Preston Dunlap is the CEO and Founder of Arkenstone Ventures. He has over 20 years of executive leadership experience spanning technology, national security, private investment, and space. He serves on Corporate Boards and advises Fortune 100 Companies, start-ups, private equity, venture capital, and research institutions such as Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Most recently, Mr. Dunlap was appointed by the Secretary of the Air Force as the first Chief Architect Officer and Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Space Force and Air Force, overseeing the technology, engineering, and architecture of over $70 Billion of development and acquisition programs.
Mr. Dunlap knows what it is like to serve at both the bottom and top as he began his Federal Service at the lowest rank and quickly rose to the highest Senior Executive Service (SES) rank attainable for a federal career civilian while serving 4 Secretaries of Defense.
He led national initiatives with direct participation from the Vice President of the United States, Cabinet Secretaries, Secretary of Defense, and Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Dunlap also ran the Pentagon’s $750 Billion Investment Analysis and Decision Committee process for multiple Secretaries of Defense, building the 5-Year Defense Budget Plan for Congressional authorization and appropriation.
He held senior executive positions as the Director of Program Analysis and Chief of Staff for Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, Director for Space and Intelligence, Director of the Counter-Terrorism Analysis Center, and Director of Joint Warfighting Simulation and Analysis.
Mr. Dunlap incubated over $250 Billion of new Defense and Intelligence programs, such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, Long-Range Strike Family of Systems, B-21 Bomber, Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic Programs, Collaborative Next Generation Air Dominance, and multiple classified programs. He expanded the industrial base and established new Venture Capital partnerships.
He co-led major defense policy and strategy development, such as the Strategic Choices and Management Review, National Defense Strategy, Quadrennial Defense Review, National Enterprise Nuclear Review, and Military Plans.
In the private sector, he served on multiple Boards and Technology Startups. He was both an Executive and Leadership Board Member of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and served on the Board of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Seminar XXI.
He holds a Master of Science in Operations Research and Management Science from George Mason University, a Bachelor’s Degree in both Computer Science and Political Science from Duke University, and was a Harvard National Security Executive Fellow.
A sought-after keynote speaker, Mr. Dunlap is frequently cited as an authority in international media publications and as an expert witness for the United States Congress. His awards include the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, Secretary of the Air Force Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, and multiple citations of both the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service and the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.