Maria Tranquilli

Executive Director

Maria Tranquilli stands as a dynamic force at the crossroads of innovation, entrepreneurship, and defense, leveraging over 20 years of startup experience. As the newly appointed Executive Director of the Common Mission Project, home of Hacking for Defense, Diplomacy and Homeland Security, Tranquilli will grow the CMP Fund, strengthen programs and scale the top-tier alumni talent network.

"We will empower the next generation of problem solvers to tackle the toughest issues facing our country and our international allies. Together, we’ll ensure the preservation and growth of our greatest asset amongst a new generation: the spirit of American innovation and entrepreneurship."

Most recently, she served as the National Senior Director of Venture Innovation at the Mission Acceleration Center, overseeing national new venture engagement, defense portfolio services, and investor partnerships across the MAC national network.

Prior to this, Maria served as Founding Director of Defense Ventures and played a pivotal part in fortifying defense-industrial partnerships crucial to America's national security and economic vitality, achieving program recognition in the 2023 National Defense Science and Technology Strategy.

Tranquilli spent five influential years as NASDAQ's Head of Global Programs and Founder Community, guiding thousands of global founders through the complex journey from launch to hyper-growth, supporting multiple IPOs on NASDAQ. She entered the defense sector in 2012, lending her expertise to support DARPA's Adaptive Vehicle Make (AMV) program portfolio through the Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach (MENTOR) program via O'Reilly MAKE, designing and outfitting maker labs in US high schools across the nation to recruit early adopters related to distributed manufacturing and design experiments.

Tranquilli holds a MEd in Educational Program Design and multiple business certifications.