Michael A Brown

Michael Brown served as the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) at the U.S. Department of Defense since 2018. Since 2018, DIU doubled the number of projects underway, transitioned 26 new capabilities to warfighters, doubled company participation in projects and introduced 70 first-time vendors to the Defense Department. From 2016 to 2018, Brown served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow at the Defense Department. He is the co-author of a Pentagon study on China’s participation in the U.S. venture ecosystem, a catalyst for the Foreign Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) providing expanded jurisdiction to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). Additionally, he led efforts at the Defense Department to create National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) aimed at catalyzing private investment in dual-use hardware companies to diversify the supply chain with U.S. technology. Prior to Brown’s government service, he was the CEO of two public Silicon Valley technology leaders—Symantec, the largest cybersecurity firm at that time and Quantum, the largest global supplier of tape drives and of disk drives for personal computers. Michael Brown joined Symantec's board of directors following the company's merger with VERITAS Software in July 2005. Brown had served on the VERITAS board of directors since 2003. He joined Quantum Corporation, a provider of data back-up solutions, in 1984 and over the years held a number of management positions. From 1995 to 2002, Brown was chief executive officer and also served as the chairman of the board from 1998 to 2003. Brown is currently the chairman of Line 6 and continues to serve on the board of Quantum. He is a Trustee of the Berklee College of Music and previously served on the President’s Advisory Council at Berklee. He holds a master’s of business administration from Stanford Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.