Mr. Dan Kaufman assumed the position of Director, Information Innovation Office (I2O) upon its creation August 2010. In this position he is responsible for identifying and creating promising new information technologies and developing DARPA programs to exploit these advances for the benefit of the DoD. Mr. Kaufman staffs the Office and works with I2O program managers to develop concepts and plans for new programs and to transition I2O R&D products to end users. Prior to August 2010, Mr. Kaufman was Director, Information Processing Techniques Office, DARPA. In an earlier DARPA tour Mr. Kaufman served in the Defense Science Office as Program Manager for the Real World Program, a computer system designed to allow soldiers to rapidly create their own mission rehearsal scenarios in geo-specific terrain over a scalable and fully distributed network. He managed the development of Foldit, a game with an online community of 240,000 players that allows non-experts and experts alike to collaborate and solve protein folding puzzles. Solutions to these puzzles are sent to biochemistry researchers to analyze for advances in protein design prediction. Mr. Kaufman also developed a sniper scope that was featured on the television show "Future Weapons."
Prior to joining DARPA, Mr. Kaufman worked for Auratio Consulting, where he handled a wide variety of deals with a number of investment bankers, venture capitalists and private companies. Prior to his consulting efforts, Mr. Kaufman worked for Kalisto Entertainment on general business operations and producing/designing the products Dark Earth, Nightmare Creatures and Ultim@te Race. Before Kalisto, Mr. Kaufman was Co-COO at Dreamworks Interactive, a joint venture between Microsoft and Dreamworks SKG. Earlier in his career Mr. Kaufman was an attorney with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (Palo Alto, CA), conducting transactions in the high technology industry ranging from semiconductor chips to biotechnology to software companies.
Mr. Kaufman co-authored an 800-page textbook entitled: Corporate Partnering: Structuring and Negotiating Domestic and International Strategic Alliances. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and U.C. Berkeley.
