Building the Base

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren talk with Michael John Gallagher, U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.     Throughout the podcast, Representative Gallagher touches on the role of increased automation in cutting edge technology, investing in the workforce, and the Pentagon’s procurement...

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Ted Schlein, Chairman & General Partner, Ballistic Ventures and General Partner, Kleiner Perkins to discuss the future of the defense industrial network. Throughout the podcast, Ted touches on inefficiencies within the defense industrial base regarding its acquisition of cybersecurity technology. One of Ted’s most important vie...

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Katrina McFarland, Former Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology joins our own Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula to discuss supply chain security, maintaining the technological competitive edge, and cultivating talent in the national security workforce. Ms. McFarland explains how national security strategy has fal...

Sue is currently the Director at CACI International which provides the unique expertise and distinctive technology that address customers’ greatest enterprise and mission challenges.   She was the fifth Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from August 2017 to August 2019. As PDDNI, Sue was a key advisor to the President and...

Check out our latest Business Executives for National Security (BENS) “Building the Base” podcast featuring Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor at Insight Partners, Adjunct & Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Hear him engage with our own Jim “Hondo” Geurts and Lauren Bedula about his new book with co-author Marina Nitze, Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any...

Michael Morell is Former Deputy Director and twice Acting Director of CIA from 2009 to 2013. A 33-year veteran of CIA, including time as the head of analysis and daily intelligence briefer to President George W. Bush. Only person to be with President Bush on 9/11 and with President Obama on May 1st, 2011 when Osama bin Laden was brought to justice. Author of The Great War of Our Time, a New York T...

Retired three-star general VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson sits down to discuss her experience in the armed forces and pressing national security issues facing the country’s ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) efforts. Currently, she sits on multiple boards of directors for organizations like Digital Realty Trust, ArQit, Beacon Global Strategies, and Primer Technologies.. Gen. Jamieson discu...

Mac Thornberry served as the U.S. Representative for Texas’s 13th Congressional District from 1995 to 2021, with service on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and was Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) from 2015 to 2019. During his time in Congress, Thornberry developed a reputation for problem-solving and for his expertise in national and domestic security po...

Technologist and data expert Dr. David Bray is a leader with the World Economic Forum and a scholar with civil service experience. Bray served as an adviser to the Department of Defense focused on increasing adaptability of the military services and as a senior executive and CIO for the Federal Communications Commission. From 2010 to 2013, he led the National Commission on R&D for the Office o...

Kirsten Bartok Touw is Co-Founder of New Vista Capital and Managing Partner of AirFinance . She is an active early-stage investor in new and emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies. Bartok Touw shares her perspectives on sourcing investments in AI, machine learning, autonomy, vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and battery technology. The discussion explores Kirsten’s pathway from po...

Steve Blank is co-creator of the Lean Startup movement and has been part of, or co-founded, eight Silicon Valley startups in fields such as semiconductors, video games, personal computers and supercomputers. In this discussion, hosts Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula explore the role universities play in the national security industrial base, Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innov...

James Cross is the Founder of Silicon Valley Defense Group, a nonprofit connecting the people, capital, and ideas that will ensure the U.S. and its allies achieve a durable advantage in the global tech & security competition. Listen to hear how Silicon Valley Defense Group is powering the digital evolution of the defense industrial base.

Tina Dolph is an accomplished executive leader with more than two decades of government industry experience. She is widely known as a collaborative leader. Prior to leading Siemens Government Technologies, Ms. Dolph was instrumental in Lockheed Martin’s integration of and subsequent divestiture of PAE, Inc., where she served in executive leadership positions culminating as Executive Vice President...

Shaun Modi is the founder and CEO of a new venture-backed Startup, Capitol AI. As founding designer at Airbnb, and co-founder of the design and innovation group TM, Shaun has launched over 55+ products. Airbnb is now worth $100b+.   Recognized as one of Business Insider’s Top 75 Designers in Technology, Shaun’s skills are a culmination of 14+yrs experience from tremendously successful companies an...