William A. LaPlante Joins Board of Directors for the National Defense Industrial Association
CAMBRIDGE, MA—William A. LaPlante, president and chief executive officer at Draper, is joining the board of directors for the National Defense Industrial Association. The Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit aims to drive national security dialogue among government, military, industry and academic stakeholders.
LaPlante joined Draper in his current role in 2020, and will serve a six-year term as a director on NDIA’s board. Sixteen new members joined the NDIA board of directors on Oct. 1.
LaPlante’s 30-year career includes positions as senior vice president at MITRE, with the Department of the Air Force as assistant secretary for acquisition and on numerous boards and commissions, including the Defense Science Board and the non-profit consortium Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT).
According to the NDIA, the new board members bring “a deep knowledge bank” that it believes will help the organization sustain its mission “while providing the best in capabilities to our warfighters and maintaining a robust defense industrial base.”
NDIA, founded in 1919, provides a platform through which leaders in government, industry and academia can collaborate and provide solutions to advance the national security and defense needs of the nation. The organization has 1,610 corporate members and 65,000 individual members.