Ben McNeal

Director, U.S. Air Force and Space Force Strategy and Sales

Red Hat

Ben McNeal, is an executive leader and former career Naval Officer with a strong history of results-oriented performance in digital innovation to include R&D, acquisition, procurement, delivery, and compliance of cyber security solutions, enterprise applications and "edge-to-cloud" capabilities.


Ben culminated his career as a Naval Engineering Duty Officer and Information Technology Acquisition Professional with two consecutive Acquisition Category I Program Manager tours in which he managed daily operational execution and transformation of the $1B (annual) Navy Enterprise Networks Portfolio (NGEN, ONE-Net) prior to managing the Navy’s Tactical (Edge) Networks portfolio where he lead R&D, integration, and delivery of Navy's first private-cloud infrastructure and application service platform (CANES) in ships and submarines.


At Red Hat, Ben currently leverages his extensive knowledge of DoD customers, requirements and technology to uncover opportunities and nurture new/existing relationships to develop and execute high-revenue generating go-to-market strategies. He also provides professional sales organization leadership, strategic vision, and business unit capital execution decision-making to fuel digital transformation across all Air Force and Space Force Business and Warfighting Domains in support of a $200+ DoD open-source software and services revenue account.


Ben’s degreed learning experiences include a B.S. in Computer Science, and Master’s Degrees in both Public Administration and Applied Physics. He has completed business studies at University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and University of North Carolina’s Kenan Flagler Business School. He is a former Secretary of Defense Fellow and is a two-time Acquisition Professional of the Year recipient.

Event Participation