Joshua VerGow is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense program of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
VerGow is a national security executive with more than twenty-five years of experience spanning defense strategy, information warfare, emerging technology, acquisition, operations, and resource management. Throughout his career in the US Navy, he has led major defense modernization initiatives, organizations of more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel, and acquisition and investment portfolios valued at more than five billion dollars. His most recent assignments include serving as deputy task force commander and deputy program manager for two major Navy acquisition programs, chief of staff to the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare and chief of naval intelligence, and budget portfolio lead for a three-billion-dollar modernization portfolio.
Previously, VerGow served in senior operational and policy roles at US Cyber Command, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and the Pentagon. His experience includes directing global operations against ISIS sustainment networks, advising senior White House and Department of Defense officials during the presidential transition, leading cyber and information warfare planning, and coordinating with Congress, combatant commands, the intelligence community, allies, and industry. His current research focuses on how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping military power and defense institutions. He holds an MA in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in international relations from The State University of New York College at Geneseo. He has also served as a federal executive fellow at the Atlantic Council and a public policy fellow at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.