His work is grounded in a clear operating belief: economic security is national security, and the strength of America’s critical industries will be determined by the speed at which manufacturers adopt modern technology, build workforce capacity, and de-risk supply chains.

Under Scafario’s leadership, DVIRC has positioned itself as an execution partner at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, workforce development, and industrial base readiness. He relocated DVIRC’s headquarters to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to serve as a convening platform and “command center” for cross-sector collaboration, bringing manufacturers together with research institutions, primes and suppliers, and local/state/federal stakeholders to compress timelines from strategy to implementation.

Recognizing that the next era of competitiveness will be defined by applied data and automation, Scafario launched DVIRC’s AI Center of Excellence for Manufacturing (AiCE) to help manufacturers move from experimentation to measurable performance improvement. The focus is pragmatic: identifying repeatable use-cases, strengthening data readiness, deploying change management, and translating emerging tools into productivity, quality, and margin gains that can be sustained.

Scafario’s Moonshot agenda is also aligned with national defense priorities and the realities of industrial capacity. He has helped advance workforce and supplier efforts connected to the defense industrial ecosystem, including maritime and submarine-industrial-base-adjacent initiatives, with a consistent emphasis on scaling talent pipelines and supplier performance in “must-not-fail” supply chains.

Earlier in his career, Scafario was a partner in his family’s beverage business and later managed multimillion-dollar product lines with global consumer brands. He brings that commercial discipline to DVIRC’s mission: strategy that is accountable to outcomes, growth that is supported by capability, and partnerships that are structured to deliver.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and an MBA from Thomas Jefferson University. He is active in the collector car community and founded High Octane South Jersey, a charitable group that has mobilized the car community to support children and families through large-scale toy and gift drives.