Johns Hopkins APL Names John Forte as Homeland Protection Mission Area Executive

John Forte has been named mission area executive for Homeland Protection at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he will direct efforts to create disruptive capabilities that safeguard and secure the homeland against asymmetric threats.

Forte, who joined APL in 2010, will build on experience gained in the Laboratory’s National Security Analysis Department and Asymmetric Operations Sector. He first served as program manager in national command systems, work that spanned nuclear command, control and communications; continuity of operations and government; national security and emergency preparedness; and senior leader and national military command engineering and analyses.

He also managed programs in cybersecurity and communication systems, focused on domestic cybersecurity and assured communications, as well as cybersecurity strategy, focusing on threat detection, sharing cyber-threat intelligence and reducing incident-resolution times. As deputy mission area executive for Homeland Protection, he oversaw programs that developed novel concepts for law enforcement investigations as well as senior leader continuity and decision-making. He also partnered with Johns Hopkins University to guide development of the Institute for Assured Autonomy, which will focus on research at the crossroads of autonomous systems and cybersecurity.

Before joining APL, Forte served 10 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve as an information technology manager, signal center director, technology operations director and commander, deploying with several airborne and special operations units to Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. He then joined the MITRE Corporation, as the chief scientist with the White House Communications Agency, before becoming the director of operations at CBI Connect, Inc., and technical director at the Morgan Franklin Corporation.

Forte has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Tulsa and an M.S. in electrical engineering from George Washington University.

APL’s Homeland Protection Mission Area addresses a wide range of critical tactical and systems-level challenges related to border security, transportation security, cyber and physical security of critical infrastructure, resiliency and assured operations, integrated information for enhanced decision support, and emergency response systems. Learn more about Homeland Protection at APL.