Rancher Government Solutions has named industry veteran Ryan Lewis as its new chief executive.
The company said Lewis brings deep experience in artificial intelligence, national security and tech innovation. Before RGS, he was a partner at SRI Ventures, where he led investments and supported early-stage enterprise IT and AI companies, focusing on dual-use technologies for government and commercial markets.
“Ryan is exactly the leader we need at this moment,” said Dale Meyerrose, chairman of the RGS board. “Securing someone of Ryan’s caliber to lead RGS is a powerful testament to the strength of our company, mission, the quality of our team, technology, and the opportunity ahead of us.”
Lewis served as senior practice manager for AI at Amazon Web Services National Security and as a senior vice president at In-Q-Tel, where he founded and led an applied research lab focused on developing and open-sourcing advanced AI capabilities.
“Ryan’s rare combination of technical and national security expertise make him uniquely qualified to lead RGS into its next phase of growth and impact,” said Heather McMahon, Interim CEO. “He understands how open source, containerized infrastructure, and AI are reshaping the defense and intelligence communities—and he’s a proven builder who knows how to deliver value at mission speed.”
Lewis joins RGS during a period of significant growth for the company as government agencies increasingly look to Rancher for help modernizing their legacy IT infrastructures to break free from expensive, proprietary vertical stacks that limit innovation and transition to more modern, interoperable, open source, container and Kubernetes technologies.
“RGS sits at the nexus of open source innovation and national security impact,” Lewis said. “I’m honored to lead this exceptional team as we build the future of mission-ready infrastructure for the U.S. government. The demand for secure, efficient, and open solutions has never been greater—and RGS is uniquely positioned to deliver them.”
In addition to his operational leadership, Lewis has served on advisory and independent boards for several AI startups, is a digital tech mentor for NYU’s Endless Frontier Labs and was the founding chair of the Defense Technology Council for Global Corporate Venturing.