Brian Hibbeln joined PRASAM as a Principal in 2021. Brian’s three decades in the Department of Defense and the US Intelligence Community have earned him accolades for his ability to unite people, funding and advanced technologies to benefit warfighters and give the U.S. a competitive edge on the battlefield. Today, he is a sought-after strategic advisor to policy institutes, technology associations and growth-minded technology firms that rely on his recommendations to guide their way forward.
Currently, Mr. Hibbeln serves as a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, the nation’s premier think tank for technology policy. He is also a senior advisor for Blackstone Private Equity, the world’s largest Private Equity and alternative asset manager, and is venture partner for SineWave Ventures, LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to accelerating technologies across the Fortune 500 and public sector ecosystems, in addition to serving on the board of publicly traded Australian firm, Whitehawk Ltd., a global online cybersecurity exchange.
Other key roles include serving as Chief Innovation Officer for NineTwelve, an accelerator connecting innovators with certified demonstration labs focused on microelectronics, 5G, hypersonics, space and sensors. As part of this role Mr. Hibbeln was named the vice chairman of the Hypersonics Ground Test Center (HGTC) at Purdue University.
As co-founder of the United States Technology Leadership Council, Mr. Hibbeln is advancing U.S. technology leadership to benefit society. He also advises several technology entities, including the Entanglement Institute for quantum computing research.
Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Hibbeln served over three decades in the U.S. Defense Department and Intelligence Community, championing novel uses of commercial systems, sensors and platforms. The last decade he held senior roles such as:
- Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Special Capabilities in the Office of the Secretary of Defense;
- First Director of the Special Capabilities Office, overseeing $2B+ in resources and leading Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations for intelligence, space, airborne, and other remote-sensing operations;
- Director of the Remote Sensing Center-National Capital Region, where he managed $8B+ in government contracts, while
delivering tech demonstrations and operational support to combatant commanders globally; and - Chief Scientist and Chief Systems Engineer of Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) Staff at the National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), where he developed methods to address hard intelligence problems and advanced spacebased
MASINT architectures, while providing recommendations to the Director of Central Intelligence, Congressional
staffs, senior policy decisionmakers, and numerous operational and intelligence customers.
Before embarking on his government civilian career, Mr. Hibbeln was an active-duty Air Force officer assigned to both the National Air and Space Intelligence Center and the NRO. Upon release from active duty, he was awarded the Joint Meritorious Service Medal, a certificate of achievement from the Director of the CIA, and the NRO Silver Medal. In 2001, he was recalled to active duty to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom, where he led several initiatives using national, civil, and commercial space systems to combat terrorism and provided operational support to forces and the Intelligence Community. He also served as White House Social Aide to the President as an additional duty.
Mr. Hibbeln earned a Master’s in Physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s in Physics from the United States Air Force Academy. At AFIT, he received an Air Force Invention Award and a U.S. patent for his work in pulsed power semiconductor switches.
Mr. Hibbeln’s defense career and success fast-tracking commercial technology to benefit the warfighter has been highlighted in the 2013 book, Deep State: Inside the U.S Government Secrecy Industry by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady, and in the 2021 book, Riding the Monster: Four Ways to Innovate Inside Bureaucracies by Eric Haseltine and Chris Gilbert.