DIU announces first deputy director of commercial operations

The Defense Innovation Unit announced today that Liz McNally has been named as the organization's first deputy director of commercial operations.

DIU said the creation of the position is a “key milestone in executing DIU’s 3.0 strategy of scaling commercial technology innovation across the U.S. Department and delivering maximum strategic impact to the warfighter.”

DIU said that this position will also amplify the Defense Department’s demand signal while making the acquisition process of technology from the commercial sector easier by providing “procedural on-ramps to the DOD.”

“In this role she will bring her diverse experiences from the private sector, the military, and the not-for-profit sector to lead DIU’s collaboration with the commercial tech sector and investment community,” DIU said. “This includes enhanced portfolio company scaling support and related Department partnerships, as well as the defense innovation on-ramp, talent, and investment capabilities resident in National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC).”

DIU Director Doug Beck said it is “is critically important to the Department of Defense” that partnerships with the commercial sector be taken “to the next level.”

“Liz’s expertise and dual fluency across the commercial and military sectors, combining deep experience with both operating businesses and investors as well as downrange in uniform, and on top of her hands-on experience with inspiring service-and purpose-oriented talent, represent an incredible asset to our mission of delivering real change to the DOD at speed and scale,” he said.

Prior to her job at DIU, McNally was a military police officer in the Army before working a variety of private sector and not-for-profit positions, most recently serving as the co-CEO of Schmidt Futures, which is a philanthropic initiative funding technology and innovation research.

DIU said she will work with people across the department, including “teammates” in the Office of Strategic Capital, Office of Industrial Base Policy and its Office of Small Business Programs and partners in DOD’s Defense Innovation Community of Entities.

“I look forward to working across the commercial sector, the DOD and our allies to bring critical solutions to our warfighters on a timescale that matters,” McNally said.