Kacy Gerst

Kacy was the former Chief of Commercial Strategy at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where she built DARPA's Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative and provided seed funding to over 50 hard technology startups in biotechnology, microelectronics, cyber, AI/ML, quantum, and advanced materials. Prior to DARPA Kacy spent time at ARPA-E, Fraunhofer labs, and Sikorsky Aircraft. Kacy has a dual business and engineering master's degree from M.I.T. and an industrial and systems engineering undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech.