Former Department of Defense leader to scale webAI, delivering secure, compliant AI for agencies at every level
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — webAI, the leading private enterprise AI platform, today announced the appointment of Dr. Jason Rathje as its first President of Public Sector, a new role created to expand the company's work with government agencies.
Rathje previously served as Director and co-founder of the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), a newly established office dedicated to attracting private investment in critical technologies vital to U.S. national security. He was also the Director and co-founder of the AirForce's AFVentures, an initiative designed to fund and transition commercially viable technologies for military applications. Under his leadership AFVentures mobilized $1.8 billion in combined government and private investment funding to accelerate adoption of dual-use technologies by the U.S. Air Force. Earlier in his career, Rathje worked as an aeronautical engineer and program leader in the Air Force and conducted human-machine interaction research at MIT.
"Jason brings a rare combination of technical expertise, policy insight, and investment experience that will accelerate our work with the public sector," said David Stout, CEO of webAI. "He understands the unique challenges government agencies face in adopting new technologies, and knows how to align innovation with company goals. We're excited for him to help extend webAI's impact in ways that strengthen national security and improve how agencies serve the public."
Government agencies are facing growing pressure to modernize while safeguarding mission integrity. National security operations require AI that is both powerful and sovereign, while still being able to run in contested environments, protect sensitive data, and meet compliance standards. However, most commercial AI still depends on the cloud, creating concerns around sovereignty, security, and reliability for defense and public safety missions.
webAI's infrastructure addresses these concerns through their platform that provides sovereign, on-device AI, ensuring agencies have full control of their data, models, and infrastructure, while still maintaining the speed and adaptability of cutting-edge AI.
"By appointing Jason as President of Public Sector, webAI is signaling its commitment to deepening partnerships with government and accelerating the adoption of sovereign AI in mission-critical operations", said webAI Board Chairman David Shuman. "Drawing on his career leading defense innovation initiatives and building bridges between government and industry, Jason is very well suited to focus on expanding webAI's public sector presence, scaling trusted AI solutions, and ensuring agencies can operate with greater speed, security, and resilience."
"I'm excited to join webAI and help advance the technologies that matter most for our national security and public sector missions," said Dr. Jason Rathje, President of Public Sector at webAI. "Government agencies need AI they can trust. With my experience building programs that bring together innovation, capital, and national defense, I look forward to helping webAI expand its partnerships with government agencies and deliver the tools these institutions need to shape the future of secure AI and empower the public sector to address society's most critical challenges."
To learn more about building with webAI's end-to-end private AI platform to deliver on-device edge computing for your customers, visit www.webai.com.
About webAI
webAI is the enterprise AI platform that brings AI to your data. Built for mission-critical environments, it enables organizations to build and operate private, custom models with complete data sovereignty, real-time performance, and predictable economics. From public sector and defense to healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, webAI powers specialized AI that enterprises truly own.
Media Contact:
webai@haymaker.co
