CHESTERTOWN, MD – In-Q-Tel was created in 1999 to bridge the gap between the technology needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and ever advancing commercial technology. The Intelligence Community needed a way to find emerging companies and work with them.
In-Q-Tel invests in businesses with commercially-focused technologies, and helps them add capabilities needed to best serve the Intelligence Community. This private company has deep ties to the commercial world. Washington College has been given the opportunity to join with Dr. Christopher K. Tucker, who once served as the founding Chief Strategic Officer of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital fund.
Tucker, who works at the intersection of technology, strategy, geography, and national security, also manages Yale House Ventures – a portfolio of social ventures and technology companies that span the worlds of energy, geospatial technologies, cyber-security, open source software and hardware, and social media technologies.
All of these are addressed across the domains of defense, international affairs, civilian government, commercial industry, NGOs, and academe. Prior to his time in industry, he served as special advisor to the executive vice provost of Columbia University, where he focused on strategic R&D portfolio development and federal science technology and policy. Tucker also co-founded what is now the Consortium on Science, Policy and Outcomes.
In addition to serving on the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Board of Directors, Tucker is on the Board of Directors for the Open Geospatial Consortium, OpenPlans and its open source software division OpenGeo.
Tucker has served on the Defense Science Board’s Intelligence Task Force, the National Research Council’s Committee on NGA’s GEOINT Research Priorities, and the Secretary of the Interior’s National Geospatial Advisory Committee. Currently, Tucker serves as one of the NGA Director’s Independent Advisors.
The public lecture will cover the problem that In-Q-Tel was created to solve, the business model that was created, some challenges the organization faced at its inception, as well as an overview of a variety successful and unsuccessful investments made under Tucker’s watch. Tucker will attempt to relay some lessons learned for entrepreneurs, investors, national security leaders and other public sector decision makers.