Keith Hirschman has over 3 decades of experience in the US Army and defence industry, holding a number of senior positions including as director of emerging technologies (part of the US Army’s Rapid Capabilities Office) where he was responsible for defining and prototyping capabilities to meet operational needs of high strategic risk and opportunity to close capability gaps against rapidly modernising adversaries; and as product manager for Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Shadow UAS), guiding the US$450 million unmanned program through unprecedented growth in combat flight hours and leading 145+ core and deployed personnel in maintaining readiness above 95 per cent. He was the director of defence programs at Insitu, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, where he established the company’s inaugural Program Management Office, standardising defence program management across its acquisition and international programs.