The Team
Major General (retired)Â USAF, Mark Matthews
Adjunct Lecturer, W&M
General Matthews is an Aerospace Defense consultant and Senior Research Advisor to George Mason University's Rapid Prototyping Research Center.
He received his commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy and later a Master's in Operations Research from Princeton University. A career fighter pilot and a distinguished graduate of the USAF F-15 Fighter Weapons School, General Matthews commanded at the squadron, group, and wing level. He also served as Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology.
​
As the Director of Plans and Programs, and later, Director of Requirements, Headquarters Air Combat Command, General Matthews developed Air Force operational concepts and requirements for all manned and remotely piloted fighters, bombers, tactical reconnaissance, and rescue aircraft, both rotary and fixed-wing; along with their weapons, systems, sensors and supporting C2 structures. Culminating his military career as the Director, Strategy, Plans, and Assessments, U.S. Forces-Iraq in Baghdad, General Matthews led civil-military planning for all US government Iraq activities including the withdrawal of military forces and mission transition to the American Embassy.
After retiring Gen Matthews served as the Raytheon Company’s Vice President for Air Force Programs from 2011 to 2018, where he led a team of eight field offices and a Washington DC cadre teaming with the US Air Force in developing mission solutions to Air Force needs; as well as partnering with Raytheon’s four business sectors in developing win-strategies for competitive pursuits.
Maj General (retired) USAF, Charles Lyon
Affiliate, W&M
Gen Lyon has more than 40 years of aerospace & defense experience including
over 1,110 combat hours in Operations ENDURING FREEDOM, IRAQI FREEDOM, ALLIED FORCE, NORTHERN WATCH, SOUTHERN WATCH, and PROVIDE COMFORT. He is a five-time commander who led units from squadron through expeditionary task force commands to include the initial 9th Air & Space Expeditionary Task Force-Afghanistan commander during the 2010–2011 surge operations.
General Lyon recently retired from Northrop Grumman as the Vice President, Government Relations where he led the Air Force customer relations team in advising corporate leadership as they competed for and developed capabilities with focus on the Department of the Air Force’s future force structure needs.
As a non-resident Fellow of the Mitchell Institute, his most recent focus includes developing concepts for multi-domain operations in highly contested environments leveraging his extensive expertise and experience in joint warfighting, command & control, doctrine, operational capabilities development (JCIDS), realistic training, and defense programming (PPBE).
General Lyon holds a B.A. in Mathematics from The Citadel and an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College..
Will Gregory
Mentor
Will Gregory is the Founder of Verally Tech Innovator. With extensive experience serving in and working with the US Department of Defense (DoD), Will was the Founding Head of Acceleration at the DoD's National Security Technology Accelerator (now called NSIN), Will additionally served as a Research Scientist at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, in Afghanistan as the DoD Anthropological Advisor attached to the Marine Corps in Helmand Province, and as a volunteer at Y Combinator tasked with organizing and leading military veteran programming. Will additionally serves as a mentor at the Techstars Patriot Boot Camp and has deep experience in dual-use technology, hardtech, aerospace, maritime, AI/ML, autonomous systems, civic tech, culture tech.
​
Lea Corticchiato
Teaching Assistant
"Mona" Lea Corticchiato is a junior at William & Mary from Dallas, Texas. A Data Science Major with a Minor in Business Analytics, Lea is an alum of "Innovation for Defense", Cohort III and continues her interest in National Security with participation in the College's recently formed Wargaming Lab (now a part of the Whole of Government Center). She was recently accepted to a summer internship focused on defense forecasting, wargaming and qualitative analysis. In addition to her studies and Wargaming, Lea enjoys coffee, hiking, road trips, cooking, coding (seriously) and is a rabid Washington Commanders fan (1 of 2).