Government Policies and Funding of SmallSat Ecosystems

Phil Carrai is President of the Space, Training and Cybersecurity division of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc, where he is responsible for all aspects of business operations, sales, mergers and acquisitions. Kratos Defense is an approximately $650 million public company focusing in Aerospace and Defense products and services. 

James “Jim” A. Faist is a recognized expert in advanced sensors, weapons, and electronic warfare for space, air, and ground capabilities, with an extensive and distinguished career in industry and government in national defense. He has been recognized through progressive responsibilities and experience in military operations, advanced technologies, system development, engineering leadership, and program management. Jim is a member of the Board of Directors of Trident Systems Inc., Rapid Flight Inc.  and Stratolaunch Systems, Inc. He received the Exceptional Public Service award from the Office of Secretary of Defense in 2021.

Jim became the first Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Advanced Capabilities in 2018, reporting directly to the Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering within the Office of the Secretary of Defense until 2021. Jim directed an organization whose mission is to recognize, explore, and force the development and integration of new technology to maintain U.S. technological superiority. He was responsible for establishing a Department of Defense joint mission engineering capability, oversight of developmental testing and test facilities as well as demonstration and validation of technology prototype and rapid fielding activities.  Jim served as the mission area advisor for warfighter portfolios in hypersonics, space, autonomy, and networked command, control, and communication architectures.  He also provided independent technical risk assessments of all major acquisition programs.

Jim retired in 2022 as the Vice President, Chief Technology Officer for Lucent Government Solutions (LGS) Labs part of CACI International leading the development of advanced 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), electronic warfare, cyber, and communications technologies in support of future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for the Intelligence Community (IC) and the Department of Defense (DOD).

Previous to his appointment at the Department of Defense, Jim was chief engineer for the Northrop Grumman and Harris Corporations advanced technology developments.  He held senior executive positions at Schafer Corporation, Trident Systems Incorporated, and System Planning Corporation.  Prior to his work in the industry, he served in the United States Air Force as a Weapons Systems Officer and an Electronic Warfare Officer in the F-4D/E Phantom II fighter aircraft.

Jim earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in Electrical Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with emphasis on microwave and power systems. During his career he received numerous performance awards and honors from the U.S. Air Force, academia, and industry and is a recognized speaker in his field.

Select awards of particular note include the Exceptional Public Service by the Office of Secretary of Defense and the US Air Force Top Gun, the highest competitive unit award, which he won twice in his specialty.

Tom Gillespie serves as a Partner on In-Q-Tel’s Investment Team and as Investment Lead for In-Q-Tel’s Field Technologies Practice, where he is responsible for identifying technologies that address challenges faced by the Intelligence Community. He is the Investment Team partner associated with IQT’s commercial space initiative, CosmiQ Works, and he has led a number of IQT’s investments in commercial space ventures, including launch vehicles, small satellite constellations, and space situational awareness. In addition, he has led IQT investments in the areas of robotics, materials, power sources, and autonomous systems, as well as several analytics investments.

Prior to IQT, Gillespie was a Strategy Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, serving clients in the financial services, aerospace, and government (national security and defense) sectors. Previously, he co-founded LaunchFuel, a venture commercialization firm that created, developed, and advised early-stage technology businesses; Gillespie also directed numerous business and technology strategy projects with Global 2000 clients for AT&T Solutions. Earlier experience includes positions in international privatization and the United States Congress, where he focused on financial services, telecommunications, space, and foreign affairs issue areas.

Gillespie earned a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Christine is the Director, Civil Programs for Stellar Solutions which is a small, woman-owned engineering consulting company that strives to satisfy customers’ critical needs while realizing employees dream jobs. She is an integral part of the NASA CoECI and NTL team working to instill challenge, crowdsourcing, and freelance talent innovation approaches at NASA and across the US Government. She leads projects with agencies external to NASA including the National Institutes of Health, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Reclamation, and several others. She has supported innovation work totaling approximately $100M. You hear about some of her experiences on the Cool Collaborations podcasts #21-22.

Her experience in human spaceflight includes performing engineering integration on the Orion Crew Module (Artemis) supporting Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Christine previously held roles in the Intelligence Community including System Acquisition Manager, and Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for the Department of Defense, System Engineering Technical Advisor (SETA) supporting the Federal Government, and project manager and technology solutions consultant for Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI). She has considerable knowledge of signal recognition and geolocation systems. Christine was a project manager for Schlumberger working in state government and utility projects. She has worked in all aspects of system acquisition, development and delivery. Christine is certified in Agile Leadership Essentials, Agile Leadership for Teams, is a NASA 1X Innovator, Project Management Professional (PMP), and an Agile Product owner. She is certified in the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) System Planning, Analysis, Research, Development, and Engineering, and is a Level I Professional Continuity Practitioner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is a Baldrige Performance Excellence examiner. She has received awards including the NASA Silver Achievement Medal, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Innovation Award, Orion Sustained Technical Achievement Recognitions (STAR), NASA Johnson Space Center Certificate of Appreciation, and the NASA Silver Group Achievement Award.

Christine received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. degree in Engineering Administration from George Washington University.