Keith W. Brendley (born 1958) is a leading American authority on
active protection systems, and serves as president of
Artis, a company which provides high-technology systems to defense and commercial markets.
Early life
Brendley was born in
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...
, the second of four sons of Donald and Dolores Brendley. His father served in the U.S. Air Force and worked as a financial executive for
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...
and other firms, and later taught accounting at
Richland Community College
Richland Community College (RCC) is a public community college in Decatur, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System.
Students
Richland Community College serves approximately 3,340 students annually through its main campu ...
in
Decatur, Illinois.
In 1976, Brendley graduated from
Clinton High School in
Clinton, Illinois
Clinton is the largest city in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,225 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of DeWitt County.
The city and the county are named for DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, 1817–1823 ...
. He attended the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
, where he received a B.S. degree in
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
. He went on to receive his M.S. degree from the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
in
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
. He also attended a graduate program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
Business background
Brendley founded
Artis, a firm which uses high-speed sensing and massive parallel processing to build safety and defense systems, in 1999. One of the company’s signature products is an
active protection system called
Iron Curtain, which defeats rocket-propelled grenades and other shoulder-launched threats using counter-munitions.
Previously, he worked at Noesis, Inc., a research and development firm later acquired by
QinetiQ North America, where he set up the Advanced Real Time Information Systems (ARTIS) division. Prior to that, he served as vice president of the Defense Group, Inc., where he worked on information management and product development.
From 1994-97, he was program manager at Sarcos Research Corp., and led several development projects, including a human exoskeletal program. From 1985-94, he was senior analyst for the
RAND Corporation, where he led teams of professionals engaged in various high-tech analytical projects. He helped establish the RAND Critical Technologies Institute, and led its first project on machine tools in support of
White House science advisor.
From 1982-84, he was an analyst with the System Planning Corporation; prior to that, he was a consultant at NASA’s Ames Research Center, where he developed software.
Patents and publications
Brendley holds several patents, and has authored or co-authored several books and studies. In October 1996, he co-wrote a book titled ''Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance'', published by the
National Defense University Press
The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...
. The book explores concepts for strategy, doctrine, operations and force structure to leverage technology for military superiority and dominance on the battlefield. He also co-wrote ''An Exploration of Integrated Ground Weapons Concepts for Armor/Anti-Armor Missions'', a 1991 study which concluded that anti-armor vehicle concepts was achievable using then-available technology, and has authored several other publications while working for
RAND
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...
.
Personal and family
Brendley serves on the executive advisory board of the
George Mason University Computer Game Design Program. He enjoys hiking and biking, and he and his wife Greta live in
Falls Church, Virginia.
Deborah K. Dietsch, Washington Post, September 13, 2013
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References
External links
Artis company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brendley, Keith
1958 births
Living people
21st-century American inventors
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
People from Clinton, Illinois
People from Falls Church, Virginia