Bloomberg named as new head of Defense Innovation Board

WASHINGTON: Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, presidential candidate and co-founder of the Bloomberg media empire, is the new head of the Defense Innovation Board.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby announced Bloomberg’s appointment to the position during a Wednesday press briefing, characterizing him as a “an entrepreneur and a leader” who will “bring a wealth of experience in technology innovation, business and government” to the board.

“His leadership will be critical to ensuring the department has access to the best and brightest minds in science technology innovation, through the team of diverse experts that he will lead and as chair of that board,” Kirby said.

Established in 2016, the Defense Innovation Board exists to provide expert recommendations to Pentagon leaders — but not develop or implement policies — on topics such as AI, software, data and digital modernization. As its chairman, Bloomberg will lead a board of business executives, technologists and thought leaders from outside the traditional defense space.

Bloomberg, 79, is a somewhat surprising addition to a group that has previously included celebrity astrophysist Neil deGrasse Tyson and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Bloomberg is best known as the mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013 and has run under both the Democratic and Republican tickets throughout his lifetime. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., a media and financial analytics company, and has a net worth of $70 billion, according to Forbes.

Most recently in 2020, Bloomberg ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in a self-funded campaign. However, he gained little traction in a crowded field, and his campaign was plagued by media reports that recalled prior lawsuits by women who accused Bloomberg of sexual harassment throughout his career, as detailed by The Washington Post and other outlets — notable, as he has been selected for this role at a time when senior defense leaders have stressed the need for improvement on how they handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment. (Bloomberg has denied the allegations.)

Last January, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin halted all Pentagon advisory board activity so that the department could review their effectiveness — and, unofficially, to remove a number of controversial additions to boards made in the final days of the outgoing Trump administration. The Defense Department is expected to announce the resumption of the boards, as well as their new leadership, later today, Kirby said.

Bloomberg will replace Mark Sirangelo, a former Sierra Nevada Corp. executive who took over as chairman of the board in 2020.