Bill Jeffrey

Dr. Bill Jeffrey was named to the MRIGlobal Board of Directors in 2022. As Founder and General Partner of Airstream Venture Partners, Bill is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and investing in early-stage deep technology startup companies and helping them to prosper.

Dr. Jeffrey has decades of experience in maturing new technologies as both a United States government employee and private sector CEO. Prior to Airstream Venture Partners, Bill was CEO of SRI International from 2014-2021, a globally recognized nonprofit research and development organization with expertise in the biological sciences, engineering, education policy, and computer science. He was also CEO of HRL Laboratories, a private research and development organization jointly owned by Boeing Aerospace and General Motors.

Dr. Jeffrey has extensive U.S. government science policy expertise having served in the George W. Bush administration as Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he led the doubling of the NIST budget under the American Competitiveness Initiative. Previously, he served within the Executive Office of the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy as Senior Director for Homeland and National Security and Assistant Director of Space and Aeronautics immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Other government service included being a deputy office director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and support to several other national security and intelligence agencies.

He currently serves on the board of directors of Diraq, a quantum computer startup in Australia; TE Connectivity, a global public connector and sensors company; and Friends of the Children-San Francisco, a nonprofit with the mission of breaking the cycle of generational poverty.

Dr. Jeffrey received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, an elected Honorary Member of the International Society of Automation, and a recipient of the Navigator Award from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Dr. Jeffrey received his M.A. and Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University and his B.Sc. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.