Tech Transforms

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery joins Tech Transforms for a blunt, practical look at the cyber risks the U.S. keeps underestimating—and why “Uncle Rufus’s rail switch” may be the weak link that matters most. Montgomery breaks down military mobility as a national security problem hiding in plain sight: once equipment leaves the secure “Noah’s Ark” of a base and hits rural rail networks and switching systems, it enters a “Mad Max” environment with limited redundancy, limited cyber expertise, and huge strategic consequences.
From there, the conversation moves into what it would take to fix the problem before a crisis: recurring federal assessments, targeted grant programs for smaller operators, and the messy reality of congressional jurisdiction that slows action. Montgomery also makes the case for a dedicated Cyber Force—arguing the current “force generation” model across military branches can’t recruit, train, and retain cyber talent at the scale needed.
Finally, the episode tackles the cyber insurance market: why organizations are underinsured, why risk is hard to price, and why the most promising models pair insurance with real assessments, remediation, and recurring validation. Montgomery closes with updates on Cyberspace Solarium 2.0 progress, what’s stalled, what’s “backsliding,” and what measurable wins still matter—plus a rapid-fire “Tech Talk” round that includes Batman, battleships, and top-down cyber hygiene.
Show Notes:
Foundation for Defense of Democracies - fdd.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-montgomery-b8932810/
Twitter: @MarkCMontgomergy
Cyber Insurance Reform Op-Ed: https://cyberscoop.com/congress-cyber-insurance-reform-op-ed
Cyberspace Solarium Commission Reports: https://cybersolarium.org

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford sits down with Will Roper, one of the key architects of modern defense digital transformation, for a wide-ranging conversation that challenges a core assumption of today’s tech landscape: what if AI can’t scale because the Internet was never designed to support it?
Drawing on his experience leading Project Maven, overseeing the Air Force’s cloud adoption, and placing AI on a U-2 spy plane, Roper explains why the real barrier to AI adoption isn’t algorithms, it’s infrastructure. He explores how today’s Internet favors centralization, making it powerful for consumers but fundamentally misaligned with highly regulated, IP-sensitive industries like aerospace, defense, and critical infrastructure.
The conversation dives deep into sovereign data territories, zero-trust collaboration, and why data should never have to move in order to be useful. Using vivid analogies—from Formula One racing and digital twins to The Matrix, Roper outlines a new model for federated infrastructure that enables secure collaboration without sacrificing ownership, trust, or governance.
Carolyn and Will also explore digital certification, continuous airworthiness, and the idea of a “digital flight envelope,” where physical systems can validate and recertify themselves in real time, reshaping how safety, speed, and innovation coexist.
The episode wraps with rapid-fire Tech Talk questions, a philosophical discussion on simulations and trust, and a look ahead at what the next decade of technology may bring.
This is a must-listen episode for leaders rethinking infrastructure, AI readiness, and what it truly means to build systems that scale—securely, ethically, and intelligently.
Show Notes:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamroper/
Summary "There is No Spoon" Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEcPlqImjWc
Dr. Roper’s Paper: There Is No Spoon - The New Digital Acquisition Reality https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/2020SAF/ThereIsNoSpoonDigitalAcquisition7Oct2020digitalversion.pdf
Official Bio: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/article/1467795/dr-will-roper/
Istari
https://www.istaridigital.com/
Flyer One: https://www.executivebiz.com/articles/istari-digitals-flyer-one-x-plane-on-track-for-digital-certification-will-roper-quoted

Tech Transforms went live in front of an in-person audience (and simultaneously on the virtual platform and LinkedIn Live) for a special episode featuring Steve Stratton, retired Green Beret, former White House and Secret Service professional, and award-winning author of Skip Jack (included in attendees’ welcome package).
The conversation explored why storytelling beats “speeds and feeds” when it comes to helping leaders and teams understand technology, remember what matters under pressure, and create real decision advantage. Steve explains how story creates emotional connection, strengthens recall, and gives context that data sheets can’t. Together, the hosts dig into the OODA loop, using a visceral film clip from We Were Soldiers to illustrate what decision-making looks like in chaos—then fast-forward to the near-future battlefield described in Skip Jack, where leaders are overwhelmed by sensors, AI, intel feeds, and massive data volume.
A highlight is the reading from Chapter Five, where the commander describes mining high-threat networks and the dark web, relying on data diodes to stop malicious payloads hidden in media files, and pushing decisions to the point of information to speed response in a “nonkinetic war… at the speed of the internet.”
The episode closes with rapid-fire “Tech Talk” questions—night vision tech, dream casting for Nicky Fury, and fictional worlds worth visiting—before the live audience transitions into the event’s first mission brief.

In this special holiday episode of Tech Transforms, we’re joined by Mike Beckerle—Chief Software Architect at Owl Cyber Defense, co-creator of the DFDL standard, and a foundational force behind the Apache Daffodil open-source project. Mike’s career has been a masterclass in solving some of the most complex challenges in data interoperability and secure information sharing—often behind the scenes, but always with massive impact.
As he steps into retirement (though we’re not totally convinced he’ll slow down), we take a moment to reflect on the legacy he leaves behind—from his pioneering work at Tresys and Owl to shaping real-world standards that actually work.
This episode is a celebration of big ideas, mentorship done right, and the kind of quiet brilliance that transforms entire fields. As longtime colleague Stephen Lawrence said best:
“Mike didn’t just solve hard problems—he helped the rest of us learn how to solve them too.”
If you've ever wrestled with legacy data or wondered what true tech leadership looks like, this one’s a gift.

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Transforms, host Carolyn Ford welcomes Janet Kang, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned nonprofit leader whose work sits at the intersection of AI innovation, ethics, and long-term societal impact. After building companies since age 13, launching multiple ed-tech ventures, and incubating AI-powered products in a corporate venture studio, Janet experienced firsthand the exhilarating speed and unsettling risks of deploying AI in real-world environments. Those experiences ultimately led her to join Just Horizons Alliance, a nonprofit committed to developing open protocols, ethical frameworks, and real-time auditing tools that help organizations build and deploy AI responsibly.
Janet shares candid stories from the early days of AI adoption, where models behaved inconsistently, guardrails lagged behind product timelines, and the pressure to scale fast often overshadowed deeper questions of safety and accountability. She explains why today’s biggest risk isn’t far-off superintelligence; it's the immediate, under-regulated integration of AI into education, healthcare, hiring systems, and public services. For younger users especially, she warns, AI already shapes communication, decision-making, confidence, and even identity and most tech leaders lack the tools to properly assess or mitigate those risks.
Carolyn and Janet explore why ethical AI requires more than thought leadership and policy statements. It requires action: adversarial testing, real-world simulations, contextual frameworks, and independent audits that account for messy human behavior, not just ideal use cases. They also discuss the structural barriers women face in tech, the mentors who “give up their seat” to make space, and the mindset shift that comes with parenthood thinking in decades, not quarters.
Looking ahead, Janet envisions a future where AI becomes “infrastructure, not the main character” as invisible and reliable as flipping a light switch because circuit breakers, safety layers, and accountability systems are finally in place. Until then, she calls on builders, executives, educators, and policymakers to take practical steps now: test relentlessly, understand failure modes, prioritize vulnerable users, and choose impact over speed.
This is an episode for leaders who want to innovate boldly and responsibly, those wrestling with how to balance progress with protection, and how to shape an AI-powered future worthy of the next generation.
Show Notes:
www.justhorizons.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kangjanet/
Pause superintelligence petition - https://www.axios.com/2025/10/22/superintelligence-ai-pause-yoshua-bengio
Books Mentioned
Empire of AI — Karen Hao
The Alignment Problem — Brian Christian
The Broken Earth Trilogy — N.K. Jemisin (recommended by Carolyn)