Who will build the next defence primes? The defence industrial base is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation. A new cohort of companies—AI-native, software-driven and built for the speed of modern conflict—is emerging to challenge the traditional model of defence procurement and production.
At Resilience Conference London, we will bring together three founders at the forefront of this shift: Hamutal Meidor, Co-founder and President of Kela Technologies; Eliot Pence, CEO of Dominion Dynamics; and Nathan Nwachuku, CEO of Terra.
Together, they will explore how the next generation of defence companies is being built—from AI-enabled capabilities and autonomous systems to new models of manufacturing, deployment and scale.
As Resilience Conference expands its focus across domains, regions, and the full defence ecosystem, this conversation will examine one of the most important questions facing the industry: who will build the defence primes of the next 50 years?
Register today while Early Bird tickets are still available.
Hamutal Meridor, President & Co-Founder, Kela Technologies
Hamutal Meridor is a defence tech leader and veteran of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200. She spent over two decades at the intersection of engineering and national security, most notably serving six years as the General Manager of Palantir Israel. There, she built Palantir’s Israeli R&D and business operations from the ground up, deploying critical data platforms to solve the nation’s most complex security challenges.
A two-time entrepreneur and former VC investor, Hamutal recognised the global shift toward defence innovation following the invasion of Ukraine and October 7. She co-founded Kela to harness Israel’s high-density tech talent and create a new category of global defence prime. Hamutal holds an M.Sc. in Natural Language Processing from the University of Edinburgh.
Nathan Nwachukwu, Co-founder and CEO, Terra Industries
Nathan Nwachukwu is the co-founder and CEO of Terra Industries, a defence technology company building autonomous security systems to protect critical infrastructure across Africa.
He leads the company’s efforts to strengthen infrastructure security through locally designed and manufactured autonomous systems deployed across land, air, and maritime environments.
Terra Industries has raised over $30 million from leading U.S. defence tech investors, including 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, and Lux Capital, as it scales manufacturing, deployments, and partnerships focused on counterterrorism, infrastructure resilience, and sovereign security capabilities across Africa and other emerging markets.
Eliot Pence, CEO, Dominion Dynamics
Eliot Pence is a builder of frontier defence and industrial companies. He is the founder of Dominion Dynamics, a defence firm working to establish sovereign capability in aerospace, autonomy, and command-and-control. From 2018–2022, Eliot led global growth at Anduril Industries, joining as one of the company’s very first business development hires and playing a central role in building it into one of America’s most consequential defence technology companies. He created Anduril’s international go-to-market strategy from scratch, bootstrapped overseas growth, and built teams across three continents—shaping how Anduril scaled as a global defense prime. He was the Chief Business Officer at Osmo and Cambium Biomaterials, leading government and enterprise go-to-market efforts to translate frontier R&D into deployable platforms. Previously, he was a senior director at McLarty Associates, the Washington, DC–based advisory firm. He serves on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Advisory Committee and the Yale University President’s Council on International Activities. Eliot earned his M.A. from Yale University and his B.A. from the University of Victoria.
