Jerry Petersen
Executive Mosaic is proud to announce the selection of U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the newly-appointed director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as a recipient of the Wash100 Award for 2024.
The Popular Vote Competition of the 2024 Wash100 Award runs through April 30, 2024. Click here to vote for Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse as one of your favorite GovCon industry leaders!
This year marks the first time Kruse has won the prestigious award, which is conferred annually upon the 100 most influential and impactful leaders within the government contracting industry.
Regarding Kruse’s win, Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award, said, “Jeffrey is charged with the critical and indispensable task of collecting, analyzing and disseminating intelligence to the defense ecosystem, and as such, he plays a vital role in equipping the nation’s leaders with the tools they need to thwart our biggest threats and stay ahead of the curve. We’re pleased to welcome the newly instated DIA director into the Wash100 ranks for the first time.”
President Joe Biden nominated Kruse to be the head of DIA in May last year. Kruse’s confirmation came along in December while the actual change of directorship at the DIA took place just this February.
Before taking charge of the DIA, Kruse had served as adviser for military affairs for the director of national intelligence. Commenting on his nomination, DNI Avril Haines said in June that Kruse was chosen to lead the DIA “because of his sterling reputation and deep expertise as a proven leader across the Defense Intelligence enterprise.”
In a report, Haines, a fellow Wash100 awardee, also cited Kruse’s “deep experience across the intelligence community.” Apart from working with the DNI, Kruse had also served as part of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security as director for defense intelligence for warfighter support. He also possesses considerable combat and operational experience, having served in various intelligence leadership roles in the Indo-Pacific, Middle Eastern and European theaters.
Beyond these, however, Haines praised Kruse for “his integrity, his kindness, his ability to listen, his deep commitment in doing right by the workforce, and his capacity to work with diverse perspectives to find solutions that are in the best interest of the country are all qualities.” For Haines, these are predictors of Kruse’s success at DIA.
For her part, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks believes Kruse’s career has prepared him to take on the role of DIA leader.
Hicks, another Wash100 Award recipient, said during the change of directorship ceremony in February that Kruse’s service in the Indo-Pacific has given him a deep understanding of what it would take to deter aggression on the part of China as well as the need to continue monitoring regional threats like Iran and North Korea.
Hicks also said that Kruse’s service in the Middle East as well as his time as director of defense intelligence for warfighter support have given him an appreciation of the value of obtaining and delivering actionable intelligence.
“Jeff knows the value of bringing together intelligence from across the services, across domains, across [open source intelligence, human intelligence and signals intelligence] to meet the strategic and operational needs of America’s joint force,” the DOD official said.
Kruse put this knowledge into action soon thereafter as DIA director. On Feb. 6, the agency released a report confirming the use of Iranian weaponry by Houthi rebels in their attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The DIA said that the report offers an analysis that compares publicly available images of Iranian missiles and drones with those used by the Houthis. The report also discusses the history between Iran and the Houthis and the strengthening of the relationship between the two.
The agency’s science and technology directorate afterward entered into a $143 million contract with Leidos for the design and implementation of a tasking, collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination system in support of the DIA Open Source Intelligence Integration Center. Work under the contract involves the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in extracting insights from critical intelligence data streams.
For Kruse, efforts like these are necessary to address the challenges posed by the current national security landscape, whose “complexity, trajectory, and rate of change” are “extraordinary, perhaps the highest and most consequential we’ve seen in our lifetime.”
“Our level of innovation, focus, and integration must match stride for stride. We must be comfortable fundamentally repositioning ourselves and our capabilities to meet the needs we see on the horizon, and not just repeat successes of the past,” Kruse said, adding, “The only way to do this with any sense of confidence is to build and operate a world-class agency that collects, analyzes, and operationalizes intelligence that underpins policy, strategy, diplomacy, acquisition, and – when needed – warfighting operations. That is the vision for the Defense Intelligence Agency and our global workforce in 140+ nations around the globe.”
For his dedication to ensuring the delivery of actionable intelligence to those who need it and for his determination to build up DIA as a world-class intelligence agency, Executive Mosaic has chosen to honor Kruse with the Wash100 Award.
Congratulations to Kruse and his team for this win.
Click here to choose Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse for the Popular Vote Competition!
