Two Indian Americans are a part of Pentagon's military IT venture

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has appointed two Indian Americans in major leadership positions for the Pentagon's centre in Silicon Valley, which is aimed at innovation in IT solutions for the US military. One of them is a former F-16 pilot, while the other one is an Iraq war veteran.

The four-member team includes these two Indian Americans, Raj Shah and Vishaal Hariprasad, as well as Christopher Kirchhoff and Isaac Taylor. The team would directly report to Carter, who has announced to scale up Defence Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), the brainchild that he had opened in Silicon Valley last year. As per Carter, DIUx would also have another outpost in Boston.

Raj Shah was the Senior Director of Strategy at Palo Alto Networks, and was earlier the CEO and Co-Founder of a cyber security company acquired in 2014. Not only this, he was also a Special Assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defence after beginning his business career as a consultant with McKinsey. Having served as an F-16 pilot in the US Air Force, he has also completed multiple combat tours, attended Princeton University, and is also an MBA from the Wharton School.

He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and an affiliate at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).

Hariprasad, on the other hand, is an Iraq War veteran, having earned the Bronze Star Medal. He was also the former Technical Co-founder and Director of Software Engineering for Morta Security, before it got acquired by Palo Alto Networks. He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, and has served as a Cyberspace Operations Officer for the air force and NSA.

Hariprasad has also served numerous combat deployments and stations overseas, holding a Master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech University.

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