Professor Andrew Kwas
Andy has 41 years with NGC/TRW working in advanced space programs specializing in space, advanced manufacturing, astrophysics projects and in-space manufacturing. As a NG Fellow, he supports NGC’s key space customers including NASA, AFRL, NRO, DARPA, Army/SMDC, Space RCO, USMC, and the Navy. He is considered one of the prominent additive manufacturing (AM) experts in the country and has produced numerous papers in AM, as well as advanced satellite technology, in-space manufacturing using advanced additive manufacturing techniques, unique logistics solutions, and miniaturization of spacecraft components. Andy brings his innovative approach to problems and has won several awards in innovation. His leadership of applying advanced space concepts to a transitional operational phase has been critical to NGC’s success.
Andy is an appointed Research Scholar at the University of New Mexico and is on their staff in the Electrical and Computing Engineering Department, supporting satellite and space research. He is on the Technical Advisory Boards for Virginia Tech, U of Michigan, Cornell, and U of New Mexico. Andy Kwas graduated from the University of Michigan in 1978 with two Bachelor degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and received a Masters degree in 1980 from the University of Missouri Science and Technology in Astrophysics.
Tom Barton
Tom Barton is the co-founder and CEO of Antaris, an early-stage satellite software innovator backed by Lockheed Martin Ventures, Acequia, Possible Ventures and E2MC. Tom and team created Antaris in 2021 with a vision to revolutionize Software for Space—including leveraging open APIs and open source to dramatically reduce costs and time-to-orbit for satellites. The company is widely considered a New Space disruptor for the satellite ecosystem and has closed deals with some of the industry’s most recognized leaders.
Tom previously served as COO of satellite leader Planet Labs for three years and was a member of the leadership team responsible for putting the largest imaging satellite constellation in history into orbit. He was also CEO of Diamanti, Rackable Systems and Cygnus Solutions and has held senior leadership roles at Red Hat and Lightspeed Venture Partners. He holds both a B.S. and M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Dr. Trevor Bennett
Trevor Bennett is a co-founder at Starfish Space where he’s giving life to on-orbit services. He earned a PhD from the University of Colorado where he was a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow and one of Aviation Week’s 20 Twenties. Trevor has worked at both NASA Goddard and JPL on robotic missions and also at Blue Origin on New Glenn. He has broad technical expertise in Guidance, Navigation and Control, with a particular focus on rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD).
Thomas Jensen
Thomas Scott Jensen is the CEO of GateHouse SatCom. Thomas holds a M.Sc.E.E. from Aalborg University. He has worked more than 15 years at GateHouse and has a deep knowledge of Satellite Communications, particularly within satellite waveforms and test tools. GateHouse SatCom has a long history with development of software for different satellite systems and the latest edition to this portfolio is software enabling 5G NTN Narrow-Band-IoT.
Avi Shabtai
Avi Shabtai is the CEO of Ramon.Space, a leader in Space-resilient computing infrastructure.
With extensive background in business and technology leadership from startups to publicly traded companies, his career spans various industries including wireless, data centers, networking, and space. Avi has pursued his passion for deep technology innovation via his leadership of several companies around the globe, including his most recent position as CEO of MultiPhy Inc., specializing in high-speed integrated circuits for the data center market. Prior to MultiPhy, he held several executive positions as VP and GM at Alvarion Technologies (ALVRQ), VP R&D at Tiaris, Director of Engineering at Metalink (MTLK), and various roles in the Intelligence Unit of the Israeli Defense Force. Avi holds an MSc and BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and is an SMP graduate of the Technion Institute of Management.
Jake Teufert
Mr. Teufert is Benchmark’s Chief Engineer and has broad-based experience that spans the entire product lifecycle, from new engine development to sustaining engineering of heritage designs. In his current role he oversees development and maturation for Benchmark’s core propulsion technologies. Prior to joining the Benchmark team, Mr. Teufert was the cofounder of Tesseract Space Inc., and was responsible for the development of their green propulsion technology, which is now under license to Benchmark.
Mr. Teufert was the Propulsion Lead for Masten Space Systems in Mojave, CA from 2014-2017. At Masten, he spearheaded the development of the M9A Broadsword liquid rocket engine for the DARPA XS-1 program, which culminated in a successful hotfire test campaign of a 25,000 lbf sub-scale thrust chamber demonstrator. Before joining Masten, Mr. Teufert was a Propulsion Engineer for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, an anti-ballistic missile kinetic kill vehicle system. Prior to the above, Mr. Teufert was a Project Engineer for Aerojet General in Redmond, WA. While at Aerojet, he supported the flight qualification of the MR-104H hydrazine thruster, the R-42DM hypergolic thruster, and the conceptual design of the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) program.