2nd Annual Stanford Conference

The 2nd Annual Stanford Conference on Tech + National Security will take place on Wednesday, October 8-9, 2024 at the Hoover Institution. We look forward to welcoming you this fall to the campus of Stanford University to explore the intersection of tech and national security with other leaders from across academia, government, and industry. Last year’s inaugural conference sold over 400 tickets and was keynoted by Dr. Steve Blank and Dr. Condoleezza Rice, with panels on emerging technologies and strategic competition featuring C-suite executives from Anduril, Palantir, Shield AI, Scale AI, Vannevar Labs, and more. This year, in addition to the conference, we will be hosting a national security career fair on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 8 to showcase the diverse career paths available for those looking to make a difference. See you soon!

The conference is hosted by Stanford DEFCON, a student network under the purview of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University.

Conference Organizers

DEFCON Leadership

  • DEFCON Co-President

    Bryce Mitchell is pursuing a Master’s degree in Business administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor’s degree in International History, and from King’s College London with a Master’s degree in International Affairs. Bryce is an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, currently serving with the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Future Capabilities and Innovation Office. Prior to this Bryce served for almost a decade as an Air Force intelligence officer across multiple theaters, leading teams across the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the United States Africa Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, AFWERX, and the Department of Defense’s Office of Strategic Capital. Bryce is also a national security fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

  • DEFCON Co-President

    Dr. Ethan Klein is a second-year MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He previously served as a policy advisor for emerging technologies at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Klein spent the last five years at MIT developing nuclear technologies for arms control and nonproliferation, with funding from a National Nuclear Security Administration fellowship. His research was recognized by the Arms Control Association with the 2019 Arms Control Person of the Year Award. He earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering and S.B. in Chemistry and Physics from MIT.

  • DEFCON Co-President

    Helen Phillips is a second-year student in the Master’s in International Policy (MIP) program. She joins Stanford after working for several years at the intersection of dual-use startups, venture capital, and the federal government. Most recently, Helen was on the investment team at Booz Allen Ventures, the $100M CVC fund of Booz Allen. Prior to the CVC, Helen led tech scouting projects for senior DoD clients, researching and integrating dual-use startups against specific requirements. Helen has also conducted extensive research on foreign investment, assessing FOCI in the U.S. startup ecosystem. She is interning at DIU while in graduate school.

  • DEFCON Vice President

    Marcus Zimmerman is a Senior in the Science, Technology, and Society program at Stanford University with a concentration in Innovation and Organizations. He is currently working as a summer intern for Sozo Ventures. He serves as a Vice President for Stanford Angels, a network of alumni angel investors, venture capitalists, and founders in the Stanford community that has helped fund over 100 startups to date. Previously, Marcus worked as the first employee at Notebook Labs, a Stanford Web3 Startup that went through Y-Combinator and raised a seed round from Bain Capital Crypto.

  • DEFCON Vice President

    Faith Zehfuss is a first year co-term student in the FSI Masters in International Policy with a concentration in International Security. She is currently continuing her internship at 8VC on the defense investment team. During her undergrad, Faith was involved with Hacking for Defense and Women In National Security. She has international startup experience through Stanford SEED, assisted a refugee entrepreneurship project in Uganda for a year with the MS&E Department and Stanford King Center, and was a varsity lightweight rower.

  • DEFCON Vice President

    Josh Pickering is a Navy veteran who spent his early career as an Operations Specialist in the Persian Gulf during JCPOA negotiations serving as an air defense commander and Iranian deterrent as well as conducting small-boat and counter piracy operations. In March 2022, he spent 6 weeks moving throughout Ukraine, supporting civilians and military operations during the siege of Kyiv. With a background in crisis response, surgery, medical device engineering and roll out, Josh is now passionate about strengthening the relationship between the tech industry and the DoD.

    Josh holds a BS in Biochemistry and an MBA from the GSB, and is completing his MD at Stanford’s School of Medicine.

Organizing Committee

  • Philip Balson is a second-year MBA student at the Stanford Graduate of Business. He previously worked at Berkshire Partners, a leading Boston-based Private Equity firm, investing in IT Services and Digital Infrastructure companies in the United States and globally. He spent the past summer interning with Palantir Technologies as a Deployment Strategist. Philip received his A.B. in History, Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard College.

  • Andrew Couillard is a first-year MBA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business. As an investor at Harpoon Ventures, he focuses on dual-use defense technology and recently helped incubate a defense tech startup. He previously served as a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer, leading teams in Asia, Europe, and Africa focused on neutralizing explosives on land and underwater. Andrew received his B.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Southern California. 

  • Nico studied synthetic neurobiology at Brown University, published peer-reviewed articles with a Nobel Prize winner, and ran his own startup for several years, earning Forbes 30 under 30 commendations. 

    He sold his company and started his pivot into deep tech by earning a prestigious Fellowship at The Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Energy, where he worked for the Director of Commercialization. 

    As he completes his MBA at Stanford, Nico is working as an Associate at Future Ventures, a deep tech VC with $1.2 billion AUM and dual use investments in AI, chips, edge compute, satellites, signal free position tracking, image processing.

  • Cayden Gu is a sophomore at Stanford majoring in History and Computer Science. He is particularly interested in East Asian relations, semiconductors, and computer vision.

  • Barclay Jones was born and raised in Long Island, New York. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A in International Relations cum laude in 2013 and shortly after enlisted in the Army on a Special Forces contract. After graduating from the training pipeline and receiving his “Green Beret” in 2016, he served in 5th Special Forces Group where he worked in the Crisis Response Force focusing on a variety of counterterrorism and ISIS operations. He recently left the service and is a Tillman Scholar in his first year at the MBA program at Stanford University where he is interested in metals and mining and is focusing his coursework on the intersection of commodities, national security, and supply chains. He lives with his wife and golden retriever in Palo Alto.

  • Elsa Johnson is a sophomore at Stanford studying International Relations and East Asian studies. She is particularly interested in U.S.-China relations, national security, and defense tech.

  • Nate is J.D. candidate at Stanford Law School  He previously worked as Cyber Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Nate holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and M.P.A. from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

  • Alex is an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He previously served as a Navy Officer at Naval Reactors, which maintains lifecycle responsibility for all US Navy submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear propulsion plants. Alex began his Naval Reactors career in the Reactor Materials Division. He later served as the Naval Reactors Chief Technologist, leading the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program’s new, cross-disciplinary technology development organization, the Advanced Technology Innovation Pipeline. Alex holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with Honors in International Security Studies and an M.S. in Management Science & Engineering, both from Stanford University.

  • Ahmad Nasir, from Anchorage, Alaska, is pursuing a JD/MBA at Stanford Law School and Graduate School of Business as a Knight-Hennessy and Tillman Scholar. Ahmad received a bachelor’s degree from West Point, where he played Division I football and was awarded the Truman Scholarship. Ahmad also earned an MPhil from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. Previously, he commanded a Special Forces A-Team as an Army captain and Green Beret. In that role, Ahmad and his team deployed to Syria where they conducted special operations to defeat ISIS, build partner capacity, and leverage coalition effects. Ahmad continues to serve in the Army Reserves.

  • Andrew Paulmeno is a Major in the Marine Corps Reserve. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering Honors and a Minor in Russian, Andrew became a Combat Engineer Officer. He served with the 9th Engineering Support Battalion in Okinawa, Japan, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island South Carolina, US Southern Command, and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. 

    In 2020, he received his Masters of Science in Engineering from Columbia University. He is currently an MBA student at Stanford GSB.