NATO’s Innovation Engine: How DIANA is Rewriting the Rules of Defence

Tom, thank you so much for taking the time. I'm really looking forward to our conversation today. To start right away, uh Tom, what is NATO DIANA in one sentence? So, DIANA is NATO's innovation engine. And I'll um sure I'll have time to talk about what that means. Uh but but we are uh we are an an engine within NATO to

pull innovative technology from the market and deliver it into the hands of the users that need it. And that that's our sole focus and purpose. And yeah, there you go. That that was that was absolutely one sentence. Thank you. Um then, Tom, uh obviously I want to know or everyone who's listening in

wants to know about you. Who are you? How did you come to to this position within NATO? Uh why NATO? Why defense? Please give us a little bit of a a background to who you are. Sure. Well, first I'll say thanks for for having me on. I didn't want to I didn't want to uh

throat clear with the what is the the one sentence for for DIANA, but I I do want to say thanks. I think what you're doing with this podcast is is fantastic, and we need more uh in-depth media focused on these issues. Uh so, really appreciate your time uh and the opportunity. So, yeah, uh I'm the

general counsel of DIANA, and and we will talk more about how we work here. Uh but my background, I'm as you may be able to tell from my accent, I'm American, although now I'm based at DIANA's headquarters here in London. And I'm coming from the the private sector. I spent the beginning of my uh legal

career in private practice at a big law firm doing defense and national security and tech. Uh and then uh ended up having the opportunity to go work at SpaceX uh for a couple of years, which was very interesting. It's a uh fantastic uh you know, very exciting company and it was an exciting time to be there. It was