Gregory S. McNeal
Biography
Gregory S. McNeal, JD/PhD, is a Professor of Law and Public Policy at Pepperdine University,
a faculty
member of the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law, and a nationally recognized
scholar of
law and technology. In the classroom, he teaches Internet Law, Privacy Law, Criminal
Procedure, and
courses examining the legal, regulatory, and ethical challenges and benefits of emerging
technologies.
He writes about the legal and institutional frameworks that govern emerging technologies,
such as
artificial intelligence, drones and aerial surveillance, algorithmic decision-making,
platform governance,
and data privacy. He has published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Texas Law Review,
the George
Washington Law Review, the Washington and Lee Law Review, and the Tulane Law Review,
among
others. His article Targeted Killing and Accountability won an Article of the Year
award from the
American National Section of the International Association of Penal Law. He has won
research funding,
including $246,807 from the Department of Justice and $165,000 from the Carthage Foundation,
as well
as external grants supporting two symposia. His two forthcoming books are Learning
Privacy Law and AI
Governance, a casebook under contract with West Academic, and AI Governance for Boards
and
Executives.
He has testified twelve times before Congress and state legislatures on privacy, drones,
aerial
surveillance, entrepreneurship, and innovation policy. Cabinet officials have appointed
him to three
federal rulemaking committees, and he has advised the White House, the Department
of Defense, the
State Department, and independent regulatory agencies. He has also advised state legislators,
cities, and
municipalities on legislation and ordinances governing new technology. The Uniform
Law Commission
named him Reporter for its Tort Law Relating to Drones Act, and he chaired the Emerging
Technology
Working Group for the Regulatory Transparency Project. He worked on the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration's multistakeholder process governing privacy, transparency,
and
accountability in commercial and private drone use, and presented at the Federal Trade
Commission's
Fall Technology Series on drones.
Outside of academic life, he is Chairman of the Board of Exyn Technologies (Nasdaq:
EXYN), an
autonomy, robotics, and AI company serving civilian and military customers. He advised
the company
through its 2026 IPO, chairs its Nominating and Governance Committee and its Defense
Advisory Board,
and serves on its Audit and Compensation Committees. Earlier, he co-founded AirMap,
a multinational
software company in the aerospace and defense industries, and served on its board
until its acquisition
in 2021. Fast Company named AirMap one of the World's Most Innovative Companies, Inc
Magazine
named it one of its 25 Most Disruptive Companies, and the company won a Consumer Electronics
Show
Innovation Award and the Los Angeles Business Journal's Patrick Soon-Shiong Innovation
Award. Later, at
the maritime artificial intelligence company SailPlanAI, he was an early investor
and served as Chairman
of the Board through the company's 2026 acquisition.
He began his career in national security and international criminal law, advising
the Chief Prosecutor of
the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions on human rights law in the
prosecution of
suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. As an academic consultant to the State Department's
Regime
Crimes Liaison Office, he advised on the due-process protections the Iraqi High Tribunal
owed
defendants when it tried Saddam Hussein. He wrote two sections of the Army's Civilian
Casualty
Mitigation field manual, the Army's first doctrine on preventing and mitigating harm
to civilians in
combat, and he hosted at Pepperdine the military and NGO working group that finished
it for
publication. He also served as an expert commentator on draft versions of the Army
War College
Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute's Protection of Civilians Military
Reference Guide.
For more than a decade, he wrote a column on business and technology for Forbes. His
commentary has
appeared in more than 200 media outlets, including CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg,
NPR,
The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American, and his op-eds have run in The New
York Times, The
Washington Post, The Washington Times, and Foreign Policy. He speaks regularly at
academic
conferences and industry events on technology, law, and public policy.
Before entering academia, Professor McNeal served as a communications and technology
officer in the
United States Army. He is also the first in his family to attend college. Professor
McNeal is admitted to
practice in the District of Columbia and holds the AIGP credential in AI governance
and the CIPM
credential in privacy management.
Education
- Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
- J.D., Case Western Reserve University
- M.P.A., American University
- B.A., Lehigh University
Topics
- Technology
- Entrepreneurship
- Public Policy
- Privacy Law
- Internet Law
- Blockchain/Web3