Lightning Talk: SBIR

As Director of the Navy’s SBIR/STTR and Special Programs, Mr. Smith manages numerous activities designed to assist small businesses in getting their technologies fully developed, tested, and inserted into products and services used by our Naval warfighters.

Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Smith was the Director of Disruptive Technologies in the Office of Naval Research. The mission of the Disruptive Technologies program is to provide game changing technical options for the future Navy. Mr. Smith was also the Program Manager for the Department of the Navy’s Rapid Innovation Fund, which supports small business concerns rapidly inserting their technology solutions into acquisition programs of record.

Mr. Smith was lucky to have previously spent 22 years as a Marine helicopter pilot.

Mr. Smith has a BA in Accounting from Whittier College and an MS in Systems Management from the Naval Postgraduate School. He was the recipient of the 2013 Department of the Oreta B. Stinson Advocacy Award (formerly Small Business Advocate Award), one of the annual Navy Acquisition Excellence Awards. The award is given by the Department’s Office of Small Business Programs as recognition of a non-small business professional within the DON that demonstrates direct strong support for the DON Small Business Program, and through their documented actions contributed significantly to improving the opportunity for small business success.

Zac Staples is the Founder and CEO of Fathom5, an industrial technology development company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Zac and the Fathom5 team are securing the digital future with DevOps-to-the-Edge Pipelines, Cyberphysical Testbeds, Industry 4.0 Solutions, and Digital Services that help our customers thrive in today's cyberphysical reality.

Before launching Fathom5, Zac served in the U.S. Navy for over two decades, culminating a long career of shipboard service as Director of the Center for Cyber Warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School. His background steers Fathom5's vision toward the most challenging use cases for maritime technology development and defense innovation.