Lieutenant General John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan, United States Air Force (Retired)

Lt. Gen. John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan, U.S. Air Force, retired in 2020 after a 36-year military career. In his final assignment, he served as the inaugural director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). ), where he was responsible for accelerating the delivery of AI-enabled capabilities, scaling the DoD-wide impact of AI, and synchronizing AI activities to expand advantage for all U.S. military services.

Over his career, Lt. Gen. Shanahan commanded at the squadron, group, wing, agency, and numbered air force levels and served in a variety of operational and staff positions in various fields including flight operations, intelligence, policy, and command and control.

As the Director for Defense Intelligence (Warfighter Support) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence at the Pentagon, Lt. Gen. Shanahan served as the first director of the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven), where he established and led DoD’s pathfinder AI fielding program charged with delivering AI capabilities to intelligence collection and analysis.

Lt. Gen. Shanahan received his Air Force commission in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor of science degree with distinction in chemistry. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Weapons Instructor Course and holds a master of arts degree in national security and strategic studies (distinguished graduate) from the College of Naval Command and Staff, and a master of science degree in national security strategy (distinguished graduate) from the National War College. He is currently enrolled in the master of international studies program at North Carolina State University.