For their next acts, former Trump administration DoD officials look beyond traditional defense contractors – By Jen Judson (Defense News) / January 10, 2022
WASHINGTON — It wasn’t until after Ryan McCarthy left his post as U.S. Army secretary that he discovered a company with technology he had spent years wishing existed.
During his time at the helm of the Army, McCarthy knew the service needed a cloud architecture that could operate at the tactical edge of the battlespace and control assets such as unmanned ground vehicles and drones. But “I never found the technology” to do that, he told Defense News in an exclusive interview.
McCarthy retired from government service in January 2021 after serving as Army secretary since September 2019, when then-Army Secretary Mark Esper was promoted to defense secretary. McCarthy had previously served as Army undersecretary, then as acting secretary until Esper was confirmed in late 2017.
Now McCarthy has joined the boards of several technology firms. While many former military officials sign on with major defense contractors, McCarthy has eschewed the brand names in favor of mostly smaller and nontraditional companies.
