Adam Furtado

Disruptor of the Year

The Air Force faced global challenges before the pandemic struck — ones that its Kessel Run team needed to help respond to. When tensions with Iran flared following the U.S.’s alleged killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Kessel Run jumped to action in assisting the Air Operations Centers in linking command and control systems and ensuring the military had the use of “software as a weapon.” Months later when the pandemic struck the U.S., Kessel Run was prepared for the remote work. “I think we were probably more prepared than most organizations,” Adam Furtado, chief of air operations for Kessel Run, said. In some ways, it even helped. By listing full-time remote positions, Kessel Run increased its applicant pool by 350%. As for the road ahead, Furtado said he is “hoping that 2021 is the year that we graduate past ‘innovation theatre’ and start making real inroads in modernizing the way the world’s largest bureaucracy thinks about not just technology, but work itself.”