From Disney to the Pentagon: How Bran Ferren Brings Hollywood Creativity to Defense

What happens when conventional defense thinking hits a wall? When rigid requirements and risk-averse processes slow innovation to a crawl?

For Bran Ferren, it was a challenge worth tackling. After helping make Disney the king of 3D movies, he founded Applied Minds to bring creativity, rapid prototyping, and “what’s missing” thinking to the Pentagon.

In this episode of Defense Disruptors, we speak with Ferren about redesigning command centers, applying Hollywood storytelling to military tech, and why bridging startups and established contractors may be the key to faster, smarter innovation.

Read the full episode on NextGen Defense: Defense Disruptors: The Disney Executive Who Reinvented Defense Innovation