SRI Names David Motley Board Chairman

SRI announced that David Motley, an SRI board member since 2020 and a distinguished business leader, venture capitalist, and technology investor, became the new chair of the Board of Directors, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

SRI, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley, also announced the addition to its board of Steven H. Walker, VP and CTO  of the Lockheed Martin Corporation and former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Motley is co-founder and managing partner of BTN Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage venture fund investing nationally in industry-creating or -disrupting technologies. Backed by some of the most prominent institutional investors in the country, BTN Ventures focuses on software enabled companies in the arenas of fin-tech, health-tech, clean-tech and ed-tech.

BTN Ventures has a particular focus on providing access to venture capital for Black and diverse founders at the helm of companies positioned to deliver outsized returns to investors.

Motley also has extensive experience in corporate governance, serving on private, public, and venture-backed company boards for entities that have navigated transformational growth

In the corporate career that preceded this, he led strategy formulation for more than 50 businesses with revenues ranging from zero to $2 billion. Motley’s last three corporate roles were VP and GM positions with Respironics (acquired by Philips) and Covidien (acquired by Medtronic), followed by a senior managing director role with Headwaters (acquired by EY).

Before taking his role at DARPA and then Lockheed Martin, Walker served in a variety of increasingly responsible positions as DARPA’s deputy director and deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology, and Engineering.

In the latter role, he was responsible for developing the technology investment strategy for the Air Force’s annual $2 billion science and technology program and for providing functional management of more than 14,000 military and civilian scientists and engineers.

At DARPA, Walker was responsible for developing breakthrough technologies and capabilities for national security. At Lockheed Martin, he is responsible for mission concept development and integrated operations analysis, the corporation’s technology strategy, internal research and development investments and corporate as well as international laboratories

Walker is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; he received the AIAA Hap Arnold Award for Excellence in Aeronautical Management in 2014 and the AIAA Hypersonics Systems and Technology Award in 2021. He has also been awarded the Presidential Rank Award, the Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service medal, and the DoD Exceptional, Meritorious, and Distinguished Civilian Service medals. In February 2020, he was elected as a Member of the National Academy of Engineering.