
Dan Ward
Dan is a senior principal systems engineer and innovation catalyst at the MITRE Corporation. His current projects include working to improve defense acquisition policy and enable greater flexibility, speed, & innovation. He is one of the creators of MITRE’s Innovation Toolkit, which aims to democratize innovation and help teams “go beyond brainstorming.”
Dan previously served for more than 20 years as an acquisition officer in the US Air Force, where he specialized in leading high-speed, low-cost technology development programs and retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While on active duty, he helped establish the Air Force Research Laboratory’s rapid innovation process. His assignments included two tours in the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Pentagon, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, several Program Offices, and ISAF Headquarters in Kabul.
Dan is the author of three books LIFT: Innovation Lessons From Flying Machines That NEARLY Worked and the People Who ALMOST Flew Them (2019) The Simplicity Cycle: A Field Guide To Making Things Better Without Making Them Worse (2015) and F.I.R.E.: How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained and Elegant Methods Ignite Innovation (2014). He also contributed a chapter to an anthology titled Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict (Potomac Books, 2018). His writings have appeared in a variety of outlets including Fast Company, Forbes, The Boston Globe, Small Wars Journal, and Armed Forces Journal.
Dan has testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the British House of Commons. He regularly speaks at tech conferences, including South By Southwest and the Lean Startup Conference. His expertise on defense acquisition reform has been featured in publications from the White House, the US Senate and the British Parliament.