Former Symantec CEO named to head Defense Department’s Silicon Valley unit
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/09/24/dod-diu-silicon-valley-unit-michael-brown-symantec.html
The Pentagon is bringing in former Symantec Corp. CEO Michael Brown to head up its freshly cemented Silicon Valley technology unit and one of his top priorities will be convincing the region's tech giants that they can and should work with the U.S. military.
Effective immediately, Brown is now the managing director of the Defense Department's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the agency said on Monday. Brown was previously chairman and CEO of Mountain View-based Symantec and San Jose-based Quantum Corp. Most recently, he served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow.
"There is no better person than Mike Brown to lead DIU into its next chapter," Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's under secretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a statement. "Mike’s extensive Silicon Valley career speaks for itself, as he has experience in both hardware from his time at Quantum, as well as software at Symantec."
Brown led Symantec for two years and oversaw its divestiture of Veritas before he was “transitioned” out by the board in 2016.
“I understand the motivation of companies, CEOs, investors because I’ve been working with these folks my whole life,” Brown told industry publication Defense News on Monday.
His appointment comes weeks after Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said that the Silicon Valley defense unit, previously known as DIUx, would drop the "experimental" portion of its name, becoming a permanent DoD unit and now nicknamed simply DIU.
The unit was founded under Obama-era Defense Secretary Ash Carter in 2015. Last summer, Secretary of Defense James Mattis made a visit to its Mountain View headquarters and said the unit would "grow in its influence and its impact on the Department of Defense," noting artificial intelligence as a top area of interest.
Brown will fill the top role formerly held by Raj Shah, who stepped down in February. Sean Heritage, who has been acting as DIU interim head, will return to being the Navy lead for the office, the unit said.
In June, the unit also hired Mike Madsen as "Unit Partner" to smooth out the collaboration processes between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.
AI, Trump and China among Brown’s priorities
Among Brown's top priorities will be convincing Silicon Valley tech companies to work with the U.S. military even as many of those businesses face employee pushback from within their ranks.
Earlier this year, thousands of Google employees protested against Project Maven, a project with the Pentagon in which the company's artificial intelligence technology was used to analyze drone footage. The uproar ultimately led the Alphabet Inc.-owned company to cancel the contact.
Brown told Defense News that the Project Maven incident was “overblown,” adding that DIU is already in discussions with more than 500 different technology companies.
Brown also said his office will focus on warning U.S. companies of the dangers of working with China. American companies should be "not only viewing China as an economic opportunity but also seeing the geopolitical consequences," he told Defense News. “Being part of that debate is going to be an important role for DIU.”
Brown also co-authored a white paper that reportedly helped to inform President Trump's bearish views on trade with China.
The Trump administration, which this week enacted $200 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports, has taken an adversarial role toward the country, even as the massive Chinese market is increasingly being pursued by Silicon Valley companies from Tesla to Google.
“My fundamental view is we are in a technology race," Brown told Defense News. "We didn’t ask to be in this, but we’re in it. I’m concerned that if we don’t recognize that we’re in a race and take appropriate action, then we let China move forward and we don’t put our best foot forward in terms of leading in these key technology areas.”
Brown noted that the top tech investment priorities will include human systems engineering, information technology, cyber or advanced computing, autonomy, and artificial intelligence.
Brown said he plans to hire a human resources leader and new general counsel for the innovation unit.