Doug Beck served from 2023 to August, 2025 as Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), reporting to the Secretary of Defense across two administrations, overseeing the acceleration of commercial technology adoption throughout the military. He was also instrumental in DIU’s origin, and founded and led its joint reserve component from 2015-2019. Before DIU, Beck was VP at Apple, reporting to CEO Tim Cook from 2009-2023. He led Apple’s businesses across the Americas and Northeast Asia, representing roughly half of Apple’s revenue, and Apple’s purpose-driven businesses (e.g., education, health, public sector) worldwide. Prior to Apple, Beck was SVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Charles Schwab and a partner at McKinsey in the US and China,
where he was elected in 2000 as one of the youngest partners in McKinsey history. He speaks Japanese and has extensive experience living and working across China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. He has 20+ years experience as an advisor to multiple Secretaries of Defense and State and senior civilian and uniformed defense leaders, as well as allies and partners. Beck is a member of McKinsey’s Geopolitics Advisory Council and the Board of the Center for a New American Security, a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, and a Senior Fellow at Yale and the University of Tokyo, as well as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.