Who We Are
Innovation for Public Good
We are a tech foundation for public good
Born of the reality that R&D investments are shifting dramatically to the private sector, MITRE Engenuity was formed in 2019 as a part of MITRE Corporation. It is our fundamental belief that without guidance, nurturing, and radical collaboration, these critical industry investments might be lost in a sea of ideation without implementation. MITRE Engenuity addresses the realities of the ever-shifting landscape of American Innovation and the impact drivers who guide it, convening experts, organizations, and investors in a non-competitive space to drive generational impact for public good.
Our vision is to begin to work with industries to turn competition into a force for good that will challenge us to work together, to aspire toward greater productivity, greater impact – to find a common goal that is higher than the profits of one company.
Singular Capabilities
A focus on solving issues critical to national security and a healthy economy enables us to bridge the gap between competitors, tackling problems that no one organization can solve alone. Through this radical collaboration we create generational impact for public good.
Collaborative Innovation
United by the common belief that through collaborative ideation we can unlock the true capability of American Innovation, we break the mold with our unique workflow just as we break the mold in our groundbreaking industry partnerships.
Empowering Industry
Our process of accelerating innovation to deliver results for the public good means that we arrive at complex problems at different parts of their life cycle. For this reason, MITRE Engenuity views each project as Incubate, Accelerate, or Cultivate. Our work within these pillars is delivered in these innovative ways:
R&D Consortia
Bridging the gap between competitive organizations and thought leaders, collaborating for the public good leads us to groundbreaking discoveries in numerous industries from cyber to telecommunications.
Impact Projects
We work with industry to do special research projects that enable their advancement of technology that is in the public interest.
Grant-funded Studies
Strategic relationships with philanthropic foundations investing in public issues.
Subscription Platforms
Driving impact directly to individuals through fairly priced services.
Startup Incubation
Incubating MITRE IP and innovating external venture-backed start-ups.
MITRE Engenuity Leadership
Our team is comprised of experts from the industries and disciplines that drive our modern economy, from microelectronics to 5G to cybersecurity and beyond
Laurie Giandomenico, Ph.D.
SVP & Chief Acceleration Officer of MITRE Accelerator, and Managing Director, MITRE Engenuity
Sean Heritage
Managing Director, MITRE Engenuity
As the Managing Director for Cyber Resiliency, Sean is responsible for advancing the art of threat-informed defense through partnerships with industry, providing objective analysis of cyber products, and making MITRE developed capability and expertise more accessible across the private sector. All in the name of driving generational impact for public good.
A career naval officer and cryptologist by trade, Sean has focused his creative energy on developing teammates, building creative cultures, and strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors. From leading the Navy’s defensive cyberspace operations to serving as the principal advisor to the Director of the National Security Agency to helping to create the Department of Defense’s Innovation Unit in Silicon Valley, Sean has made a career of transforming individuals into teams, connecting ideas to opportunity, and ensuring smart creatives reach their potential in a bureaucratic world where they would not otherwise thrive.
Since retiring from military service, Sean has held executive-level positions at two Silicon Valley SaaS cybersecurity companies, Authentic8 and Horizon3.ai. An Ironman finisher and author of the book “Connecting the Dots: Deliberate Observations and Leadership Musings About Everyday Life”, Sean now resides in Annapolis, MD, and volunteers much of his “off time” to helping veterans “land well” as they transition from uniformed service.
Ajit Kahaduwe
Managing Director of Incubation and New Product Development, MITRE Engenuity
As the managing director of incubation and new product development, Ajit Kahaduwe leads the team responsible for discovering MITRE ideas which are scalable for the public good with private industry. His team members evaluate market opportunities based on financial and social return criteria and develop ideas using lean startup methodology. Kahaduwe has extensive global experience working with cellular and public safety systems from planning, deployment, optimization, standardization with a strong focus on regulatory and public requirements in E-911, Public Warning System, and the pre-cursor recommendations for FirstNet. Additionally, he led software development and innovation incubation teams in big data and analytics, cloud services, network health, drones, and location technologies. After a global career at Nokia and Motorola in addition to a network equipment startup, Kahaduwe joined MITRE in 2021. Prior to joining, he was a senior product management executive at a global SaaS web collaboration and unified communications as a services provider. He is also a Scrum Alliance certified scrum product owner and hold patents in location and security technology. Kahaduwe holds a BS in electrical engineering with minors in economics and international affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jon Baker
General Manager, Center for Threat-Informed Defense, MITRE Engenuity
As the General Manager for the Center for Threat-Informed Defense, Jon Baker is responsible for the Center’s strategy and its outcomes as he convenes the global cybersecurity community to advance the state of the art and the practice in threat-informed defense. Jon co-founded the Center as a privately funded research and development organization where he partners with sophisticated cybersecurity teams to systematically advance the global understanding of adversary tradecraft and apply that knowledge to improve the community’s ability to defend against those threats.
Jon has extensive experience leading research teams and collaborating with industry to advance cybersecurity capabilities. Most recently, he led MITRE’s Cyber Threat Intelligence and Adversary Emulation Department where he was responsible for advancing those critical capabilities across MITRE’s work program and overseeing MITRE’s work on CALDERA and MITRE ATT&CK®. Jon led MITRE’s team in the early development of the OASIS STIX and TAXII standards while supporting the Department of Homeland Security. Jon led MITRE’s security automation team through the development of SCAP and managed the CVE team. He was a cocreator of OVAL, a standard language for describing and checking for the presence of misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and other endpoint artifacts.
Jon holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Boston University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Tufts University.
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