Riitta Katila is Professor of Management Science & Engineering and W.M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar at Stanford University, and research director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Her research is in the intersection of technology strategy and organizational learning, using machine learning, statistical analysis, and mixed methods. She is an expert on innovation, competition, and entrepreneurship in large firms, and her current research centers on responsible and inclusive innovation initiatives. She received the Stephan M. Schrader Award for Outstanding Research in Technology and Innovation Management, the Thought Leader Award in Entrepreneurship, and the Best Symposium Award by the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management. Katila studied engineering economics and information systems as an undergraduate, earned a Ph.D. in technology strategy at UT Austin on a Fulbright Scholarship, and received a Doctorate in Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. She is the recipient of the Eugene L. Grant Faculty Teaching Award at Stanford.

Dr. Eric Volmar is a faculty member and the teaching lead at the Stanford Gordian Knot Center. In this role, he guides the Center’s courses, curriculum, and publications. Previously, Eric was the Chief Strategy Officer at the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), the Chief of Research at AFWERX (the commercial innovation unit for the Department of the Air Force), and a consultant within Accenture in Silicon Valley. Eric earned a PhD from Stanford University, specializing in how mission-driven organizations form strategy, organize, and compete in the public and private sectors.

Jack Faherty serves as Stanford GKC's Program Manager and helps lead the Center’s programs and activities, develop its policy and planning guidance, and further elevate its profile. Jack joins Stanford GKC after nearly a decade of service in Congress. He most recently served as Executive Director of a bipartisan caucus of 30 military veterans in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he oversaw all caucus policy initiatives, operations, events, and communications. Prior to his service in the House, Jack spent seven years working for U.S. Senator Angus King, independent from Maine. While with Senator King, he served in several positions including as Communications Director on his 2018 re-election campaign and as a policy advisor on the Senator’s defense portfolio, supporting his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Jack graduated from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York with a degree in African Studies and History, and is pursuing an M.A. in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and served as FSI Director from 2015 to 2025. He is also an international affairs analyst for MSNOW.

McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, (a New York Times bestseller) Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.

He is a recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary PhD from Montana State University; the Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Gitanas Nausea of Lithuania; Order of Merit of Third Degree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. In 2015, he was the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991.