Doug Beck

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Doug Beck is the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense. In this role, Doug oversees efforts to accelerate the Department's adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and also serves as a senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on technology innovation, competition, and strategic impact.

As a Congressionally-designated Principal Staff Assistant to the Secretary, Doug as DIU Director, serves as the Department’s “principal liaison” to the commercial tech sector. DIU serves as a vanguard, catalyst, and leader for DoD’s broader efforts to institutionalize and scale commercial technology integration and strategic impact, as well as to help put the commercial tech sector – and our allies and partners – in a position to meet the imperatives of national security both today and in the future.

Doug has served as DIU Director since May, 2023. He was also instrumental in the origin of DIU (then DIUx), and went on to found and lead its joint reserve component from inception in 2015 through 2019.

Prior to joining DIU, Doug was Vice President at Apple, reporting directly to its CEO, Tim Cook, from 2009-2023. At Apple, Doug co-led the worldwide business development and sales functions, and led the company’s businesses across Northeast Asia and the Americas following five years leading Northeast Asia while a resident in Tokyo. He also led several of Apple’s purpose-driven businesses worldwide, including in health, education, and other institutions of public impact.

Before joining Apple, Doug served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Charles Schwab. Prior to Schwab, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company, co-leader of McKinsey's global strategy practice, and a leader of other industry and functional practices in the United States and Asia. In 2000, he was elected as one of the youngest partners in McKinsey history, while living in Shanghai. He has lived and worked for many years in Asia, including in Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across China.

Currently a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Doug served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006-2007 with a joint special operations task force. He has also served extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region during his nearly 28 years of service, including command of a large joint reserve unit supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His personal and unit awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

As a civilian, Doug has served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and an executive advisor to three Chiefs of Naval Operations and to Special Operations Community leadership. For over fifteen years, he also served as a formal and informal advisor to senior civilian and uniformed Defense Department leaders. Doug is a recipient of the Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest award given to civilians by the Secretary of Defense. 

Doug also served from 2015 to 2023 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for a New American Security. He is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, which oversees the Rhodes Scholarships worldwide, and a member of the Advisory Board of Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, where has founded an undergraduate prize and fellowship for developing future leaders for national security.

Doug holds a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Yale and an M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.