Retired Air Force Colonel will lead Divergent's burgeoning aerospace and defense manufacturing business
LOS ANGELES, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Divergent Technologies, Inc. ("Divergent"), the company that has invented, developed, and commercialized the world's first end-to-end digital industrial manufacturing system, announced today the hire of retired United States Air Force Colonel Nathan P. Diller as the company's inaugural Chief Strategy Officer for Aerospace and Defense. He most recently served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, where he oversaw a $42 billion annual defense-wide research, development, and procurement budget. As a Professional Staff Member, he drafted defense innovation legislation to drive appropriations flexibility and transparency to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies. In his final role in the Air Force, Nathan was the Director of AFWERX and responsible for the strategy and execution of a $1 billion annual advanced technology budget for the United States Air Force and Space Force.
Nathan will scale Divergent's aerospace and defense business, as well as lead the company's government affairs. In 2023, Divergent was selected by General Atomics as its strategic manufacturing partner for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Since then, multiple major aerospace and defense companies, as well as many startups have created agreements to leverage this novel advance manufacturing capability. Within the automotive sector, Divergent has more than twenty production programs with leading global automotive manufacturers and has designed, tested, certified, and is now manufacturing the record-setting 253 mph Czinger 21C production hypercar for its affiliated automotive company, Czinger Vehicles.
"With the multitude of security challenges across the globe, U.S. and allied leaders continue to highlight the need for agile and scaled manufacturing for a resilient defense industrial base," said Diller. "After years of funding thousands of emerging technology companies, I am convinced that Divergent is uniquely postured to support DoD, along with companies, and allied nations of all sizes around the world, in advancing the arsenal of democracy, all while creating extraordinary peacetime economic and technical advantage. It is a privilege to join Kevin, Lukas, and the A+ team they have recruited to deploy a critical dual-use technology for this existential mission."
During his 22 years in the US Air Force, Nathan served as the Director of Aeronautics in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and commanded a flight test squadron. He was assigned to DARPA, the Joint Staff J-8, the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the Strategic Capabilities Office, the Space and Missile Center, and multiple fighter and flight test squadrons. Nathan is a member of the DoD Acquisition Corps, a test pilot, and a fighter pilot with over 2,900 hours in more than 60 aircraft. He is an alumnus of the Air Force Academy and French Test Pilot School, with graduate degrees in engineering, government, and strategy from MIT, Harvard, National Defense University, and France's ISAE-SUPAERO.
"We are thrilled to have Nathan join our team," said Kevin Czinger, Founder, Lead Inventor and CEO. "As Divergent continues expanding its business in aerospace and defense, Nathan's rare operational, classified, and congressional background, along with deep experience in the DoD requirements, acquisition, and budgeting processes will be a major asset to our goal of completely transforming the global manufacturing industry and becoming a pillar for national security."
Lukas Czinger, President and Chief Operating Officer added, "Nathan's breadth of experience and strong leadership will be a key part to accelerating new programs and products for our aerospace and defense partners."
To date, Divergent has raised approximately $700 million in capital to develop and deploy its advanced manufacturing capability, combining digital engineering, additive manufacturing, and automated assembly in an end-to-end process with over 700 patents called the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS™). DAPS replaces slow, inflexible, and capital-intensive traditional design and production processes with an agile system for rapid development and manufacturing at scale.
About Divergent
Divergent has created the world's first end-to-end software-hardware production system for industrial digital manufacturing – the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS™) – allowing customers to design, additively manufacture, and automatically assemble complex structures for automotive, aerospace, and defense applications. With maturity equivalent to TRL 9 in automotive, DAPS transforms the economics, speed, and scalability of manufacturing complex structures for vehicles of all types by optimizing designs, dematerializing structures, and eliminating upfront capex. For more information, please visit www.divergent3d.com.
SOURCE Divergent Technologies, Inc.
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