J. Bennet Waters

Dr. J. Bennet Waters is Senior Vice President of Growth at RTI International, where he leads the development and execution of the organization's integrated growth strategy across public and commercial markets. His expertise spans strategic planning and implementation, innovation commercialization, enterprise transformation, governance, stakeholder engagement, mergers and acquisitions, and organizational performance. 

A seasoned executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience, Waters has built and transformed organizations across the public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. Throughout his career, Waters has led growth, strategy, and transformation efforts for organizations ranging from venture-backed companies to Fortune 500 enterprises and federal agencies. His previous leadership roles include executive positions with Labcorp, The Chertoff Group, LifePoint Health, VIGILINT, and the United States Department of Homeland Security. Waters' career has focused on optimizing the intersections of organizational growth and scale, resilience, strategy, and operations

Before joining RTI, Waters served as founding President and CEO of NCInnovation, a statewide public-private partnership established to accelerate research commercialization and strengthen North Carolina's innovation economy. 

In addition to his executive leadership experience, Waters has taught graduate-level leadership and organizational change courses for more than two decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a co-inventor on multiple U.S. patents related to aviation security and threat-detection technologies and has authored numerous publications and presentations on leadership, risk management, and organizational performance.