WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pete Hegseth reconstituted the Defense Policy Board on 29 June 2026 with 15 new members, including Blake Masters and Marc Andreessen. Both appointees have ties to 1789 Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), firms that co-invest in defense contractors receiving large federal contracts.

The Defense Policy Board provides the defense secretary and the under secretary of defense for policy with independent advice on strategy, force structure, and national security. Robert Lighthizer chairs the reconstituted board, which Hegseth had previously disbanded in April 2025.

Hegseth appointed Masters to the Defense Policy Board, where he joins other members with deep connections to the investment firm 1789 Capital. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 Capital, and Omeed Malik serves as its co-founder. Masters sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital through Colombier blank-check companies.

Masters is a director for Colombier Acquisition Corp III, PublicSquare, and GrabAGun. Colombier blank-check companies took the conservative shopping platform PublicSquare public in 2023 and floated the online gun retailer GrabAGun in 2025. Malik is chief executive and chairman of Colombier Acquisition Corp III and a former PublicSquare director.

Malik’s investment bank, Farvahar Capital, was engaged as a strategic consultant to PublicSquare at $80,000 a month. Farvahar Capital was paid $150,000 plus shares equivalent to 4% of the value of the deal for advising on PublicSquare's 2024 acquisition of Credova. Colombier Acquisition Corp. filed a Form 8-K current report on February 28, 2023, and again on April 7, 2023, while Colombier Acquisition Corp. II filed a similar report on January 8, 2025.

Hegseth appointed Andreessen to the Defense Policy Board, bringing another figure with venture capital ties to the advisory body. Andreessen’s firm, a16z, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. The two firms have co-invested in at least five companies, including Anduril Industries, Hadrian, and SpaceX.

Companies jointly backed by a16z and 1789 Capital have drawn billions in federal loans and contracts since the start of the second Trump administration. A16z co-led Anduril Industries' $5bn funding round in May 2026, doubling the company's valuation to $61bn. The US Army awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $20bn, and the company received about $1.25bn in federal money during the first 500 days of Donald Trump’s second term.

Anduril was awarded roughly $760m in federal money in the comparable stretch at the end of the Biden administration. 1789 Capital became an Anduril investor in 2022. Hadrian runs a production line embedded inside a Lockheed Martin missiles plant and won a US Navy partnership worth up to $900m in March 2026.

The US Navy partnership with Hadrian is part of a $2.4bn plan to build three factories making components for nuclear submarines. Hadrian also won an $80m US Army contract to automate the Red River Army Depot in Texas. A 1789 Capital partner described SpaceX as the fund’s single biggest investment, and a16z and 1789 Capital hold stakes in xAI.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell stated the company’s cumulative federal awards are about $22bn. These awards come from NASA, the Pentagon, the Space Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

"A lot of the people appointed to them are seeking government business – specifically seeking business with the agency they’re serving," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight.

Amey added: "So you worry: are some of these people here to raid the cupboards and learn as much as they can to give a competitive advantage to their employer or clients? Or are they trying to push contracts in a way that would benefit an employer or client?"

Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted the industrial composition of the new board. About half of this board comes from the defense industry and they’re actively working in the defense industry, Cleveland-Stout said.

Cleveland-Stout compared the current appointments to historical precedents. In the second Bush administration, a third of the board was made up of people that had actively worked for defense contractors. And the board today is not too dissimilar," he said."

The Defense Policy Board was established in 1985 as a federal advisory committee. A 2003 investigation found at least nine of the Defense Policy Board's 30 members had ties to defense contractors holding billions of dollars in Pentagon business. Richard Perle resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board in March 2003 during conflict of interest allegations.

The board has undergone previous purges and restructuring. Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright were removed from the Defense Policy Board in a late-2020 purge during the first Trump administration.

Why It Matters

The reconstituted Defense Policy Board includes members with direct financial stakes in defense contractors that have secured billions in federal awards since the start of the second Trump administration. This composition mirrors patterns from previous administrations where board members' industry ties raised concerns about advising on strategy while seeking business from the same agency. The overlap between board appointees and firms receiving government contracts creates potential conflicts regarding independent advice on force structure and national security.