NestAI, the European physical AI lab building adaptive intelligence for unmanned systems with a focus on defence and critical infrastructure, has appointed Patrick Shepherd as Chief Operating Officer. Shepherd will lead NestAI’s operations as the company grows from 150 to several hundred people over the coming year.

Shepherd spent 16 years at Lockheed Martin, where he managed significant elements of major programmes including HIMARS, Javelin, and the F-35. Additionally, he spent time growing the company’s strategy across the Nordic region when he was assigned to Helsinki in support of Lockheed Martin operations. Before Lockheed Martin, he served as a Captain in the US Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, completing over 500 combat missions during a deployment to Iraq, earning a Bronze Star.

Most recently, Shepherd was the Chief Sales Officer at Milrem Robotics, the Estonian unmanned ground vehicle developer. He expanded Milrem’s customer base to 20 nations and led all company operations in Ukraine, where the deployed fleet of THeMIS vehicles grew from 15 to over 150+. He also led Milrem’s entry into the US Market with a recent win at the US Army xTech/Edge Strike: Ground Competition program in Vilseck Germany.

“Patrick has built and shipped defence programmes at every scale, from combat operations to the world’s largest defence programme to autonomous vehicles in an active war zone. He knows what it takes to put advanced technology into the hands of the people who need it. That is exactly what NestAI needs as we scale our reach and impact across European defence,” said Peter Sarlin, founder and chairman of NestAI.

“I’ve spent twenty years building, deploying, and scaling defence systems from the first customer inputs to the factory to the front line. What I see at NestAI is a company building the sovereign technology European defence forces will operate on, and building it the right way: open, adaptive, and designed for combat operations. I joined the team at NestAI to help turn this vision into a company which delivers at scale to Europe’s needs,” said Shepherd.

Shepherd holds a degree from Florida State University’s College of Business.

About NestAI

NestAI is a European physical AI lab building adaptive intelligence for unmanned systems in defence and critical infrastructure. The company develops mission-ready AI for real-world defence and security environments, where systems must continuously adapt to changing conditions. Built on an open, modular and interoperable architecture, NestAI enables multi-vendor integration without lock-in and preserves long-term European control over critical autonomous capabilities. Founded in 2024, NestAI has raised €100 million from Nokia and Tesi and has grown to a team of hundreds of engineers and scientists. NestAI works alongside the Finnish Defence Forces and other European defense forces, as well as leading European industry partners, to build the sovereign physical AI foundation for Europe’s security.

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