Michael Stewart has given a large portion of his life and career to the U.S. Navy, serving in almost every capacity — uniformed deployment, civilian and executive. He has blended a respect for tradition with a duty to incorporate lessons from the private sector and technology worlds to keep the service agile and competitive.
Those who do business with the Navy or want to start the conversation with them would be smart to register to attend Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit. Stewart will be engaging in a lively and revealing fireside chat at the event, which will be held on August 15 at the Hilton McLean in Virginia.
Who Is Michael Stewart?
Michael Stewart is a senior technology official at the Department of the Navy, currently serving as director of the Disruptive Capabilities Office. He came onto the post in October and is the first executive to occupy the role. The DCO is modeled after the Unmanned Task Force, which he previously headed up for two years and worked to expedite the fielding and implementation of unmanned technologies. While centered on the same tech acceleration goals, the new venture is taking a broader scope, though it is focusing on autonomous systems first and branching out from there.
Michael Stewart’s Navy Background
Education and active duty
Stewart graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned an additional degree in national security from the Naval War College. In his subsequent days as a Navy Battle Watch Captain, Stewart was deployed in the Persian Gulf, South America and Somalia, stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln’s Air Wing Eleven. He also completed stints as a naval aviator, flight instructor and landing signal officer.
Civilian roles
After his years as an active captain and a small tour of the private sector, Stewart returned to the Navy in the 2000s, holding a number of roles in the years since, including:
- Director of business transformation
- Deputy director of integrated warfare
- Business development manager for the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations in Iraq
- And more!
Michael Stewart: Wearer of Many Hats
In addition to his considerable work at the Navy, Stewart has since 2019 overseen two North Atlantic Treaty Organization — a.k.a. NATO — groups: the Tri-Service Main Armaments Group from July 2019 to present and the Naval Armaments Group from October 2020 to now. He approaches these groups with a similar mindset and goal as his work at the Unmanned Task Force and now the Disruptive Capabilities Office: identifying challenges the organization is facing and developing effective solutions.
Stewart’s aforementioned private sector experience includes time in the venture capital world and participating in an internal consulting team at the Boeing Company.
Michael Stewart Slated to Speak at 2024 Navy Summit
Potomac Officers Club events are known for their incredible speakers at the epicenter of their respective industries. The organization brings these officials to the stage so that the government contracting community can hear and learn from their thought processes and strategies and begin or continue robust dialogues through Q&A sessions following their remarks, as well as candid one-on-one opportunities that frequently arise in the congenial atmosphere cultivated by POC.
Join POC on August 15 at the Hilton McLean in Virginia for the 2024 Navy Summit to hear Michael Stewart discuss how industry can work with the Disruptive Capabilities Office to shatter the status quo of the slow-moving government technology apparatus. Browse the still-forming lineup and save a spot here before tickets sell out! Also on tap to speak is Van Hendrey, executive director of the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems.
Potomac Officers Club is the premier GovCon networking organization in the Washington, D.C. region and beyond.
