Today, the Department of Defense announced Mr. Doug Beck will serve as the next Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
As DIU Director, Mr. Beck will oversee efforts to accelerate the Department’s adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and also serve as a senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on technology innovation, competition, and strategic impact.
Secretary Austin also announced in a memo to Department leadership updates to DIU’s reporting and management structure. Under the realignment, the DIU Director will report directly to the Secretary of Defense, and DIU will be under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of Defense.
In the memo, Secretary Austin said, “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.”
Mr. Beck is currently Vice President of Apple, Inc., where he has reported directly to CEO Tim Cook since joining the company in 2009. During that time, he has led Apple’s businesses across Northeast Asia and the Americas, and most recently, several of the company’s purpose-driven businesses worldwide, including in health, education, and other institutions of public impact. He has over fifteen years of experience living and working across Asia, including in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Mr. Beck is a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve and served from 2006 through 2007 in Iraq and Afghanistan with a joint special operations task force. He has also served extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region during his nearly 26 years of service, including command of a large joint reserve unit supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Mr. Beck has previous experience working with DIU, as he founded and led its joint reserve component from inception in 2015 through 2019. His personal and unit awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Mr. Beck previously served as a nonpartisan appointed member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, an Executive Advisor to three Chiefs of Naval Operations and to Special Operations Community leadership, and an adjunct lecturer on strategy and innovation for Flag and General Officers at the Naval Postgraduate School. For over 15 years, he has served as a formal and informal advisor to senior uniformed and civilian leadership across the Department. He also serves as a part of Secretary of Commerce Raimondo’s mentorship program for Commerce leaders. Mr. Beck has also served for more than eight years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for a New American Security and of the Advisory Board for Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
