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People

A quick guide to the founders, investors and public officials in our investigations.

Helsing

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Founders and leadership

Andriy Shevchenko

Managing director for Ukraine

Helsing appointed him in July 2026. The company identifies him as a former deputy defence minister, ambassador to Canada and Ukrainian MP.

Photo: Goev · Public domain

Board and investors

UK appointments and oversight

Lucy Noakes

Former No. 10 press secretary

The UK appointments watchdog published advice on her move to a communications role at Helsing Limited.

Palantir Technologies

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The founders

Peter Thiel

Co-founder and chair

Thiel co-founded PayPal and Founders Fund before becoming one of the most prominent investors in defence technology. At Palantir, he chairs the board and participates in the founder voting arrangements. His personal investments and political activity are separate from Palantir’s corporate spending.

Photo: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

Stephen Cohen

Co-founder, president, secretary and director

Cohen studied computer science at Stanford and has served on Palantir’s board since 2005. He is one of the three parties to its founder voting arrangements, alongside Alex Karp and Peter Thiel.

Technology leadership

UK government and advisory roles

Leo Docherty

Former UK Armed Forces minister and Palantir adviser

Docherty took an advisory role at Palantir UK after leaving government. The appointments committee found no evidence that he made decisions specific to Palantir while in office and set restrictions on his post-government work.

Photo: UK Parliament · CC BY 3.0 · cropped

Damian Parmenter

Former UK AUKUS director general and Palantir senior counsellor

Parmenter led AUKUS work at the UK Ministry of Defence before taking a paid senior counsellor role at Palantir UK. The appointments committee imposed conditions on lobbying and work relating to UK defence.

Laurence Lee

Former senior MOD official and adviser to Palantir’s CEO

Lee was Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence and later a director general at the Foreign Office. The MOD told the appointments committee he met Palantir nine times and oversaw progress on its earlier agreement, while reporting that he made no Palantir-specific decision. The committee restricted his work on UK defence and national security for Palantir.

Anduril Industries

Read the investigation

The five founders

Brian Schimpf

Anduril co-founder and CEO

Schimpf was an early Palantir employee and became its director of engineering. At Anduril he leads the company and sets its product direction. His background helps explain why software integration sits at the centre of a business that also builds aircraft and other hardware.

Trae Stephens

Anduril co-founder and executive chairman

Stephens worked in computational linguistics before joining Palantir, where his work included government customers. He became a partner at Founders Fund and co-founded Anduril. His career spans government technology, venture capital and company leadership.

Matt Grimm

Anduril co-founder and COO

Grimm worked as a forward-deployed engineer at Palantir and later at Mithril Capital. At Anduril his remit includes procurement, manufacturing and supply chains. Those responsibilities matter to the investigation because scaling production depends on suppliers and operations as much as factory space.

Joseph Chen

Anduril co-founder

Chen was an early Oculus VR employee and a product lead, working on hardware and relationships with developers outside gaming. He co-founded Anduril in 2017, another link between its founding team and the consumer hardware world.

Investors and public officials

Peter Thiel

Investor and Palantir co-founder

Thiel co-founded Palantir and Founders Fund. Palantir’s 2026 proxy says he may be deemed to share voting, investment and disposal power over more than 10% of Anduril through related entities. The filing records an attributed interest. The extent of his control over Anduril remains unverified.

Photo: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped

John Healey

UK Defence Secretary at the 2025 announcement

A Labour MP and former shadow defence secretary, Healey was appointed Defence Secretary in July 2024. He visited Anduril in Washington around the March 2025 announcement of nearly £30 million in UK-backed contracts for ALTIUS drones for Ukraine. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2026.

Photo: Richard Townshend / UK Parliament · CC BY 3.0 · cropped

Richard Marles

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister at the Ghost Shark award

Marles has represented the Victorian seat of Corio in Australia’s federal parliament since 2007. As Defence Minister he jointly announced the A$1.7 billion Ghost Shark procurement, which moved Australia’s large uncrewed underwater vehicle programme from development towards fleet production.

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense · CC BY 2.0 · cropped

Pat Conroy

Australian Defence Industry Minister at the Ghost Shark award

Conroy entered Australia’s federal parliament in 2013. His defence industry portfolio puts him on the procurement and domestic manufacturing side of the Ghost Shark story. He jointly announced the award and spoke at Anduril’s Sydney production facility opening in October 2025.

Photo: Australian Government / DFAT · CC BY 4.0 · cropped