Shield AI hires former Splunk chief as CEO
Gary Steele will join Shield AI in May as CEO. Courtesy of Cisco.
By
Ross Wilkers
Gary Steele will lead the defense tech unicorn's push to scale out after a $240 million investment round.
Shield AI, a defense and autonomous technology startup fresh off its latest capital raise, has hired former Splunk CEO Gary Steele as its new chief executive in a move slated to take effect on May 13.
Steele will also join Shield AI’s board of directors and succeed Ryan Tseng, who has led the company as CEO since co-founding it with his brother Brandon and Andrew Reiter.
Tseng will transition to the role of president and focus on driving senior-level engagements with government and industry officials, Shield AI said Wednesday.
Tseng’s tenure as CEO includes the company’s growth from its 2015 inception to 900 people and the capture of $1 billion in capital from external investors, while also becoming the fourth defense technology company with a touted multibillion-dollar valuation.
As Splunk’s CEO, Steele led that company through a two-year period of 58% revenue growth and achieving profitability before its $28 billion sale to Cisco in 2024.
Steele also was Proofpoint’s first CEO in a 19-year tenure that included its initial public offering in 2012 and sale to Thoma Bravo in 2021, prior to his appointment at Splunk.
Now as Shield AI’s leader, Steele will oversee efforts to further scale the company on the heels of its $240 million F-1 investment round that will go mostly towards further work on the Hivemind Enterprise software tool for autonomy.
"Over the past year, with the demand for autonomy solutions at scale and the growth of our aircraft business, it became unmistakably clear that Shield AI required a leader with not only deep software expertise but proven experience scaling technology organizations,” Tsend said in a release.
Shield AI is also known for its V-BAT unmanned aircraft and related TEAMS software that the company designed to help operate four autonomous drones at once.
Also this year, L3Harris Technologies started working with Shield AI to develop and integrate both companies’ artificial intelligence-centric offerings for future demonstrations. That apparently led L3Harris to be an investor for the F-1 round.
"There is growing demand for advanced autonomy from defense industry leaders, and we also see an opportunity to expand beyond traditional defense applications to benefit larger commercial enterprises,” Steele added in the release.
Steele stayed on with Cisco after its acquisition of Splunk and currently works as president of go-to-market, a role he will step down from in April to join Shield AI.