Owen West

Owen West is a Marine officer, former Goldman Sachs banker, and author who has held senior Pentagon roles across two administrations. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict from 2017 to 2019, confirmed by a 74–23 Senate vote. He returned to government in 2025 as a Department of Government Efficiency team lead at the Defense Department before taking the helm at DIU.

As Director of the Defense Innovation Unit, West is steering the Pentagon’s primary commercial technology accelerator with a stated focus on driving down the military’s cost-per-kill ratio. DIU occupies a critical node between Silicon Valley and the warfighter, and West’s leadership shapes how quickly autonomous systems and AI-enabled capabilities move from prototype to procurement.