Brett Goldstein is the newly-appointed DDS Director. A wiz from both the public and private sectors, Goldstein helped to develop OpenTable, a popular online restaurant reservation system, and he was the first chief data officer in the United States. He also boasts City of Chicago CIO, police commander, academic and venture capitalist on his resume.
"DDS was created to bring in the best and brightest, to help advance the mission to solve some of our hardest technical problems, and to make sure technology doesn't get in the way of our mission: national defense," says Goldstein. "I think one of the things we've learned in government is that technology needs to enable the mission."
Launched in 2015, DDS is charged with bringing the best available technology in an efficient way into the DOD. DDS uses private-sector tools, approaches and talent to help the DOD solve high-impact challenges. Project results have included getting veterans benefits faster, finding bugs in government systems, and helping military families change stations more easily.