Eric Volmar is deputy director of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford. His work focuses on connecting defense, academia, and entrepreneurship to accelerate innovation for national security, supporting new ventures at the intersection of technology and policy. He plays a leading role in fostering entrepreneurial solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing the defense sector today.

Previously, Volmar was the chief strategy officer at the Office of Strategic Capital within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, with a mission to attract and scale private capital for national security. He also served as the chief of research at AFWERX, the commercial innovation unit for the Department of the Air Force.

Volmar is a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations and was a Rising Leader at the Aspen Strategy Group, a fellow with the Strategic Management Society, and a researcher at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. He earned his PhD in strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship at Stanford, working with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and his MBA at the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business.

This appearance by Eric Volmar is part of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. Subscribe to our eCorner YouTube channel, where we bring founders, investors and industry influencers to center stage and invite them to share what it takes to become a disruptor.