Michael Brown

Michael Brown is a partner at Shield Capital and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He serves on the Board of Advisors at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the United States Innovative Technology (USIT) fund.

Michael previously served as the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) at the U.S. Department of Defense (2018-2022). DIU fields leading-edge commercial capabilities to the military faster and more cost-effectively than traditional defense acquisition methods. During his tenure, DIU introduced 100 new vendors to DoD, fielded 50 new capabilities to the military, and increased the transition rate of fielded capabilities to 50%. While at DIU, Michael created the initiative to catalyze private investment in more deep tech hardware startups, National Security Innovation Capital.

From 2016 to 2018, Michael was a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow co-authoring 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, Michael was the CEO of Symantec Corporation (2014-2016), at the time the global leader in cybersecurity and the world’s 10th largest software company. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Quantum Corporation (1995-2003) and Chairman of EqualLogic (2003-2008).

Michael received his BA degree in economics from Harvard and his MBA from Stanford University.