President-elect Trump has nominated Vincent Viola, as his Army secretary. He was an Army veteran who became a billionaire after founding an electronic trading firm and went for buying the Florida Panthers hockey team.
Viola was a 1977 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,NY, and funded the creation of its Combating Terrorism Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Being a former infantry officer and Ranger School graduate, he had pressed for innovation in cyber warfare, saying that the Army of the future will be built on a “gestalt of geekdom” at a conference five years ago.
Viola said, according to the military technology website Defense Systems, “We’ve got to find geeks who love their country. At my company, I’ll gladly trade 10 pull-ups and five minutes on a run for 20 IQ points and heart.”
In the same speech, Viola had encouraged the Army to stay several steps ahead of potential adversaries by using innovation in technology, and encouraged buying off-the-shelf products and equipment rather than designing everything from scratch.
By Prakriti Neogi
