Member Profile: Jennifer Obernier
Jennifer Obernier is the CEO of Grist Mill Exchange, a company built to solve one of the most persistent challenges in government and defense: getting the right commercial data to mission teams when and where they need it.
With a career shaped by firsthand experience inside government, Obernier leads Grist Mill Exchange’s effort to close the gap between mission need and data access, enabling teams to move at mission speed. She spoke with Potomac Officers Club about acquisition reform,
innovation at scale, and the values that guide her leadership.
Potomac Officers Club: If you were given free reign to enact changes in the federal landscape, what are the first three changes you would implement and why?
Jennifer Obernier: First, we need to formally treat commercial data as mission infrastructure, not a bespoke acquisition. Data is foundational to how modern missions function, and commercial data now represents one of the fastest-moving sources of operational insight available to mission teams. But when access to that data requires repeated justification and long approval cycles, teams either hesitate or bypass it altogether. That hesitation costs time and advantage. Mission teams should be able to discover, evaluate, and access commercial data on demand, with trust and guardrails already in place. That is exactly the problem we built Grist Mill Exchange to solve.
Second, I would collapse acquisition timelines for commercial capabilities by clearing contracting, legal, security, and operational hurdles on the front end so teams can move when the mission demands it. Secretary Hegseth recently articulated the core issue clearly: acquisition must move from a compliance exercise to an operational imperative. The commercial market already operates at this speed. The government can as well, if it adopts infrastructure designed to support it.
Third, I would make risk management a design choice, not a delay tactic, by addressing risk structurally from the start. Managing risk should enable informed decision making, not default to inaction. At Grist Mill Exchange, privacy, data ethics, and security are embedded into how we operate from the start. When risk is addressed structurally–rather than layered on after the fact–speed and trust stop competing with each other.
If acquisition reform is going to be successful, it must show up operationally in systems teams can use immediately, at mission speed. Our model is already enabling that shift and shows what is possible when policy aligns with mission reality.
POC: With emerging technology influencing the federal government and industry more by the day, what are some of the challenges on the business side of innovation that aren’t always discussed as often as they should be?
Obernier: One of the most misunderstood aspects of innovation is that speed is rarely the true constraint. Friction is. What slows progress is the gap between how capabilities are built and how government teams are able to access and use them.
Commercial data exposes this problem clearly. Mission teams know data exists that would materially improve outcomes, but they don’t pursue it because acquisition is slow, opaque, and unpredictable. That’s not a technology failure. It’s a systems and operations failure. Grist Mill Exchange removes that friction by standardizing terms, vetting providers, embedding privacy and security, and making commercial data discoverable and accessible when it is needed.
Another challenge is the persistent assumption that innovation requires replacing existing systems. In practice, that almost never works. Mission teams already operate within complex environments. Innovation works when capability shows up inside the workflows and platforms teams already rely on, without new contracts, new training burdens, or operational disruption. That’s why we keep our focus on ensuring the data teams need arrives at mission speed, wherever they are operating, as opposed to altering how teams work.
Finally, innovation often stalls because foundational questions are not answered early enough. As capabilities move from pilot to real use, teams need to know where something came from, how it can be used, and who owns the risk. When those answers are unclear, adoption stops no matter how valuable the technology is. Innovation only scales when those questions are addressed upfront. Building that kind of operational clarity takes discipline, but without it, even the most promising technologies struggle to survive real-world use.
The real challenge is building operational pathways that let innovation reach the mission with as little friction as possible. That’s the gap we are closing for commercial data.
POC: What are the core values that you believe are essential to build a great team and establish a foundation to drive success in such a competitive industry?
Obernier: I believe great teams are built around a simple truth: systems reveal their true value when they are under pressure. Culture works the same way. You do not learn what you stand for when conditions are calm. You learn it when speed, judgment, and trust are required all at once.
At Grist Mill Exchange, everything starts with mission experience. When you’ve been accountable for real outcomes and understand the operational cost of delay, you develop a bias toward clarity, urgency, and practicality. That perspective and experience shapes our team, how
we build products, and how we serve customers.
The second core value is trust as an operating imperative. I hire people I trust, give them meaningful ownership, and expect them to exercise judgment. Hierarchy and unnecessary processes slow teams down. Trust and empowerment enables speed. Decisions are made close to the work, with clear accountability for outcomes. That’s how we move quickly without sacrificing confidence or quality.
The third value is simplicity as a discipline. Every unnecessary step, approval, or handoff creates friction that compounds under pressure. We design our culture the same way we design our platform by removing anything that does not directly support mission execution. Simplicity
as a function within our culture directly translates to a stronger and more impactful product for our customers because it allows us to be both flexible and disciplined in how we build.
All of those values taken together enable a lean team to move fast, stay grounded, and deliver real impact in environments where the margin for error is narrow and the consequences are real.
Category: Executive Profiles
