corp. to talk about ethics, dual use, and artificial intelligence in the public sector.

Before leading SparkCognition Government Systems, Logan was Vice President and founding member of Boeing HorizonX, the largest aerospace venture fund and innovation group. He was recently nominated by FedScoop as one of the best bosses in federal IT. Learn more about SparkCognition Government Systems at www.sparkgov.ai and on Twitter at @sparkgov.

Captain Michael Brasseur, co-founder and current Commodore of Task Force 59, joins ACME General Corp. to talk about integrating unmanned systems and artificial intelligence. 

Before leading Task Force 59, Capt. Brasseur was the Director for Naval Armaments Cooperation at NATO and the first Director of NATO’s Maritime Unmanned Systems Innovation & Coordination Cell (MUSIC2). Follow him on Twitter at @brasseur_mdb.

Chris Lynch, CEO and co-founder of Rebellion Defense, joins host Ken Harbaugh to talk about his “SWAT team of nerds” and building AI tools for national defense.

Before leading the team at Rebellion Defense, Chris was founding director at Defense Digital Service and launched programs like JEDI Cloud and Hack the Pentagon. Learn more about Chris and Rebellion Defense at rebelliondefense.com. Follow him on Twitter at @lynchseattle and find Rebellion at @RebellionDef.

Investor and Venrock partner Nick Beim joins ACME General Corp. to talk about Rebellion Defense and building mission-focused artificial intelligence products for the defense industry.

Nick is a partner at Venrock and one of the lead investors in Rebellion Defense. Follow him on Twitter at @NickBeim and find Venrock at @Venrock and Rebellion at @RebellionDef. Learn more about Venrock at venrock.com/about-venrock and Rebellion Defense at rebelliondefense.com.

Lieutenant General Mike Groen joins ACME General Corp. to talk about leading the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the potential of AI to transform the Department of Defense.

LtGen Groen is the commander of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), as well as a distinguished Marine Corps officer and veteran of multiple combat deployments. Learn more about the JAIC at ai.mil and find them on Twitter at @DoDJAIC.

Former NASA Administrator and retired Marine Corps Major General Charles Bolden Jr. joins hACME General Corp. to talk about his career, the growing commercial space industry, and how the new space economy intersects with national security concerns.

Major General Bolden is also the founder and CEO Emeritus of The Charles F. Bolden Group, a consortium of leaders focused on science and security. Learn more about their work at bolden.group and find Charles on Twitter at @cboldenjr.

Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin joins ACME General Corp. to talk about the Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force and why supply chains are so critical to our national defense.

Rep. Slotkin is the congresswoman from Michigan’s 8th district and, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she chaired the bi-partisan Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force. She is also a former CIA analyst and was the acting assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs from 2015 to 2017.

Learn more about Rep. Slotkin’s legislative priorities at slotkin.house.gov and find her on Twitter at @RepSlotkin.

Dr. Melissa Flagg joins ACME General Corp. to talk about R&D in the United States and efficiency in the Department of Defense - plus, why she finds optimism in science and history.

Dr. Flagg is a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and has served in a number of roles within the Department of Defense, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research. Find Melissa on Twitter at @flaggster73.