Timothy C. Perry
About Tim Perry
Tim Perry is an experienced operating executive, entrepreneur, and former federal prosecutor. Tim is currently General Counsel at Neros, the American drone company that has raised over $250M in venture capital from Sequoia and Vy Capital. Tim joined Neros after the successful sale of Prepared, an a16z-backed public safety AI company where he served as VP of Strategy, to Axon.
Tim's career has spanned government, business, and the law. In 2008-14, Tim served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of California, where he led numerous investigations into corporate fraud and public corruption. In 2013, Tim was awarded the US Attorney General's Award, the Department's highest honor.
After leaving DOJ, Tim spent several years in private practice at WilmerHale, advising boards of directors, CEOs, and general counsels in high-stakes litigation and internal investigations around the world.
In 2019-20, Tim left private practice to serve as California Governor Gavin Newsom's appointed chief of staff and deputy homeland security advisor at California's Office of Emergency
Services (Cal OES), running day-to-day operations from the Paradise Fire cleanup to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tim also managed the agency's "peacetime" operations, administering its homeland security and justice grant programs and overseeing California's statewide 911 infrastructure. Prior to this, Tim was co-chair of the Newsom campaign's Defending California's Values policy committee and served as a lawyer to the campaign.
In 2021-22, Tim joined the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Inauguration Day as part of a small team of Presidential appointees responsible for implementing policy reforms and establishing positive working relationships with career public safety leaders both inside and outside the Department. In this role, Tim oversaw 21,000 personnel, including 14,000 sworn officers spread across 90 countries, for three operational components: Homeland Security Investigations; Enforcement and Removal Operations; and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor. Tim was also a primary liaison between DHS, the National Security Council, and the Domestic Policy Council.
Outside of his full-time role at Neros, Tim is an investor, board member, and political advisor. Tim has taught corporate governance and investigations at Berkeley Law School, and until 2025 served as one of Governor Newsom's appointed commissioners on the California Aging Commission. In addition to the US Attorney General's Award, Tim is a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of numerous commendations from DHS. Although a Democrat, Tim clerked for two Republican-appointed judges: the Honorable Peter W. Hall on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Honorable Joyce L. Kennard of the California Supreme Court. He is a graduate of Berkeley Law School (JD), the University of Cape Town, South Africa (MSc, Political Studies), and Brown University (AB, Linguistics).
