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Though only a few weeks old, already the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is radically changing the face of bureaucracy in D.C. The Elon Musk-led agency has slashed government spending, gained full access to the Treasury Departments payments systems, and pushed federal employees to resign. While Democrats and union groups have raised concerns about the effect on the American people, DOGE and Musk appear to have President Trumps full support. Hes a big businessman. Hes a successful guy. Thats why we want him doing this, Trump said in a press conference on Tuesday, emphasizing that DOGE has a lot of work, a lot of smart people involved. So, who are these “smart people,” whos actually behind the organizational shake-up in Washington? Heres everything you need to know so far about the DOGE staffers. Jennifer Balajadia, 36 Balajadia worked as an operations coordinator for the Boring Company, founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, for almost eight years. According to the New York Times, she is an official member of DOGE, traveling with Musk and helping him with scheduling and daily tasks. Alexandra T. Beynon, 36 Beynon was the head of engineering for her husband, Dylan’s, startup, Mindbloom, a guided at-home ketamine-therapy company. She previously worked for Symphony.com as a director in engineering and at Goldman Sachs as a software developer. According to ProPublica, when asked about her role in the new administration and DOGE, she said, I have no idea what you are talking about. Nicole Hollander, 42 Hollander is working at the General Services Administration. She previously worked at X, where she handled the companys real estate. Before that, she worked at JBG Smith, a commercial real estate and real estate investment trust company, as senior vice president of retail asset management. Hollander is married to Steve Davis, a longtime associate of Musk’s. Kendall M. Lindemann, 24 Lindemann is a member of the DOGE team, according to ProPublica. She worked as a venture associate for Russell Street Ventures, a healthcare firm, founded by another DOGE associate, Brad Smith. After graduating from the University of Tennessee, she worked as a business analyst for McKinsey & Company. Adam Ramada, 35 Ramada worked as comanaging partner of Spring Tide Capital, a venture capital company. Spring Tide previously invested in Impulse Space, founded by Tom Mueller, a founding member of SpaceX. According to E&E News, Ramada identified himself as an employee of DOGE in court documents involving a union fight against DOGE’s access to sensitive government information. E&E News, acquired by Politico in 2020, stated that he reportedly appeared in the Energy Department and GSA. Ryan Riedel, 37 Riedel worked as a lead network security engineer at SpaceX before becoming chief information officer at the Department of Energy (DOE). His new position was confirmed in a LinkedIn post by Ann Dunkin, former CIO of DOE, on February 9. Riedel previously served in the U.S Army Cyber Command as a network manager. Kyle Schutt, 37 Schutt is a DOGE software engineer working at the GSA. He was previously chief technology officer at Revv, an online donation platform. Before deleting his LinkedIn profile, Schutt wrote that he led the development and launch of WinRed, the Republican Partys major online fundraising program, which according to its website, raised $1.8 billion for Republicans in the 2024 election. Edward Coristine, 19 Coristine, a first-year student at Northeastern University in Boston, spent three months last summer at Neuralink, Musks brain-computer interface company, according to his résumé, which was obtained by Wired. He is part of the young group of DOGE staffers detailed to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). According to internal records reviewed by Wired, Coristine is listed as an expert at OPM. Akash Bobba, 21 Bobba was listed in Wired magazine as another one of the six young engineers picked for Musks DOGE team. He recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He was an intern at Meta and at Palantir, the software and data analytics firm that’s a defense contractor. Bobba has reportedly been able to access internal databases as an expert at OPM. Ethan Shaotran, 22 Shaotran is a member of the DOGE team, according to ProPublica. He recently attended Harvard University where he studied computer science. His LinkedIn account has since been deleted. When he was a student, he received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI to develop an AI scheduling assistant called Spark. He was a finalist in a hackathon organized by Musks AI company, xAI. According to Wired, Shaotran is one of six guys under age 24, who are now playing a critical role in DOGE, tasked with modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity. Luke Farritor, 23 Farritor works as an executive engineer at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to ProPublica. He studied computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, dropping out before his final semester, and interned at SpaceX, working on its Starlink Wi-Fi team, according to his LinkedIn profile. In March 2024, he received a Thiel fellowship, a two-year program founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel that awards a $100,000 startup rant to students who drop out of college. Gautier Cole Killian, 24 Killin has a working email associated with DOGE, where he is listed as a volunteer, according to Wired. ProPublica reported that he works at the EPA as a federal detail, which typically allows government employees to transfer between agencies. He worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, which specializes in algorithmic financial trades, and which was stated on an archived version of his now-deleted personal website. Gavin Kliger, 25 Kliger is a special advisor at OPM, according to ProPublica. He is listed in internal records reviewed by Wired as a special advisor to the director for information technology. Kliger spent around five years as a software engineer at Databricks, an AI company. Jordan M. Wick, 28 Wick is a member of the DOGE team, and a recent graduate from MIT, where he studied computer science, according to ProPublica. He was a software engineer at Waymo, where he worked on self-driving cars. He was listed as a cofounder and CTO of Intercept, which is affiliated with California-based tech incubator Y Combinator. Nate Cavanaugh, 28 Cavanaugh is an entrepreneur who cofounded two companies, Brainbase and FlowFi. Brainbase is an intellectual property management firm that was acquired by Constellation Software in 2022. FlowFi is an accounting and finance platform for small businesses. He has been interviewing staffers at the GSA as part of the DOGE team, according to ProPublica. Jacob Altik, 32 Altik is a 2021 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He previously clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Joan L. Larsen and United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee. Last year, he was selected to begin a clerkship for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. James Burnham, 41 Burnham is a former litigation partner at Jones Day and a high-ranking Justice Department and White House official from the first Trump administration. According to his former employers website, Burnham was a senior associate counsel to President Trump and played a critical role in the selection and confirmation processes for Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett. ProPublica reported that his title at DOGE is listed internally as general counsel. Keenan D. Kmiec, 45 Kmiec worked in elite law before transitioning to crypto. According to his LinkedIn, he clerked on the Supreme Court for Chief Justice John Roberts in the 2006-2007 term and then worked at a corporate law firm. He was a partner in a small law firm focused on insider-trading litigation. Kmiec then worked for the Tezos Foundation, tasked with legal project management and other tasks across a cryptocurrency ecosystem, according to his LinkedIn. After that, he served as CEO of a now-defunct startup called InterPop. Anthony Armstrong, 57 Armstrong is a technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on Musks $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now X. He now has a role in the OPM, which handles personnel issues across the federal government. Under the Trump administration, OPM recently directed agencies to submit names of every employee who had underperformed in the past three years and note if any have been on “performance plans.” Riccardo Biasini, 39 Biasini is an engineer and former executive who worked at two of Musks companies, the Boring Company and Tesla. He now has taken a high-ranking role in OPM, reported ProPublica. Biasini was listed as the person of contact for the government-wide email system used to send messages directly from OPM to millions of federal employees across the government, according to a recent document. Brian Bjelde, 44 Bjelde has worked for SpaceX for more than 20 years, currently the vice president of people operations. Previously, he was an associate engineer at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was referred to in press reports as a top DOGE Lieutenant, working at OPM to slash head count. Steve Davis, 45 Davis worked at SpaceX, X, and the Boring Company, as a senior executive and close associate of Musk’s for more than two decades. He was one of the first people to be associated with DOGE. The New York Times reported that he was on early calls with Musk as they explored ways to cut federal programs. Marko Elez, 25 Elez works at the Treasury Department, according to ProPublica. He graduated from Rutgers in 2021, where he studied computer science. He has reportedly gained access to highly sensitive payment systems of the Treasury Department, according to Wired. But Elez allegedly resigned February 6 after the Wall Street Journal reported that he has links to a social media account that posted racist comments online. Musk said publicly he planned to rehire the engineer. Stephanie Holmes, 43 Holmes runs human resources at DOGE, according to ProPublica. She is a former lawyer with Jones Day, which frequently represented Trump. Holmes also ran her own HR consulting firm, BrighterSideHR, which advised companies to pursue non-woke approaches to DEI, according to 404 Media. Tom Krause, 47 Krause leads a team who have been granted read-only access to the code for the agencys Fiscal Service payment system, which processes payments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare, according to the Treasury Department. The New York Times reported that Krause is affiliated with Musks DOGE team. He previously worked as CEO of Cloud Software Group, which provides enterprise software. Katie Miller, 33 In December, Trump named Miller, who served in the first administration as a press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, as one of the first members of DOGE. She is married to White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. Justin Monroe, 36 Monroe is working as an advisor in the office of the director of the FBI, according to ProPublica. He is a seasoned information security professional who served in the U.S. Navy as an information warfare officer. According to NBC News, an unnamed SpaceX employee had been placed in the FBI directors office, but no name was confirmed. Nikhil Rajpal, 30 Rajpal is listed as an expert” for OPM. He is representing DOGE in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to Wired. Rajpal’s online presence has since been deleted, but Wired reported he studied computer science at UC Berkeley and worked at Twitter before Musks acquisition. Rachel Riley, 33 Riley works as senior advisor at HHS, according to ProPublica. She previously was a partner for the consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company. Riley has worked closely with Brad Smith, a former health official in Trumps previous administration who ran DOGE during the transition period, as stated in the New York Times. Michael Russo, 67 Russo is a high-ranking technology official at the Social Security Administration (SSA), as reported by ProPublica. Russo spent more than seven years as an executive and senior advisor with Shift4 Payments, which is an investor in SpaceX, according to his LinkedIn. Russos office will oversee the SSAs more than $2 billion IT budget. Amanda Scales, 34 Scales worked in the human resources department at xAI, Musks artificial intelligence company. She was listed as the point of contact for questions after a memo was sent to federal employees, putting them on notice that DEI and accessibility initiatives in the federal government were now barred through an executive order. Scales is now chief of staff at OPM. Thomas Shedd, 28 Shedd, a mechanical engineer, worked at Tesla, building software that operated vehicle and battery factories. He now is the Federal Acquisition Service deputy commissioner and runs the Technology Transformation Services, according to a GSA press release. Brad Smith, 42 Smith served in a series of health-related policy roles during the first Trump administration, including being part of the board on the COVID-19 vaccine development program, Operation Warp Speed. The New York Times reported that he was helping to lead DOGE. Christopher Stanley, 33 Stanley is an experienced information security professional who has worked at multiple Musk-related companies, including SpaceX and X. He is reportedly an aide to Musk at DOGE, according to the New York Times, and has a role at the White House.
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Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. When a brand goes negative, its usually with a claim that a competitor is somehow inferior. In its recent Super Bowl ad, the telehealth provider Hims & Hers went on the attack against something bigger: the system. Promoting a weight-loss drug positioned as a cheaper Ozempic alternative, the spot dings Big Pharma, and the healthcare industry more generally, as motivated by profits not patients. The ad sparked backlash before it even aired, and the buzz has lingered beyond the big game, fueled partly by criticism from the pharmaceutical business and prominent politicians, among others. In other words, the brand channeled some of the most anti-establishment vibes darkening the 2025 zeitgeist as a way to make a splashand it seems to be working. The short-term payoff may seem limited. Hims & Hers is pushing a cheaper, compounded version of semaglutide, the Novo Nordisk drug sold as Wegovy and Ozempic, which have become blockbusters for their weight-loss effects. (Ozempic can cost in excess of $1,000 a month without insurance, while the compounds can cost $200 or less; Hims & Hers doesnt break out revenue from compounds, but has indicated its broader weight-loss category has grown at a rapid clip and is estimated to reach annual revenue of $100 million by the end of this year.) Compounded-drug versions are permitted when regulators deem a marketplace shortage of an original (patented) drug. Wegovy and Ozempic are currently on that listand their creator, Novo Nordisk, has acknowledged that compounding is affecting its businessbut the drugmaker says it has increased its supply, which will eventually curtail Hims & Hers from selling its copycat. But even when that spike of interest (and presumably sales) runs its course, the company best known for erectile dysfunction, hair-loss, and other treatments has raised its profile to more than just a modern alt-wellness brand. Now its positioning itself as a righteous underdog battling a rigged system on behalf of everyday folk. The actual spot is remarkable for its largely grim and confrontational tone. With Childish Gambinos brooding anthem as the soundtrack, it quick-cuts through sometimes jarring images to describe an obesity epidemic that leads to half a million deaths each year. A narrator declares: Something is broken. With nods to fattening foods, social media, and pricey drug treatments, it continues, The system wasnt built to help us. It was built to keep us sick and stuck. The final pivot is to Hims & Hers, with its affordable doctor-trusted treatments, formulated in the USA as part of a custom treatment plan. People smile and brandish med vials as the narration concludes: Join us in the fight for a healthy America. While a rebel pose is a venerable brand trope, its a bit jarring to see it deployed so starkly with healthcare as its target. But maybe it shouldnt be. Years of healthcare consumer frustrations have been a prelude to a year thats already seen a vaccine skeptic confirmed as the head of Health and Human Services, and the alleged killer of a major healthcare executive treated by some as a folk hero. Politically, vows to fight and smash the system (any system) have never been more prominent. Critics of the ad charged that its (very) small-type disclaimer that the compound-drug versions Hims & Hers offers are not FDA approved was misleading and potentially dangerous. (Brand-name drugs and official generics are more stringently regulated.) They also complained that the ad did not mention potential side effects. The Partnership for Safe Medicines, a nonprofit group focused on pharmaceutical safety, wrote Super Bowl broadcaster Fox a detailed letter urging the network not to air the ad. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug-industry-lobbying firm, said the ad misrepresents the safety and efficacy of knockoff products. Senators Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, asked the FDA to look into the matter. Numerous media outlets covered the controversy. And Novo Nordisk retaliated with print ads emphasizing the weaker regulationand past problemsaround compounds, asking: Do you really know what youre injecting into your body? Hims & Hers is not the only company in the health space to respond to the semaglutide shortage, and its not wrong about the prohibitive cost of brand-name versions. But its tone has been unusual, waving away all charges and critiques as not just fake news but, in effect, evidence of persecution. Weve called out the system, and now the system is asking that our ad get taken down, a spokesperson commented; its site touts the ad Big Pharma doesnt want you to see. And the companys share price is up about 15% since just before the Super Bowl, giving it a valuation of more than $10 billion. Hims & Hers may be taking risks and pushing the regulatory envelope, but antagonizing authority doesnt seem to be a side effect of its strategy, its the prescription.
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In many ways, architecture is the star of the 2024 film The Brutalist. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film follows decades of the life and work of László Tóth, an ingenious Bauhaus-trained Hungarian architect who survives the Holocaust and immigrates to the United States to pursue a new life. Cowritten and directed by Brady Corbet, it’s a fictional story with underpinnings of world and architectural history. The narrative centers around Tóth, played by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, designing and building a monumental, brutalist-style community center and church-like space for a wealthy and mercurial client. That building, known in the film as the Institute, does not actually exist as a built project. So production designer Judy Becker had to design it for the film. The final building design showcases brutalism on a grand scale, with large and cascading rectilinear blocks of concrete topped with soaring towers. “The first thing Brady asked me to do, and this was well before official prep, was to design the Institute,” says Becker, whose production design is among the film’s Oscar nominations. The building is so essential to the story that how it looked ended up guiding the rest of the film’s production. Becker, not the fictional Tóth, is the true architect behind The Brutalist. [Photo: courtesy A24] Drawing from a personal passion Though not a trained architect, Becker drew from decades of interest in art and architectureparticularly the stark concrete modernism of the brutalist styleto bring the Institute to physical form. “The movie seemed kind of tailor-made for me because, for a very long time, I’ve been in love with brutalist architecture,” she says. “Way before there was a group of people that loved brutalist architecture, I loved it.” Becker’s architecture for The Brutalist was also inspired by the mid-century works of modernist architects trained at the Bauhaus, which the fictional Tóth attended before the outbreak of World War II and his imprisonment at the Buchenwald concentration camp. These biographical details in the script were some of the few aspects guiding the design of the Institute. [Photo: courtesy A24] Building an architectural connection to the film’s characters Two specific architectural details were also drawn directly from the script’s dialog: an aperture in the Institute’s roof and a central altar on which the aperture projects a cross at noon. Revealed in dialog only until the very end of the 3-hour-20-minute film, Becker’s design for the Institute also had to reflect an architectural connection to the two concentration camps where Tóth and his wife, separated during the war, were imprisoned. Much was open to Becker’s interpretation. [Image: courtesy A24] “I researched in great detail the architecture of the concentration camps and looked at overhead plans and aerial photographs, and also the interiors of the bunkers where the [people] were imprisoned,” says Becker. “It was very, very useful for me to do that. It was also very emotional, and let’s say stressful and draining, but important.” Her research also extended to the outbuildings of the concentration camps, including their crematoriums. “Personally, I intended the Institute to look like a gigantic crematorium that was passing as a church,” she says. [Image: courtesy A24] Some of these details appear only briefly, or obliquely, in the film. The most comprehensive view the audience is given of the building is a scale model used for a client review and a community meeting. The actual building is shown as a nascent construction site and later as a nearly finished project. [Image: courtesy A24] Becker says filming the building was essential to the story, but a challenge to do without actually building it. What ended up in the film is a pastiche of the scale model, sets to show the construction site, and a combination of location shoots that included an abandoned grain silo and an underground reservoir in the city of Budapest. “It was a complicated process,” she says. Crafting original mid-century work for the Brutalist Becker’s role as production designer also involved more typical facets of the job, such as set design and location furnishing. But, unique to a film about an architect, she also had to put her mid-century design chops to work creating an avant-garde library space that appears early in the film, as well as Bauhaus-inspired furniture Tóth’s character creates shortly after arriving in the U.S. [Image: courtesy A24] “Most of the time, when I did additional research for those periods, it was to avoid imitating anyone,” Becker says. “I didn’t want what László designed to look like another designer.” [Photo: courtesy A24] Though Becker says her work as a production designer always involves getting inside the minds of the characters in the film, this project called on her to almost become the actual architect behind the architecture of The Brutalist. “I was really trying hard to make him original, make his work original,” Becker says. “Sometimes, I believe that he did exist! I talk about him as if he was a real person. But he only lives inside of me as a designer.”
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