Captain Benjamin Van Buskirk - Director, NavalX - Dual Use Innovation Initiatives For The Warfighter

Captain Benjamin Van Buskirk is the Director of NavalX (https://www.secnav.navy.mil/agility/Pages/default.aspx), a fascinating organization that serves the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps as an innovation and agility cell, supporting and connecting initiatives across the Department of Defense, connecting different teams with tools, training, and resources, enabling people to think differently and deliver more effective solutions to the warfighter.

Captain Van Buskirk joined NavalX after helping establish the Strategic Warfighting Innovation Cell within the Navy’s Warfighting Development Directorate where as a founding member, he designed and executed SWIC’s strategic priorities and engagement plan.

Captain Van Buskirk was also a former secretary of defense executive fellow at cloud computing company VMware, where he was one of four Navy officers selected for the fellowship and was tasked with helping the company’s senior executives in areas such as business strategy and technology innovation with areas of focus including AI, ML, IoT, Mobile, and Cloud Computing.

Captain Van Buskirk also has many years of active duty experience including, but not limited to, serving as a squadron commanding and executive officer for the U.S. Navy , and serving as a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Strike Advisor, trusted to provide accurate and timely advice to the President of the United States for employment of strategic nuclear weapons and ensuring nuclear command and control execution messages are property sent to forces.

Captain Van Buskirk has a BS in Finance from University of Arizona, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on Defense, from the Naval Postgraduate School.