DOW CTO Emil Michael Lands 1st Wash100 Award for Innovation in DOW Business
Executive Mosaic is excited to honor Emil Michael, under secretary of war for research and engineering and acting director of the Defense Innovation Unit, as a first-time Wash100 Award winner for his tireless efforts to get advanced technologies into warfighters’ hands faster.
Michael’s selection reflects a reform-minded first year in the job. Sworn in on May 20, 2025, he is serving as the Pentagon’s chief technology officer with a stated emphasis on speed, efficiency, and welcoming nontraditional innovators—a posture that aligns closely with the Wash100’s focus on impact leadership.
Support Emil Michael by participating in the 2026 Wash100 Award’s popular vote competition and choosing him as one of your favorites.
Why Is Emil Michael Winning the 2026 Wash100 Award?
Michael enters the 2026 class as the senior official charged with keeping the U.S. ahead in critical defense technologies while tightening the link between innovation and operational impact. As DIU acting director, Michael is spearheading the department’s push to ensure technological superiority and keep defense innovation on the front foot, an increasingly urgent mandate given the pace of commercial tech and adversary modernization
“Under Secretary Michael’s selection as a 2026 Wash100 Award winner is a well-deserved recognition of the energy, vision and real-world impact he brings to defense innovation,” said Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic CEO and founder of the Wash100 Award. “In his roles as the Pentagon’s under secretary for research and engineering, chief technology officer and acting director of the Defense Innovation Unit, he helped drive meaningful progress in 2025—highlighted by the rollout of six critical technology areas that are accelerating how new capabilities reach the warfighter.
“With a rare blend of private-sector perspective and mission-first leadership, Under Secretary Michael exemplifies the Wash100 values of innovation, achievement and lasting strategic influence across GovCon and national security,” he continued.
Who Is Emil Michael?
Michael is a seasoned technology industry veteran with stints at some of the nation’s most prestigious companies including Goldman Sachs and Uber. He recently discussed his efforts to help novel technologies not only get past the “valley of death” but quickly scale.
“If our warfighters wield the bleeding edge of technology, they will achieve…deterrence,” Michael said on Jan. 29 during his keynote remarks at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Defense R&D Summit on Thursday. “The only metric that matters ultimately is what reaches a warfighter. Everything else is secondary to that.
“So to the innovators, the entrepreneurs: we’re open for business, we’re removing the red tape. We won’t stop working to provide our warfighters with the overwhelming technological advantage to dominate any domain of warfare,” Michael said at the GovCon conference.
Years of Pentagon Leadership
This is not Michael’s first time serving the DOW. He worked as a White House fellow, serving as special assistant to the secretary of war, from 2009 to 2011. Here he led key efforts in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and supervised “tooth-to-tail” reform initiatives to slash bureaucracy and overhead. His work here earned him the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service.
Michael has also served on the Defense Business Board, where he tapped his private sector experience to help the department better leverage commercial best practices. He created policy recommendations that improved acquisition processes, nurtured a culture of faster decision-making and fostered better collaboration between innovative companies and the DOW.
Decades of Silicon Valley Achievement
Michael is leveraging his extensive success in Silicon Valley with the DOW to help it become the most technologically sophisticated military in the world. He spent decades running large and complex companies, including his time as chief business officer at Uber. He is bringing the lessons learned in developing novel and revolutionary technologies to the battlefield.
One of Michael’s earliest actions as under secretary was boosting investment in small businesses. Michael, in June, increased funding for the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, or APFIT, effort by providing five firms as much as $42 million. This is the program’s biggest award since it was founded in 2022.
What Are Emil Michael’s Recent Career Achievements?
Pioneering Efforts in Critical Technologies
Michael is leading the DOW in its effort to rapidly advance in key technology areas foundational to future U.S. success in combat. Michael, in November, announced the DOW’s six critical technology areas, such as:
- Applied artificial intelligence
- Biomanufacturing
- Contested logistics technologies
- Quantum and battlefield information dominance
- Scaled hypersonics
- Scaled directed energy
The under secretary is pioneering the DOW’s development of AI capabilities. Michael propelled that effort forward in December when the department announced Google’s Gemini for Government as the first AI tool to be available on its GenAI.mil application. Gemini for Government is an enterprise-quality platform developed to reduce administrative tasks, such as creating risk assessments for operational strategizing.
Leading DOW Work in Rare Earths
Michael is furthering the DOW’s work in the rare earth elements that power the Pentagon’s most advanced weapon systems. The department in November announced a $700 million loan agreement with Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies to broaden U.S. Neodymium Iron Boron, or NdFeB, magnet development. These funding arrangements will allow the companies to create up to 10,000 metric tons of NdFeB magnet material in the years ahead and narrow a gap in the domestic magnet supply chain.
What Does Michael’s Work Mean for GovCon’s Future?
The throughline of Michael’s early tenure is a pragmatic message to the ecosystem: reduce bureaucracy, shorten decision cycles and get capability into operators’ hands faster without losing sight of technical advantage. With his first Wash100 win, Executive Mosaic recognizes Michael for pressing the department toward a culture where urgency in innovation is a feature, not a slogan. Congratulations to Emil Michael on this well-deserved accolade!
Click here to cast your vote for Michael in the 2026 Wash100 popular vote competition.