David Appel

David Appel

Advisory Board Member | Vice President, US National Security, Amazon Web Services

David Appel leads AWS’s US National Security business. He and his team help National Security customers realize the potential of technology to transform their organizations and fulfill their missions. In this role, he works closely with clients on their journey to cloud and other emerging technologies to deliver improved capability, more efficiently, and at the speed of relevance to the end user. Appel has a breadth of experience in program leadership, business operations, finance, business development and strategic planning.

Prior to joining AWS, Appel worked for Raytheon Technologies for 28 years. Most recently, he led teams that helped Defense, Civil, Intelligence, and International customers develop, deploy and sustain integrated command and control, intelligence, space and weather systems. Additionally, he led digital innovation initiatives, seeking to integrate the latest artificial intelligence and commercial software development methods into solutions. While at Raytheon, Appel earned several Raytheon Technologies’ awards, including the 2008 Program Leadership Award and the 2015 Leadership Award–Competitive Advantage.

Appel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University and Master’s degree in Business Administration from George Washington University. He is also a graduate of The National Defense University; Information Resources Management College Advanced Management Program and Chief Information Officer Program, where he graduated with distinguished honors; and the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellows program. Appel is a member of the Virginia Tech National Security Institute Advisory Board.