Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue Names Janice deGarmo Chief Global Engagement Officer

Founding COO and Transformational State Department Leader
to Mobilize the World’s Fastest-Growing Coalition for Trusted Technology

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN & WASHINGTON, DC — The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue today announced that Janice deGarmo has been named Chief Global Engagement Officer. In this new role, deGarmo will serve as the chief mobilizer of the Institute’s Global Trusted Tech Network, a rapidly expanding coalition of countries, companies, and institutions united around the conviction that technology must advance freedom. 

deGarmo has served as the Institute’s founding Chief Operating Officer since 2023, helping to build and scale the organization and strengthen its partnerships across sectors and borders. In her new capacity, she will lead efforts to recruit new U.S. and allied partners, deepen diplomatic engagement, and unite country and company partners to advance shared initiatives, promote the widespread adoption of trusted technology, and deliver measurable outcomes that strengthen freedom, prosperity and security worldwide.

“Janice is a force multiplier,” said Michelle Giuda, Chief Executive Officer of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. “She brings uncommon discipline and follow-through to every mission she leads. As we grow the Global Trusted Tech Network – the world’s fastest-growing coalition for trusted technology – Janice will ensure it delivers in practice. She knows how to turn commitment into coordination, and coordination into impact.”

“Our mission is clear: recruit, mobilize, and deliver,” said deGarmo. “The Global Trusted Tech Network represents a new model for how diplomacy and innovation work together. We’re building the alliances and partnerships that will define the future of technology and ensuring that future is grounded in freedom, trust, and shared prosperity. We already have an incredible group of partners driving that mission forward, and I’m eager to help turn their energy, commitments, and ideas into real-world results.”

deGarmo brings an extensive record of transformational leadership in government and diplomacy. Before joining the Krach Institute, she served 15 years at the U.S. Department of State, where she played a pivotal role in modernizing American diplomacy by launching the Department’s first Center for Analytics, ushering in an era of  data-driven diplomacy and  operations. As the Department’s first Acting Chief Data Officer, she built the foundation for using data as a strategic asset across global missions. She later served as Director of the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, leading enterprise modernization to strengthen the Department’s management platform and advance U.S. foreign-policy goals. 

The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue combines the urgency of a startup, the reach of the U.S. State Department, and the engineering excellence of Purdue University to accelerate the adoption of trusted technology and ensure that technology advances freedom.

Through its world’s first Tech Diplomacy Academy, the Institute is training leaders across the U.S. State Department, Department of Commerce, NATO DIANA, and professionals in more than 30 countries on how technologies like AI, quantum, and semiconductors are reshaping power, security, and prosperity. In late 2024, the Institute launched the initiative to develop the Global Trusted Tech Standard (xGTT), a landmark framework for technological trustworthiness across critical and emerging technologies, aimed at reducing friction, accelerating innovation, and enabling seamless collaboration among like-minded, trusted partners.

Across its rapidly growing Global Trusted Tech Network, the Institute is establishing Trusted Tech Caucuses that unite allies around these principles, most recently in Kenya, Romania, and Israel, with more to follow in 2026. Together with allied governments, world-leading companies, and innovative start-ups, the Institute is leading a new category of Tech Diplomacy, one that fuses technology expertise with foreign-policy tools to build a future where freedom, trust, and innovation prevail.

About the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue

The Krach Institute is the world’s preeminent trusted technology accelerator. As the leader in the new category of Tech Diplomacy, the Institute integrates technology expertise, Silicon Valley strategies and foreign policy tools to build the Global Trusted Tech Network of governments, companies, organizations and individuals to accelerate the innovation and adoption of trusted technology and ensure technology advances freedom.

Visit the Krach Institute online at TechDiplomacy.org and follow on X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Enroll in the Tech Diplomacy Academy to learn what you need to know now about key emerging technologies and their impact on business, policy and the global economy. Subscribe to the Institute’s weekly newsletter Tech Diplomacy Now for the latest news at the intersection of high tech and foreign policy.

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For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Megan Stencel at megan@javelindc.com or 703-490-8845.