Michael Groen

Lieutenant General Michael S. Groen, USMC (ret.), is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. His thirty-six-year US military career culminated in his service as the director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. As the senior executive for artificial intelligence in the Department of Defense, he led the transformation of US Joint warfighting and departmental processes through the integration of artificial intelligence.

Prior to that, Groen was assigned to the National Security Agency and served as the deputy chief of computer network operations, leading this premier computer network exploitation organization. Groen has served in a variety of staff, operational, ground, air, and naval units. He served in several positions in the Marine Corps and with the Joint Staff. He has deployed across the globe—including in Central America, the Western Pacific, the Philippines, the Balkans, and Iraq—to support intelligence operations, especially in relation to counterterrorism.

Groen is a graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He has received multiple master’s degrees, one from the University of Southern California (systems management) and others from the Naval Postgraduate School (electrical engineering, applied physics.) Groen is a graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Naval War College. His personal decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Combat Action Ribbon. Groen is a native of Michigan with three sons.