David “Mudd” Willard Named CEO of Nooks

Nooks cofounder David “Mudd” Willard has been named Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds Sean “BB” Blackman, who cofounded Nooks and led it as chief executive from the start.

He takes over with the company’s direction unchanged: making classified work more accessible for companies that cannot afford the time or capital to build their own facilities.

Who Mudd is

Mudd cofounded Nooks and has been with the company ever since, most recently as Head of Growth.

He came to it from both sides of the gap Nooks exists to close. He retired from the USAF, having spent a career as an F-15E Weapons System Officer and through a series of fortunate events found himself working at the intersection of entrepreneurs and national security. It was this work that put him in front of the same barrier over and over: a company needs a SCIF to compete for classified work, and is not permitted to build one until it is on a classified contract. Capable companies were not losing those competitions, they were never in them. That is the problem Nooks was built to remove.

On the transition

Sean “BB” Blackman cofounded Nooks and took it from an idea that sounded implausible to a company with customers and multiple sites. We thank him for it, and wish him the very best in what comes next.