Meet the Team
Valen Wardak
Founder, Director & Co-CEO
Valen Wardak leads DEMOS AI Lab's technology vision and product architecture. An AI researcher currently pursuing his MS in Computer Science at Stanford maintaining a 4.12 GPA with two A-plus grades, he is an American Rhodes Scholar, Marshall Finalist, and Georgetown University Valedictorian under the tutelage of U.S. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. His mission to democratize AI was ignited when he won Stanford's CS109 Probability for Computer Scientists competition—Professor Jerry Cain called it one of the most substantial submissions in Stanford's history. Through creating a small offline model for Dorado Hospital that beat 400 students, Valen discovered we need both small AI that works offline in places like Puerto Rico and AI that thinks natively in languages beyond English.
A 25-year veteran of technology, finance, and government contracting, Valen began his career as an investment banker in Merrill Lynch's Technology M&A division in Palo Alto during the dot- com boom. After September 11, he transitioned to government contracting, where he founded and scaled companies that managed over $3 billion in DOD operations. His firm VLOX executed a $3.2 billion IDIQ logistics contract with a 99% mission success rate. Earlier, he transformed Technologists Inc. from a small federal contractor averaging $200–500K annually into a major engineering powerhouse, building an engineering division that won over $300 million in DOD contracts in just two years.
Mark Watson
Founder, Director & Co-CEO
Co-founder Mark Watson brings unparalleled US government contracting expertise to spearhead Demos's commercial strategy. As a former Air Force contracting officer with unlimited government contracting authority, he personally oversaw and authorized billions of dollars in defense technology procurements. With 25 years spanning military service, defense tech, and AI startups, Mark led special operations units in the field and later built a defense contracting firm from a handful of people to 300-plus employees. He's grown companies that landed on the Inc 500 Fastest Growing list. Having sat on both sides of the table—awarding contracts as a government official and winning contracts as a contractor—Mark knows exactly how to position Demos as the trusted solution for the US Government and contractors . His unique combination of DOD procurement authority and entrepreneurial success makes him the perfect leader to transform Demos into a success story.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Neil R. Wiley
Neil R. Wiley is a 37-year national security leader who served as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence — the second-highest position in the U.S. Intelligence Community — where he directed the integration and operations of 18 intelligence agencies and oversaw the $62.7 billion National Intelligence Program. He previously served as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and as Director for Analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency, leading all-source intelligence for policymakers, military commanders, and warfighters. A retired U.S. Navy officer, he was created an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
Neil is widely recognized as an Intelligence Community thought leader in the ethical application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to national security. He currently serves on the Federal Advisory Board for Amazon Web Services, the Board of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, and as a Senior Advisor to The Chertoff Group and SOS International. He brings to DEMOS deep expertise in intelligence operations, AI governance, risk management, and the intersection of emerging technology and national security at the highest levels of government
