Marshall Thames
Senior Vice President of Mission Solutions, ECS
The prime contractor for the Defense Department’s premier AI effort Project Maven, ECS is spearheading analytics and AI efforts across the services, combatant commands and intelligence community — all under Marshall Thames’ direction.
Executing AI programs in all domains, from space to seafloor to cyber, Thames and his team helped ECS become the largest provider of AI/ML solutions to DOD (according to data from fiscal years 2019-2022).
“From CONUS clouds to deployed environments and everything in between, Marshall and his team have delivered solutions that have helped prove the value of AI to the warfighter,” said ECS President John Heneghan. “One of their most impressive accomplishments has been the deployment of a DevSecOps program for building AI solutions at scale. This ‘AI Forge’ factory has supported multiple contingency operations and is one of the most successful AI programs in the DOD.”
Why Watch
In 2024, Thames and his team are focused on collaborative AI development platforms, as the AI advances needed by DOD require collaboration and coordination with the nation’s closest international partners.
Thames is also focused on supporting Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks’ current autonomy efforts. Key to this work is the accelerated provisioning of enterprise platforms and model and simulation environments to deliver operational impacts to the warfighter at scale and speed.
“We’re leveraging lessons learned to drive mission impact in more operational areas and expand the ability of AI to support higher order reasoning and decision-making,” Thames said. “With the vast proliferation of sensors across domains, commanders are faced with overwhelming amounts of information. Future conflicts will happen faster than ever before, and future AI will empower decision-makers at all echelons to make better decisions faster.”
Fun fact: Thames started out as a software developer and still codes for fun. He’s passionate about technology and the impact it can have in the world.