Riverside Research Names National Security Technology Leader Tom Lash President and CEO

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Riverside Research, a leading technology research and development nonprofit supporting U.S. national security, announces the appointment of Tom Lash as president and CEO. Lash is a recognized technology and business leader with nearly 30 years of experience supporting the federal market, bringing extensive expertise in national security, the U.S. intelligence community, strategic growth and emerging technology. Under his leadership, Riverside Research's nonprofit, mission-first identity and independent research model will continue to guide strategic priorities.

"Tom's proven ability to lead complex national security organizations, advance emerging technologies, and build trusted relationships across the intelligence community made him the clear choice to lead Riverside Research," said Jim Shields, chair of the Riverside Research Board of Trustees. "His strategic vision and mission-focused leadership will position the organization for continued growth while preserving the technical excellence and sponsor-focused culture that distinguishes Riverside Research."

Lash most recently served as CEO of Vibrint, a leading federal technology innovator. Lash led multiple acquisition strategies and expanded technology partnerships to build Vibrint into a highly competitive national security technology company with capabilities spanning AI, cyber, cloud, high-performance computing, mission resilience, quantum and next-generation communications.

Before joining Vibrint, he spent six years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he created and led the Federal Delivery Organization responsible for contract execution across AWS's U.S. federal portfolio. He also led AWS's U.S. national security account team of more than 125 cleared technology professionals.

"Riverside Research has a distinguished legacy of technical innovation and trusted support to the national security community," Lash said. "I am honored to join the organization and look forward to working with its talented team to accelerate growth, deepen our sponsor partnerships, expand the impact of our research and mission solutions and advance next-generation research in AI/ML, sensing and secure architectures."

Before joining AWS, Lash held several leadership positions at SAIC and Leidos, including chief technology officer and chief strategy officer for the companies' intelligence systems and defense groups. He also led a series of progressively larger business portfolios focused predominantly on the U.S. intelligence community.

Lash's appointment comes as Riverside Research looks to build on its strong foundation, pursue strategic growth and advance its impact across the national security community.

Lash succeeds Steven Omick, Ph.D., who chose to step down after a decade of leadership that strengthened Riverside Research's sponsor relationships, research enterprise and position as a trusted national security partner.

Lash earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia, a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from George Mason University, and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University. He also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University, where he teaches graduate cloud security.

About Riverside Research

Riverside Research is a national security nonprofit serving the Department of War and the U.S. intelligence community. Through its Open Innovation Center, Riverside Research invests in multidisciplinary research and development and encourages collaboration. Its areas of expertise include object and activity detection; accelerated artificial intelligence and machine learning; zero trust; open architectures; computational electromagnetics; plasma physics; precision timing; terahertz imaging; commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and collection planning. Learn more at www.riversideresearch.org.

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SOURCE RIVERSIDE RESEARCH