Captain Brian Erickson currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Dept of Homeland Security Presidential Transition Office. He was the United States Coast Guard’s first Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) where he was principally responsible for the coordination of data and Artificial Intelligence activities across the organization. His previous military assignments focus primarily in engineering and operations, serving at five operational units flying HH-65 Dolphin helicopters and HC-130H fixed wing aircraft performing search and rescue, law enforcement & other military mission profiles. He is a licensed Professional Engineer specializing in aerospace and also served in the Office of Budget and Programs working directly for the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In 2020, he was selected as the Coast Guard’s MIT Sloan Fellow following service as Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, GA. He is a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, he holds a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been appointed to the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board and has been named as a 2022 and 2024 DataIQ top 100 most influential persons in data and the 2023 MachinCon AI Leader of the Year.