The Defense Alliance Team

Chip Laingen is the Executive Director of Defense Alliance, winner of the Progress Minnesota Award and the U.S. Small Business Administration's Veteran Small Business Champion. He is also Vice President Midwest Region, LSI and is on the Full Stack Saint Paul Committee. He was previously on the board of directors for AirSpace Minnesota, and the executive commission of the Minnesota Science & Technology Authority. He was selected as an Executive Fellow for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Integrative Leadership in 2010. In 2011 he joined the graduate faculty at the UofM's Technological Leadership Institute. He is a past President of the Twin Cities Council of the Navy League and is the owner of Laingen Communications.

Commander Laingen is a 21-year Veteran of the U.S. Navy. A 1983 graduate of the University of Minnesota NROTC program, he earned a B.A. degree in International Relations; and an M.P.A. (National Security) in 1993 from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He was designated a Naval Aviator in 1985, and was assigned to seagoing squadrons, amassing 3,000 fixed and rotary wing flight hours, including combat flight time during Desert Storm in 1991. He is also a qualified Officer of the Deck – Underway.

On shore duty, CDR Laingen's duties included: Ph.D. study in national security at the Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Speechwriter to the Secretary of the Navy during the tenures of the 70th and 71st Secretaries; and Commanding Officer of Helicopter Training Squadron Eight in Pensacola, Florida. During his tour as CO the squadron was named the number one advanced squadron among 17 in the naval air training command, and received the Chief of Naval Operations Aviation Safety Award and the Secretary of the Navy Safety Award, as the squadron surpassed 900,000 mishap free flight hours. He retired from active duty in 2004.