Podcast/Video Interviews by Stephen Ibaraki
Stephen Ibaraki and Dr. David A. Bray Discuss How AI is Transforming How Countries, Companies, and Countries Operate and People-Centered Approaches to AI: Dr. David A. Bray To Receive the 2026 Marconi Society Award for AI Excellence and Global Leadership
This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Dr. David A. Bray.
For more than twenty-seven years, having started servant leadership roles at an early age, Dr. David A. Bray, has served as a non-partisan guardian of free societies amid natural and tech-induced disruptions, delivering technical solutions during crises while shaping long-term strategy across intelligence, defense, and critical infrastructure protection. Currently Chair of the Accelerator at the Loomis Council and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center (2021-present), his career began early including opportunities to work on classified space-related activities at age 17 in the mid-1990s. Later his leadership skills in turbulent environments were forged amidst the crucible of national emergency as Informatics Strategist & IT Chief for the CDC's Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program (2000-2005), where he designed and deployed information systems that processed vast epidemiological data during the September 11th response, the 2001 anthrax attacks that targeted our government, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. These systems enabled life-saving coordination across federal, state, and local agencies, demonstrating early digital and AI applications in pattern recognition and rapid data synthesis that would prove fundamental to future national security capabilities.
Dr. Bray's commitment to service in turbulent environments led him to volunteer for deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, where he jointly reported to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Executive Office of the President on operational challenges and strategic concerns affecting both military operations and humanitarian efforts. This experience, which earned him the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and NATO Service Medal, informed his subsequent work as a Senior National Intelligence Service Executive (2010-2013) serving as Executive Director for the bipartisan Congressional Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Leading an eighteen-agency team reviewing multi-billion-dollar technology investments, he received the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal for work that fundamentally improved how the Intelligence Community approaches research, development, and innovation.
As a career non-partisan Senior Executive and FCC Chief Information Officer (2013-2017), Dr. Bray parachuted into a role from the U.S. Intelligence Community to the FCC to result two pre-existing, thory cybersecurity challenges the FCC had prior to his arrival. He successfully demonstrated that protecting national security requires both offensive innovation and defensive vigilance. Beyond transforming 207 legacy systems into modern, secure cloud infrastructure at one-sixth traditional cost, he led the critical effort to identify and eliminate two Advanced Persistent Threats that had penetrated FCC systems prior to his arrival, protecting telecommunications oversight capabilities essential to national security, emergency communications, and spectrum management for continuity of government operations. He directed the People-Centered Internet coalition (2017-2020) Chaired by Internet co-originator Vint Cerf, ensuring technology development serves democratic values and individual agency. His later role as Executive Director for the bipartisan Commission on the Geopolitical Impacts of New Technologies and Data (December 2019-2021) united Senators Warner, Portman, Representatives DelBene, and McCaul to produce actionable recommendations on AI, cyber, bio, space, and supply chains that were delivered to the President and have shaped national security policy implementation across multiple administrations.
In addition to public service, Dr. Bray has also provided Board-level insights and strategies to Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple, as well as numerous Fortune 500 companies (2017-present) in addition to private equity funds associated with more than nine hundred different portfolio companies. He has advised world governments as a non-partisan U.S. expert on the intersections of new technologies, commerce-meets-society, and geopolitics. He has advised multiple military service components (2017-present) associated with the U.S. Department of Defense on improving organizational adaptability and countering disinformation online, including personally surviving a disinformation attack that occurred in 2018. In 2019, he was invited to give the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture to the United Nations on UN Charter Day. Dr. Bray received a PhD in Information Systems and Decision Analysis from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University in addition to having completed postdoctoral work with MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence, Harvard's Leadership for a Networked World Program, and the Oxford Internet Institute with the University of Oxford. Singularity University named him faculty chair for Disruption, Impact, and Governance in 2018 and In 2022, the Business Executives for National Security welcomed him as a Distinguished Fellow focused on the intersection of transformative technologies, global collaborations, and over-the-horizon challenges for the future ahead. David has been an invited keynote speaker to CEOs, world leaders, and crowds of more than 3,000 participants at events in India, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan, Dubai, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Bray's service and leadership influence extends through sustained collaboration with all military services on over-the-horizon challenges where technology meets society, working as a senior expert with the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Special Operations Command on countering disruptive gray zone conflicts and with the U.S. Space Force on next-generation commercial space solutions and innovations that maintain American advantage. Along the way he served as Faculty Chair for Disruption, Impact, and Governance at Singularity University, ahead of the curve as to how new technologies would impact societies, countries, and geopolitics. As a speaker, technical judge, and facilitator at every annual NATO Open Innovation Conference and Expo since its inception, he has helped allied nations identify breakthrough technologies for collective defense. As Principal and CEO at LeadDoAdapt Ventures (2021-present), he currently works as a transformation leader for "under the radar" ventures pioneering breakthroughs in AI, space, bio, drones, and robots. This work includes working with Interpol and UNICRI on responsible use of AI consistent with the rule-of-law and privacy requirements of nations to counter-terrorism and violent extremism. In early 2025, he raised urgent concerns about critical gaps in U.S. warfighter-portable drone capabilities and subsequently took a principal role in catalyzing action that led to coordination among FCC, FAA, NTIA, and other partners to develop a Concept of Operations for testing commercial drones against foreign jammers and radars in realistic conditions.
Dr. Bray's sustained excellence has been recognized across sectors: Business Insider named him one of 24 Americans Who Are Changing the World, he was named a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition in 2018, and in 2025 he was invited to testify as an expert witness before a public U.S. Congressional hearing on AI. In 2025, Emory University's Graduate School awarded him the Distinguished Alumni Award while the non-partisan National Academy of Public Administration named him one of 250 Public Service Champions for the U.S. Semiquincentennial. David also is a Distinguished Fellow with the Marshall Memorial Fund and the Future of Government Institute, and a lead coordinator for NATO's AI for Defence Leaders curriculum and principles. The Marconi Society recently announced that David will be their inaugural recipient of their Excellence in AI award for global leadership in November 2026. Dr. David Bray's career is one defined by non-partisan service, technical excellence under pressure, and strategic foresight on emerging threats. From responding to terrorist attacks on American soil to eliminating foreign adversary penetrations of critical systems, from combat zone deployments to directing intelligence community transformation, from shaping bipartisan national strategy to quietly solving operational challenges across the joint force, Dr. Bray has consistently demonstrated the visionary leadership and indelible impact at the intersection of communities, companies, and countries navigating both "tech tectonics" and times of global turbulence.