Michael Brown

Partner at Shield Capital

Speaker

Mike is a Partner of SHIELD and serves on the Investment Committee for Fund I. Mike is involved in all aspects of the investment process as a deal originator, advocate, and team leader for due diligence processes, investment structuring, legal closing, and post-investment governance. Mike supports several SHIELD portfolio companies on governance boards and as an advisor to the founders including Anatec, Nexla, Unstructured, and Xeol. Mike previously served as a Venture Partner assisting the SHIELD team with relationships, deal sourcing, and due diligence. As a former CEO of two publicly-traded Fortune 500 companies and senior Department of Defense leader, Mike brings technology, operations, and national security perspectives to SHIELD’s investment processes and portfolio companies. Mike previously served four years (2018-2022) as the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in the U.S. Department of Defense. DIU fields leading-edge commercial capabilities to the military faster and more cost-effectively than traditional defense acquisition methods. Under Mike’s leadership, DIU introduced 100 new vendors to the Department of Defense, fielded 50 new capabilities to the military, and increased the transition rate of fielded capabilities to 50%. He also led the initiative for a new Defense Department-sponsored investment vehicle, National Security Innovation Capital (“NSIC”) to fund dual-use hardware technology companies. From 2016 to 2018, Mike served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow where he co-authored a Pentagon study on China’s participation in the U.S. venture ecosystem, a catalyst for the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (“FIRRMA”). FIRRMA was signed into law in August 2018 and provided expanded jurisdiction to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). Prior to civil service, Mike served as the CEO of Symantec Corporation (2014-2016), the global leader in cybersecurity that was the world’s 10th largest software company during his leadership. He is also the former Chairman and CEO of Quantum Corporation (1995-2003) and Chairman of EqualLogic (2003-2008). Mike is a thought leader in U.S. national security policy, having published numerous articles and papers on strategic competition with China in the technology, military, and economic domains. Mike is a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is also a member of distinguished national security non-profit organizations, including: the Board of Advisors at the Center for a New American Security (“CNAS”); the Ronald Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base (“NSIB”) Program; and the Board of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.