USS HORNET.
FIRST EDITION.

Ben Kohlmann believes American ingenuity is the catalyst for global flourishing - and has devoted his life to ensuring its acceleration.  He started his career as a Navy F/A-18 pilot flying combat missions over Afghanistan and launching the "virtuous insurgency" that helped spearhead the modern military innovation movement.  He is a former dual-use hard tech startup CEO and now invests to preserve American Resiliency, funding early stage companies building for national security, domestic industrial capacity, and energy abundance.

​Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco. Previously served as a Counsellor at Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the UN (2012-2014) and as Deputy Chief of Protocol to the President of Ukraine (2014-2020).

Lt Col Jeff Wright currently serves as the Chief of Fires and Autonomy at Special Operations Command – Pacific (SOCPAC) where he leads the command's efforts to identify and employ autonomous systems in real-world operational contexts. In addition to a career spent at the nexus of special operations and firepower control, he is a lifelong technology enthusiast, from learning BASIC on an Apple IIe in the mid-1980s through the tiltrotor drone project in his garage today.

VC investor specializing in industrial technologies, energy, infrastructure, robotics, and aerospace. Expertise in project finance, market analysis, due diligence, government policy, strategy development, business planning, forecasting, and creation of market and financial models. Strong quantitative and research skills combined with excellent writing and presentation abilities. Extensive experience working with senior-level management in North America, Europe, and Japan.

Dan leads Squadra's National Security practice, sourcing and evaluating companies for investment and supporting post-investment work on federal go-to-market strategy. Dan served as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director at the National Security Innovation Network, the Department of Defense's national security technology accelerator. He previously was a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, conducting capability development and campaign assessment studies for the Department of Defense, helping to inform the Department's modernization and planning efforts. Prior to these efforts, Dan was an artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps, worked as military legislative assistant to the Oversight and Investigations Chair on the House Armed Services Committee, and served as special assistant to an Under Secretary of Defense. Dan is a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Entrepreneurship Program, and an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Mike Schaefer is a Green Beret and West Point graduate with 10 years of service in the U.S. Army. During his military career, he focused on Latin America and combating illicit networks. Currently, he is pursuing an MBA at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and exploring the ability to do targeted network analysis to support national security efforts.

Art Trevethan is a leader in technology commercialization, strategic growth, and innovation, with a focus on aligning private sector technologies with Department of Defense needs. At Army Futures Command, he spearheaded cross-service collaborations, and his leadership at Velocity Vue showcases his ability to bring compliance and safety solutions to market across multiple sectors. As a Partner at CRUX Defense, he connects military needs with non-traditional companies, fostering a broader innovation ecosystem. His dedication to public service is evident in his mentorship roles with NATO's DIANA initiative and Houston Christian University’s Strategic AI Program, alongside community involvement with the Boy Scouts of America and local councils.

Chris is a technical leader and systems integration expert - I build and lead exceptional teams to solve hard problems. With delivered solutions across air dominance, cyber/electronic warfare, information systems, and both manned and unmanned combat aircraft projects, I can identify the right experts and then provide guidance and motivation to deliver transformative results. I'm always seeking great people to work with and new challenges to solve.

Frank Reyes has been at the intersection of national security and technology integration for over 20 years. His experience includes active-duty service in the US Navy, a senior government official in the Department of Defense working on weapon system software, and serving as a technology policy advisor in the US Congress for the House Committee on Homeland Security. In the private sector, Frank has worked for a firmographic data engineering company serving national security clients and at AWS on their federal security team. Currently, Frank is a technology leader at Maximus, a global technology consultancy and systems integrator, where he supports software and infrastructure delivery services for the public sector.

Junaid Islam has over 35 years of experience in secure communications. His protocols, algorithms and architectures have been incorporated into a broad range of commercial and national security systems. In the 90s he developed the first implementation of Multi-Level Precedence and Preemption (MLPP) for US Department of Defense C2 applications using Frame Relay at StrataCom. At Cisco Junaid contributed to the priority queuing and buffer management for MPLS routing. Junaid next developed the first working Mobile IPv6 client to enable fast hand-off and IPv6 address scrambling for high side networks for the DoD's Netcentric Warfare program. Most recently Junaid developed the first network-based Zero Trust Architecture using Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) which was adopted by NIST for their Zero Trust specification 800-207. Currently Junaid is developing Zero Trust Data solutions for commercial applications as well as RF interference aware routing for NASA's Artemis program.

Jonathan Lacoste is the founder & General Partner at Space VC, a pre-seed frontier tech firm. Space VC invests the first $1M into defense, space, manufacturing & industrial startups. Jonathan is a prior founder, having successfully started & exited an enterprise software company after dropping out of university.

Suffiyan is an investor, technologist and entrepreneur. He is currently the VP of Growth & Programs at Draper University and an investor at DraperU Ventures. He is also a personal investor in half a dozen companies including leading defense/emerging tech companies like Figure AI, Albedo Space and Regent Craft. In his time at DraperU, he has scaled the entrepreneurial fellowship programs to over 4,000 alumni in 100+ countries. He has previously led growth and program functions at Hult Prize Foundation and Teamup.

Cassandra Carothers is the Managing Partner of Departure Capital, where she invests at Pre-Seed > Series A in frontier tech companies for existential resilience. Focused on science and engineering-driven innovations (atoms > bits) across critical infrastructure (advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defense, robotics, compute), climate (advanced materials, industrial decarbonization), and health (biotech/life sci). Cassandra's career prior to venture includes technical sales, business development, strategy, and operations. Based in the SF Bay Area, she has lived and worked across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East regions.

Will is a former F-15E instructor pilot at USAF Weapons School who now serves as the Head of Strategy and Operations at Sailplane. He is passionate about solving problems relevant to national security and leverages his experience to enable innovative teams at the intersection of technology and defense.

15+ years in operations, defense analysis, and security cooperation and 8+ years in hands-on delivery and management of consulting advisory teams in the public and private sectors in cybersecurity, emerging technology, and digital transformation. Futurist and dot-connector.

Andrew Gibbs is a Program Manager at Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, California, where he oversees defense technology projects focused on national security. His previous roles include Investment Banking Summer Associate at Evercore, Venture Capital Summer Associate at Decisive Point, and Program Manager at the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN). Andrew also served as a Field Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army, bringing operational and strategic experience to his current role in defense innovation.

Katie Vasquez is an astrophysicist and deep tech investor at Calibrate Ventures, where she is driven by a passion for partnering with visionary founders who are transforming industries like aerospace and manufacturing through cutting-edge technologies such as AI, machine learning, computer vision and robotics. At Calibrate, the focus is on early-stage investments in deep tech startups and applied AI at scale.

Zal is the Founding Partner at Refactor Capital, a seed stage venture firm investing in hard tech, including bio, energy, aerospace, and defense. As a solo GP, he writes $1-2M checks and leads pre-seed and seed rounds out of his 4th fund. Previously, he was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he helped launch the firm's first Bio Fund. Prior to making the shift to venture, Zal was a PM for a decade launching new products at Google, Netflix, and LinkedIn.

Cameron Sinko is a Senior Firmware Engineer at Anduril Industries, where he designs, tests, and ships complex hardware systems for defense applications. He has participated in and organized dozens of hackathons, honing his skills in rapid innovation. His previous experience includes developing airships at LTA Research and holding engineering roles at VMware and Samsung. In his free time, he enjoys wrenching on cars. He's excited to see how participants tackle real-world challenges aboard the USS Hornet.

Margarita Geleta is an AI researcher affiliated with the Berkeley AI Research laboratory and the Stanford Department of Biomedical Data Science. Her published work and projects range from multimodal steganography for covert communications to forensic genetic genealogy. In 2024, Margarita completed the AI x Hardware accelerator at Fort Mason, won first place at the National Security hackathon by Shield Capital, and co-founded a defense tech startup backed by Founders, Inc.

Michael LaFramboise is an engineer, researcher and founder leading Aurelius Systems - a directed energy company developing laser weapons systems for defense against sUAS. Michael is a mechanical and electrical engineer specializing in control systems, semiconductor device physics and optoelectronics. He's currently on leave from a PhD in EECS from Columbia University's laboratory for unconventional electronics (CLUE).

Cameron Rowe is the founder of Hover which provides autonomous drone delivery in urban environments.

Elizabeth Soule is a seasoned investment professional with a strong foundation in asset management, strategic leadership, and investor relations, currently serving as Vice President at Hanwha Asset Management (USA) Ltd. in San Francisco. Since joining Hanwha, Elizabeth has been instrumental in driving investment strategies focused on high-impact sectors, particularly defense technology, aligning with Hanwha's commitment to innovation and security. Previously, as Chief of Staff at Obvious Ventures, Elizabeth honed expertise in operational strategy and venture capital, supporting groundbreaking technologies. Earlier, at Fortress Investment Group, she built a deep skill set in investor relations and CRM over nearly eight years.

Tejashwa is the Founding Automation Engineer at Codeium where he measures and develops innovative tools and workflows to enhance developer productivity through AI-powered code completion.

Yash is the Founding Designer at Codeium, crafting AI-powered coding experiences that transform developer workflows into seamless, productive, and magical journeys.

Joshua is the founder of Horizont University, a groundbreaking institution reimagining higher education with a focus on hardware innovation. Drawing from extensive experience in makerspaces like MotionLab Berlin and a strong foundation in computer engineering and management, Joshua is dedicated to fostering the next wave of technological leaders. His vision bridges education and practical innovation, making him a thoughtful and dynamic voice at the intersection of technology and defense.