6K has announced former Department of Defence official Dr Joe Felter has joined the company’s Advisory Board.
It comes just months after 6K and 6K Additive secured a $1m award to support the Defence Logistics Agency (DLA) in establishing a domestic capability to recover defence scrap and convert it into additive manufacturing powder.
Dr Felter is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia and is currently a William J. Perry Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the co-creator of a defence innovation-focused curriculum called ‘Hacking for Defence’, which was piloted at Stanford and now taught at over 50 universities across the country, while he has also served in a variety of special operations and diplomatic assignments, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Joining the likes of former Arcam CEO Magnus Rene and former CTO of CATL Robert Galyen, Dr Felter will support the company in developing a strategy for working with the US Department of Defence and other Federal agencies as it supplies advanced materials products to US Government entities.
“Strategic materials are becoming increasingly pivotal to the national interests of the United States and 6K continues to prove its unique capability to address these needs, with examples like its recent Defence Logistics Agency contract to recover and upgrade materials for defence applications from domestic sources of supply,” Dr Felter commented. “The recent pandemic has show the need to strengthen control of supply chains and create domestic sourcing. 6K can do this across numerous important areas including batteries for energy independence and critical alloys for aircraft and weapons platforms. I am extremely enthusiastic to join 6K’s advisory board and help the company to advance its efforts both in Washington and with strategic suppliers.”
“We are honoured to have Dr Felter join the 6K team as part of our Advisory Board,” added 6K CEO Dr Aaron Bent. “6K has a unique technology that not only addresses scarcity materials and reduces our dependence on foreign imports, but for the first time enables domestic production of advanced materials typically produced overseas due to our dramatic reduction in production costs and ability to produce in an environmentally sustainable way. Dr Felter’s specialty with issues of national security strategy and deep relationships in Washington are invaluable not only to guide 6K, but to maximise deployment in a way that enhances the mission of the United States.”
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