Introducing ARIA’s next CEO
In 2014, two test pilots flew a Boeing Unmanned Little Bird helicopter while elite hackers actively tried to take control. The hackers failed.
The software protecting it came from HACMS, a DARPA programme that experts once said was impossible. It was revolutionary for cybersecurity, providing the formal-methods blueprint now used by some of the world’s largest tech companies to secure their critical systems.
Started and led by Kathleen Fisher, HACMS was designated by DARPA as their most influential programme of the last decade.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Kathleen will be ARIA’s next CEO.
ARIA’s next phase
Three years in, ARIA has built strong foundations. We’ve recruited sixteen Programme Directors across two cohorts, launched nine programmes spanning AI safety to synthetic biology, and committed over £400 million to the UK R&D ecosystem.
But the numbers only tell one part of the story. What matters more is communities are forming around bold ideas, companies are spinning out, and early wins are emerging, from NHS trials of brain-computer interfaces to new UK subsidiaries of leading deep-tech firms.
ARIA was designed with time-limited leadership from the start, a deliberate choice to stay dynamic as we evolve. We’ve reached a natural inflection point – and the next chapter is clear: turning the ambitious programmes we’ve launched into breakthroughs with the power to transform the world. Kathleen brings the track record to help get us there.
Leading ecosystems
HACMS was only the start. Kathleen went on to lead DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, overseeing a $500 million portfolio, 50+ programmes, and more than 20 programme managers – the same kind of portfolio and team leadership ARIA’s CEO must deliver.
But the most telling part of her track record goes beyond individual programmes: it’s her ability to mobilise entire ecosystems. Her AI Cyber Challenge brought thousands together around a focused problem, and the Resilient Software Systems initiative she led activated industry and research communities simultaneously. Kathleen understands how a focused agency creates impact far beyond its direct funding by energising communities, not just backing individual efforts.
What the CEO search revealed
The search itself revealed something powerful about where the UK stands today. We received 314 applications from top researchers, successful founders, and ARPA veterans worldwide. The quality and breadth of candidates – spanning continents, career paths, and technical domains – speaks to the strength of the UK’s global R&D standing.
Kathleen was the standout candidate in an exceptional field. And her decision to leave one of America’s most prestigious research institutions to join ARIA reinforces what our early programme momentum has already shown — the UK is building something that draws the world’s best.
What’s next
ARIA’s mission stays the same. Our model – Programme Director-led, long-term funding, and the freedom to take bold, informed risks – remains unchanged. Kathleen will build on the foundations Ilan has established to ensure that scientific breakthroughs don’t just advance knowledge, but transform industries, lives, and communities.
The question three years ago was whether this model could work in the UK. Today, the question is what ARIA can achieve. We’re excited and ready for what comes next.
Kathleen Fisher begins as CEO in February 2026 – Ilan will remain as CEO until Kathleen is fully in post, ensuring a smooth transition.
I'd suggest the most urgent challenge facing the UK, and Humanity as a whole, is actually the need to grow economically (which then lets you do everything else) and expand outward. With both being achieved by becoming a spacefaring species.
The UK has stagnated since the 2008 crash. We need to get back with the growth programne, and much of that will now be off-planet. Whoever controls space, controls the future, yet the UK is the only nation to have given up its own independent space launch capacity. What madness! However, a new and unique opportunity presents itself, with the Starship testing programme. There will briefly be vast, cheap capacity available before the world catches up. Right now this is a programme in search of payload.
The UK has to think big. Just as JFK chose to go to the Moon because it was so difficult it gave America the chance to overtake the Soviets, the UK must set goals no one has yet achieved to leapfrog us back into the game.
First and foremost, microgravity is a dead end. Everyone will need rotating space stations and spaceships. Let's lead on that technology, building the first rotating station. Using Starship, and autonomous on-orbit techniques.
An alternative, but a much lesser and less secure strategically option, is to develop the first space solar power at scale. A big idea but your infrastructure will always be vulnerable if you don't have a more significant space presence to protect it.
Re: "ARIA’s mission stays the same. Our model – Programme Director-led, long-term funding, and the freedom to take bold, informed risks – remains unchanged."
The most urgent challenge currently facing the UK, and humanity as a whole, is climate change. The primary action required to tackle this is a drastic reduction in carbon emissions and the most effective way to do this is to stop burning fossil fuels and electrify as much of our end energy use as possible. Furthermore, the only technologies available at the scale and speed required, in the short to medium term, are renewables, in particular wind and especially solar.
However, as all power engineers know, wind and solar are variable and do not generally correlate well with demand, especially in countries with climates similar to the UK. However, there is one technology that has the potential to overcome this problem which is 'Seasonal Plus Long Duration Energy Storage' (SPLDES). SPLDES has the potential to address the twin challenges of generation backup and mitigating curtailment, and it could also help with other issues such as reducing the amount of grid reinforcement required.
There is only one technology that is currently being investigated seriously to provide SPLDES, and that is hydrogen through the electrolysis. However, hydrogen's intrinsic thermophysical properties mean that creating an economically viable SPLDES technology using Hydrogen is very challenging. Hydrogens main drawbacks are:
> Poor rain trip efficiency comma electricity to hydrogen and then back to electricity
> only modest energy density (volumetric the closed) compared to fossil, or even biofuels
> The need for low marginal cost of storage for splits technology means that hydrogen will need to be used geological storage in either existing depleted gas Fields, salt Caverns, or possibly aquifers. This seriously geographically restricts where the storage it can be located.
This is where ARIA's "long-term funding, and the freedom to take bold, informed risks" could be a game changer. There are nascent technologies that could provide a SPLDES technology, based on using carbonacious fuels for the energy vector, that should be about an order of magnitude better than using hydrogen due to a combination of:
> Improved energy storage density, at least 3x Wh/m³.
> Improved round trip efficiency, over 50% and potentially on par with pumped Hydro
> Removal of the need for geological storage.
Such a technology could provide a paradigm shift in the viability of the lower cost, but intermittent, renewables, and especially solar. My initial investigation suggests that it could potentially also provide a solution for decarbonising shipping.
Nick Cook
MD ReSus Technology Ltd
LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/NickCook-RST