‘Transformative Leader’ Dr. Will Roper Joins Vita Inclinata Board of Directors
ROOMFIELD, Colo., March 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Vita Inclinata, which makes life-saving technology to stabilize chaotic motion with a touch of a button, today announced the appointment of Will Roper, PhD, former US Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, to its Board of Directors.
Roper joins the company’s leadership at an inflection point: after applying its lessons from the Air Force’s AFWERX accelerator —which Dr. Roper advised on and eventually ran—Vita was the only startup included in the 2021 National Defense Appropriations Act. Since then, the company has expanded its core technologies to civilian applications, including stabilization technology for cranes as well as helicopters.
“Vita has a high-tech solution to an important life-saving military medevac mission while also representing something equally important: the ability for tech startups to work in both military and commercial markets. Vita was one the first companies to hazard the Air Force’s AFVentures process, led by AFWERX and featuring novel procurement approaches like Pitch Days. Their success holds a beacon for other ‘dual-use’ technology companies to follow in future, all while keeping men and women in uniform safer during their most vulnerable moments,” said Roper.
While at the Air Force, Roper oversaw an annual budget of $60 billion, and was responsible for all research and development, test, production, modernization, and logistics for the Air Force and Space Force. But he is best known for accelerating acquisition timelines and fostering disruptive innovation inside of government.
It is this understanding of the intersection of disruptive technologies applied to real-world problems that Vita hopes to incorporate into its strategy and growth as it delivers military-grade safety innovations to civilian markets.
“I advised the Air Force on standing up AFWERX and then later ran it, focusing on opening defense procurement to tech startups. Vita was one of the first companies that benefited. Now it’s time to cross the dreaded defense ‘valley of death.’ Given the life-saving nature of their mission, it is important they do,” Roper said.
“We were incredibly honored to work with Dr. Roper as one of the first startups in AFWERX. He is a transformative strategist, and we take his joining our Board as validation that we successfully followed his guidance,” said Caleb Carr, Vita Inclinata CEO.
“While we obviously hope to tap Dr. Roper’s expertise in forming and expanding a strategy to deliver our life-saving technology to all branches of the military, we are just as excited to work with him on delivering our military-grade safety innovations to civilian markets,” Carr added.
Dr. Roper joins current Vita Directors Mick Maurer, former President, Sikorsky; Warren Katz, Managing Director, Techstars; and The Hon. Patrick Murphy, former Acting Secretary and Undersecretary, US Army. Click here to learn more about Dr. Roper and his (astonishing) work to transform and modernize the US Military.
