James Hargrove

James founded Drane Labs in 2023 after nearly two decades at the intersection of machine learning research and executive leadership. He holds an MBA from Wharton and an MS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon, where his thesis work on interpretability in neural networks earned the Dean's Award for Outstanding Graduate Research.

Before Drane Labs, James served as VP of Applied AI at Meridian Systems, where he grew the machine learning division from twelve engineers to over two hundred and oversaw the development of their flagship predictive analytics platform. Prior to Meridian, he spent six years at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories leading a team focused on autonomous systems and computer vision for defense applications.

In 2019, James co-founded and later sold DataLens, a startup specializing in dataset auditing tools for regulated industries. The acquisition by Palantir validated his belief that transparency tooling was not just an ethical imperative but a viable market. That experience — building a company around the idea that AI accountability could be a product, not just a principle — became the seed for Drane Labs.

James has published over thirty papers on alignment, interpretability, and responsible AI development, and serves on the advisory boards of the Partnership on AI and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI.