People

bmcaleer@deft9.com

CEO

Bob formed Deft9 to bring together experts in the information/influence, intelligence, and cyber domains in support of national security. He is a 30-year Army leader with assignments in command, targeting, special operations, joint warfighting, and congressional affairs. Since departing the military, he has led growth companies from executive and board positions in the weapons, aerospace, thermo-fluid, and physical cybersecurity industries. Bob holds academic degrees in economics, business, operations research, and national security strategy. He is an instrument-rated pilot living in Charlottesville, Virginia.

jsegal@deft9.com

Vice President, Growth and Innovation 

A veteran of over 30 years in national security policy, strategy and operations, and intelligence, both military and civilian, Dr. Segal is an internationally recognized expert in arms control, countering foreign malign influence, and counter-WMD. Dr. Segal spent over a decade as a member of U.S. multilateral arms control delegations in Geneva, Vienna, and The Hague, including the negotiations to finalize the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and establish the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Since leaving the federal government and then retiring from the military, Dr. Segal serves as an advisor to senior DoD leaders on operations in the information environment and teaches OSINT tradecraft.

arojavin@deft9.com

Vice President, Counter Foreign Malign Influence

Sasha is a multilingual intelligence, film, media, and policy analyst specializing in information warfare. Synthesizing his cultural heritage, several languages, and theater past with his law degree, he advises on counter-FMI strategy, operations, and tactics. He regularly speaks about democratic counter-disinformation legislation and the importance of cultural production in information warfare. He believes that humanities education is key to democracy's success in the information war and is bemused when tactical maneuvers in an information environment are divorced from a coherent, culturally cognizant strategy. He also teaches Soviet and post-Soviet information warfare history, tactics, and strategy at Middlebury’s School of Russian and moonlights as a published translator. 

Nadwa is a veteran researcher, conflict analyst, and policy advisor with twenty years of field experience in Yemen, the broader Middle East and the Red Sea region. She has provided advisory services to policymakers, U.S. and European donors, regional actors, UN agencies, and humanitarian organizations. Nadwa is regularly featured as a guest speaker on panel discussions and has been widely published by the top think tanks in the United States and Europe.  Nadwa’s research focuses on conflict in Yemen, drawing connections to broader geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East and the Red Sea region, with a particular emphasis on the Iran threat network and its proxies. She examines the impact of U.S. foreign policy, internationally led peace efforts, counter-terrorism, and aid on stability and security amid the rise of non-state armed actors and the evolving landscape of proxy warfare in the region. 

Austin has over 35 years’ experience as a pioneer in information operations and MISO, having served in key positions as a uniformed leader and a senior executive overseeing information and MISO programs and activities in the Department of Defense and National Counter Terrorism Center. He was the original pioneer for DOD web operations since inception of DOD digital influence operations in 1999. Austin also founded the Information Professionals Association and served on the Defense Science Board as an Information SME. He advises a host of professional and industry boards, and U.S. Air Force Concepts, Development and Management, and OSD Personnel and Readiness (P&R).

dfreeman@deft9.com

Co-Founder

Dennis brings decades of experiences in intelligence, policy, sensor/aircraft integration, tagging-tracking-locating technologies, electronic warfare, systems, and software engineering. His assignments as JSOC Chief Scientist, Director of Intelligence and, later, Chief of Staff Security for the Undersecretary of the Navy, and Deputy J2 at Special Operations Command – Europe give him connections and knowledge few possess. Outside of work, Dennis is a pilot, a Porsche enthusiast, and an outdoorsman. 

Alex brings over 15 years of experience working at the nexus of technology and national security in various interagency and industry roles. He began his career in the U.S. Army, serving as an intelligence officer, before joining the U.S. Foreign Service as a Political Officer. In government, he was responsible for coordination with allies and industry to address hybrid and asymmetric threats. He left government service to help onboard niche capabilities and emerging technologies in support of national security initiatives. He has delivered projects for a range of U.S.G. clients in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. He continues to serve as a reservist at U.S. Special Operations Command and lives in Europe.

Ludmilla has advised governments and private sector groups on counter-disinformation strategies for over a decade. As a former U.S. government advisor on countering Russian disinformation (2013-14), finalist of the 2022 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, and a co-organizer of the first-ever ICML-2022 workshop on AI-powered disinformation countermeasures, Ludmilla has focused her research on cognitive security strategies to improve information integrity that involve public-private partnership (P3s) models, cognitive resilience building, and machine learning technology deployments. During 2013-14, Ludmilla served as the 152nd Franklin Fellow at the Department of State and an advisor to the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. She helped launch the Ukraine Communications Task Force, a first-ever interagency group in the U.S. government to focus on understanding Russian disinformation, including manipulation of social media through the use of AI. She also authored the Department of State's public-private partnership policy guide.

Tanna is a leading expert in cognitive security and sociocultural psychology, specializing in cognitive warfare, the information environment, and the impact of narratives and group identity on conflict, violence, and decision-making. As the lead writer of NATO’s Cognitive Warfare Concept, her insight is defining how member nations within the Alliance view the information environment. She regularly advises international governments on cognitive warfare and information operations, with a specific focus on understanding human factors, local dynamics, and the sociocultural drivers of conflict. She holds degrees in cognitive psychology, peace studies, and conflict analysis and resolution. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 

Dr. Lajeunesse is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Public Policy and Governance program at St. Francis Xavier University. Currently a Fulbright Scholar (2024-5), he is part of the foundation’s Arctic Initiative, where he is continuing work on information operations begun as a Killam Scholar (2024) at the University of Calgary. His also the Arctic and Maritime Security Chair at the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government and the Director of the Canadian Maritime Security Network (CMSN), a Department of National Defence funded research network examining maritime defence, safety, and security. In addition, Lajeunesse is the Research Coordinator for the Naval Association of Canada and a Research Associate at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

Todd has 25 years of experience in countering Russian, Soviet, Iraqi, and other disinformation, conspiracy theories, and false stories, mainly for the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and the U.S. Department of State, starting in 1987. He wrote USIA reports to Congress on Soviet disinformation and “active measures” in 1988 and 1992, the latter examining the conciliatory and alarmist themes of Gorbachev’s “new political thinking.” While at State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) from 2020 to 2022, he wrote 14 GEC Counter-Disinformation Dispatches, summing up lessons learned by first-hand practitioners on disinformation and how to counter it. From 2010 to 2016, he devised ways to use social science to design messaging that would discourage potential jihadis from joining violent extremist organizations. Retired from government, he writes a free Substack on countering foreign disinformation. 

Katia has over 20 years of experience in national security matters, conducting investigations and operations domestically and internationally. A retired FBI Special Agent, Katia initiated and led complex counterintelligence, cyber, and technology transfer investigations by developing strategic plans that included establishing working relationships with local, state, federal, and foreign intelligence and law enforcement partners. Katia is an SME in the asymmetric and symmetric threats posed by U.S. adversaries such as Iran, China, and Russia. Katia also worked with and assisted foreign allies in high-priority counterintelligence and counter-terrorism investigations. Katia has a proven track record of mitigating national security threats, including developing a successful blueprint for a national critical infrastructure center in the United States to address foreign threats and mitigate risks using forward-thinking operational and analytical countermeasures.