Rohirrim has announced the appointment of General (Ret.) Richard Clarke to its Advisory Board. Rohirrim offers a leading Proposals and Acquisitions AI automation platform. Having left the Department of Defense after a distinguished career in the US Military this is the eighth advisory or board post Clarke has taken on.
The appointment comes as Rohirrim looks to expand its presence into the government and defense markets. Earlier this month, it launched RohanProcure, a purpose-built, secure acquisition platform engineered to redefine complex government procurement. With Clarke on the Advisory Board, Rohirrim aims to leverage his institutional knowledge of the US DoD to help scale the platform and align with Clarke’s real-world experiences.
Steven Aberle, CEO and Founder of Rohirrim commented, “General Clarke understands the stakes, the structure and the urgency of delivering for government and defense agencies. His leadership experience and strategic insight will be invaluable as we expand RohanProcure and bring trusted AI to the front lines of government operations.”
Clarke joined the advisory board sixteen months after it was founded, with Cybersecurity Expert Dr Michael Papay as Chairman. Clarke brings significant credibility from his military experiences as Rohirrim looks to roll out RohanProcure. The AI-powered platform aims to automate and reduce the operating challenges found with defense and government contracting.
Who is Richard Clarke
Clarke served as the 12th Commander of US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, FL. Before that he served as Director for Strategic Plans and Policy (J5), Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. He began his military career as a company commander in the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Clarke was promoted to battalion and then regimental commander before several appointments as a General. He was the 74th Commandant of Cadets, United States Military Academy at West Point from 2013 to 2014. he was also the Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.
During his leadership of USSOCOM, he was responsible for the global operations of the nation’s elite special forces and reported directly to the Secretary of Defense. The special forces’ diverse requirements and procurement challenges required an agile approach, which was pioneered through SOFWERX. This non-profit aims to solve the challenging problems encountered by Special Operations Forces.
What Clarke brings to Rohirrim
Clarke brings deep experience in cybersecurity and risk management, as well as first-hand experience navigating the challenges of government acquisition. He has also served on the boards of ShiftS and General Dynamics and several other advisory and board roles since retiring in 2023. The Rohirrim appointment is the first new one since 2023.
General (Ret.) Rich Clarke commented, “Rohirrim is solving a problem I’ve seen from the inside—how complex and time-consuming it is to move proposals and acquisitions through government channels. In my career, our teams had to move at the speed of need, equipped for the mission, anywhere in the world, often with little notice.
“That kind of readiness depends on procurement systems that work, not ones that slow you down. I believe in this mission and in the team’s ability to build technology that makes the government procurement and acquisition sector faster, smarter and more effective.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a noteworthy appointment for Rohirrim and brings a significant and relevant level of expertise to the advisory board. It will be interesting to see how its products develop in the coming months. How will Clarke influence them? With Clarke on board how quickly can Rohirrim be able to add a case study for its RohanProcure. All its current case studies are for RohanRFP, which deals with the other side of procurement.
