LFI Appoints Defense and Manufacturing Operator Michael Datta to Board of Advisors

Insider Brief

• LFI has appointed Michael Datta, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Ares Armaments, to its Board of Advisors to strengthen its commercial and operational expertise.
• Datta brings experience in defense, advanced manufacturing, strategic partnerships, and company growth across the Australia-U.S. technology corridor.
• His advisory role will focus on helping translate LFI’s quantum governance and economic strategy frameworks into client, partner, and investor engagement opportunities.

PRESS RELEASE — LFI (www.lfiusa.com), the world’s first industrial quantum management firm, today announced the appointment of Michael Datta to its Board of Advisors, effective June 20, 2026. The appointment brings to LFI an operator’s perspective built across more than two decades of founding, scaling, and advising companies, complementing the firm’s existing advisory bench with hands-on commercial execution experience.

Mr. Datta is Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Ares Armaments, an Australia-based precision munitions and counter-drone systems company engaged with Australian, US and allied defense and law enforcement clients, and Strategic Advisor at Noosa Partners, a cross-border Australia-US advisory firm connecting founders and executive teams with family offices, venture capital, and private equity partners across advanced systems, defense, and emerging technology ventures. For LFI’s clients in defense and advanced manufacturing, sectors where commercial execution and capital access determine whether a quantum governance strategy actually translates into competitive advantage, Mr. Datta’s operating track record is a direct and practical asset.

He brings a career built on identifying high-value partnerships and translating strategic relationships into measurable business outcomes, with experience spanning technology, consumer, and defense industry ventures from early formation through commercial growth. At Ares Armaments, he has built the strategic partnerships and market access that have driven the company’s growth within Australia’s sovereign manufacturing base. He also serves on the boards of Limitless Aeronautics, AcudocX and Lindo Life Sciences.

For industrial manufacturers evaluating LFI as their quantum governance partner, Mr. Datta’s appointment signals a firm that pairs deep economic and technical authority with the operating discipline required to convert strategy into revenue. For investors, it reflects LFI’s deliberate approach to building an Advisory Board that combines institutional credibility with hands-on commercial execution, as demand accelerates for vendor-independent quantum leadership across global industrial markets.

“Michael has spent two decades doing the hard, unglamorous work of turning strategy into traction, building partnerships, opening doors, and scaling businesses from the ground up,” said Shayne De la Force, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of LFI. “That operating discipline is exactly what turns a quantum economics framework into client wins. We are glad to have him on our Board of Advisors.”

“I have spent my career helping ambitious companies turn good strategy into real commercial outcomes, and that is exactly the opportunity I see at LFI. The firm has built something genuinely differentiated in how it approaches quantum, starting with the economics rather than the technology, and I look forward to helping translate that into traction with clients and partners across the US-Australia corridor.”

Mr. Datta’s advisory mandate will center on commercial execution and growth, helping translate LFI’s Quantum Value Stages into practical traction with clients, partners, and investors, with particular depth in the US-Australia corridor and the defense and sovereign manufacturing sectors where he is most active today.

As a proud member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), LFI brings institutional credibility and network reach to every advisory engagement it conducts on behalf of industrial clients. Mr. Datta’s appointment extends that standing further into the defense and advanced manufacturing sectors central to LFI’s mission.

Mr. Datta joins a growing Board of Advisors that includes The Hon. Arthur Sinodinos AO, former Australian Ambassador to the United States, alongside other advisors bringing senior sector and market expertise to LFI’s mission. With these appointments, LFI’s advisory bench now spans national security and economic policy, defense and advanced manufacturing, and the commercial operating experience required to scale companies across the US-Australia corridor. LFI is actively expanding its Board of Advisors and broadening its engagement across North America and the Asia Pacific, with expansion into Europe and Japan planned over the next 12 months, as industrial demand for structured quantum governance accelerates. Mr. Datta’s appointment reflects LFI’s deliberate strategy of pairing institutional economic and technical authority with proven operating experience, ensuring that clients have access to both the judgment and the execution discipline required to maximize the economic value creation of quantum technologies for industrial companies worldwide.