Pentagon appoints Apple executive to lead its Defense Innovation Unit

News, US April 8, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

United States Department of Defense has named the Vice President of Apple Inc. Doug Beck to lead Defense Innovation Unit. Beck would be serving directly under the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

According to a statement released by the Pentagon, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Doug Beck’s appointment as the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) by saying that “as DIU Director, Mr. Beck will oversee 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.”

Apart from reporting to the U.S. Department of Defense, Beck would continue to hold his executive position at one of the world’s largest tech companies, Apple Inc. He joined Apple in 2009 and currently serves as the vice president overseeing Apple’s education, health, and government operations. Prior to that, he was overseeing the company’s operations in Northeast Asia and the Americas. He has spent a substantial amount of time living in different Asian countries in the last 15 years.

Beck holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and an M.Phil in international relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He will assume his new role at DIU on May 1, 2023. Beck also has an extensive history of working with the U.S. military forces. He served in the U.S. Navy for nearly 26 years as a Captain and served from 2006 through 2007 in Iraq and Afghanistan with a joint special operations task force.

The newly appointed DIU director has also served extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region during his service, including command of a large joint reserve unit supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In a memo released by the U.S. Defense Secretary, it was mentioned that as the Director of the DUI in the Pentagon, Beck “shall serve as a leader inside the Department to catalyze engagement with and investment into private sector communities where commercial technology can be adapted and applied to meet our warfighters’ requirements.”

^{Members of the Massachusetts National Guard’s Command Team receive a demonstration on the use of commercial quadcopters from the Defense Innovation Unit during Operation Patriot Crucible in August 2019. (Image Credit: U.S. Army/Sgt. 1st Class Jamie Gaitan)}

Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit is a government-funded organization that helps the U.S. military forces to adapt to emerging commercial technologies in defense operations. DIU’s staff consists of both military and non-military officials, as well as retired and serving servicemembers from the U.S. forces. DIU has been without a leader since September last year after its former leader Mike Brown stepped down citing a lack of support from the Department of Defense.

According to the Pentagon’s statement Austin wants Beck to provide an assessment of DIU’s ability to meet its objectives within 90 days of joining his post. He is also required to develop an action plan for filling any gaps identified in that review.

“DIU’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of commercial technology at speed and scale, and these changes will further enable it to effectively execute this critical mission,” U.S. Defense Secretary Austin said in the statement.