Chip Laingen is the Executive Director of Defense Alliance, the Upper Midwest defense industry network, with members in 38 states. The Alliance was presented the prestigious “Progress Minnesota” award in
2014, became one of the nation’s three Advanced Defense Technology Clusters in 2010 and won the Veterans Small Business Champion of the Year Award in 2007. He has been on the Advisory Committee for Full Stack Saint Paul, Cyber Security Summit, Midwest Cleantech Open, the executive commission of the MN Science &
Technology Authority, the AirSpace MN and Robotics Alley Advisory Committees, and was selected as an Executive Fellow for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Integrative Leadership. In 2011 he joined the graduate faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute (TLI) where he teaches Managerial, Risk, and Executive Communications, Policy, and the Capstone course for three technology masters programs. He is a past President of the Twin Cities Navy League and is the author of the two-volume book “Laingen on Leadership,” available on Amazon.
Chip is also the Vice President, Midwest Region, Logistic Specialties, Inc. (LSI). He is an experienced
professional for industry and technology-based business and economic development, with core expertise in
Federal procurement, cluster development, and leadership development. In 2022, Chip was named the
national Cybersecurity Summit’s Visionary Academic Leader; was included among the Notable Military Veteran
Executives selected by the Twin Cities Business Magazine; and received the Peterson award from the National
Contract Management Association for excellence in Federal government contract management.
Commander Laingen is a 21-year Veteran of the U.S. Navy. A 1983 graduate of the University of Minnesota
NROTC, he earned a B.A. degree in International Relations. Designated an unrestricted Naval Aviator in
1985, he was assigned to squadrons aboard aircraft carriers, cruisers, frigates and destroyers, amassing 3,000
fixed and rotary wing hours mostly in SH-3 Sea King and SH-60B helicopters, including combat support flight
time during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, 1990-1991. He was later the officer -in-charge of the
first U.S. Navy armed helicopter detachment with the Penguin anti-ship missile during the Yugoslavia U.N.
embargo operations in the Adriatic. He is also a qualified Officer of the Deck – Surface Warfare/Underway.
CDR Laingen was assigned to the NROTC Unit, University of Minnesota, where he served as Executive
Officer/Associate Professor of Naval Science. He earned his M.A. in Public Affairs from the Humphrey School,
and received the Student Leadership Award upon graduation. He served as one of the Navy’s two annual
Admiral Arthur S. Moreau scholars for Ph.D. study in International Relations and Strategy at the Tufts
University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, earning the National Security subspecialty code and Joint
Professional Military Education. CDR Laingen’s Pentagon tour was as the Speechwriter to the Secretary of the
Navy during the tenures of the 70th and 71st Secretaries – the first to serve in that capacity for two secretaries.
His final tour was as the Executive and Commanding Officer of Helicopter Training Squadron Eight (HT-8) in
Milton, Florida. During his tour the squadron was named the number one training 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 September 2004.
CDR Laingen's awards include the Meritorious Service Medal with two Gold Stars, the Navy Commendation
Medal with three Gold Stars and the Navy Achievement Medal with one Gold Star. He grew up in a Foreign
Service family and lived in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malta, and his hometown of Bethesda, Maryland.