Regina E. Dugan, PhD, is an internationally recognized business executive, producer, engineerartist, taskmaster and product developer. She has led world-class, global teams, and hundredmillion to multi-billion-dollar efforts to deliver breakthrough products at Facebook, Google, Motorola, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as the 19th Director, and first woman to lead the agency.

As Director of DARPA, the research and development arm of the Department of Defense, Regina advanced strategic initiatives in the fields of cybersecurity, social media and advanced manufacturing from 2009-2012. Following that, she was Senior Vice President of Google-owned Motorola Mobility LLC, a mobile technology company, then Vice President of Engineering of Google’s Advanced Technology & Projects group (ATAP). In 2016, she moved to Facebook as Vice President of Engineering, where she led a new team inside the company dubbed Building 8, charged with developing next-generation consumer hardware.

Fortune described Regina as one of the world’s leading experts on product innovation, “the kind that unhinges old ways of operating, juices competition and creates new growth.” She has been named to the “Verge 50” list, Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business 1000,” CNN’s “Top 10 Thinkers” and CNBC’s “Next List.” As executive producer, she has 4 Annie Awards, 1 Emmy, and 1 OSCAR nomination.

She holds her PhD from California Institute of Technology, where she is a Distinguished Alumnus (one of 256 historical honorees including Carver Meade and Gordon Moore) and her BS/MS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where she was inducted into the Academy of Engineering Excellence.

Regina is co-author of the Harvard Business Review cover article, “Special Forces Innovation,” and the 2013 HBR McKinsey Award finalist. She has spoken at events ranging from the Code Conferences D9 and D11 to the Washington Post Summit on U.S. Competitiveness to TED where her 2012 talk was one of the top 10 trending Twitter topics worldwide.