The Defense Innovation Unit Experimental – AKA DIUx – is getting a new, first of its kind reserve unit that will be led by an Apple executive. Doug Beck is the Apple Vice President for North America and Northeast Asia, and just happens to also be a US Naval Reserve Commander.
Mr. Beck served from 2006 to 2007 in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and Presidential Unit CItation. At Apple, Beck reports directly to CEO Tim Cook. From 2010 to 2014 Beck was based in Tokyo and led Apple’s Northeast Asia businesses.
The formation of the reserve unit was announced today by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who spoke at DIUx Headquarters in Mountain View, California on the future of the organization. According to Carter’s prepared remarks in an article made ahead of the announcement, DIUx 2.0 (as the revised organization has been nicknamed) “will be a test-bed for new kinds of contracting with startup firms. They’ll work quickly to execute time-sensitive acquisition programs. And they’ll move at the speed of business. We know how fast companies run here and in other tech hubs around the country, and we expect DIUx 2.0 to run alongside them.”
Many thanks to reader Dan Mosqueda for giving us the heads-up on this news.
