Speakers

Ane Aanesland is a Norwegian deep-tech entrepreneur with deep roots in scientific research. She is the co-founder, president, and CEO of ThrustMe, an industrial space startup providing streamlined solutions to maneuver satellites in space. In 2020, ThrustMe became the first company to successfully demonstrate an iodine-propelled electric propulsion system in space and now deliver products to clients worldwide.

Ane Aanesland is a recognized expert in plasma physics and was leading a research team at the Ecole Polytechnique in France and conducted research at the Australian National University in the past. Ane obtained her PhD in physics from the Arctic University of Norway (the northernmost university in the world) and received the Innovation medal of the Centre Nationale De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in 2019.

Michael Abad-Santos is chief executive officer at BridgeComm, Inc. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and satellite industries with a focus on the government market sectors, both domestic and international. Michael previously held the role of senior vice president of strategy and business development at BridgeComm. Prior to BridgeComm, he served as chief commercial officer at satellite communications solutions provider Trustcomm, Inc. before joining LeoSat Enterprises as senior vice president, Americas, overseeing commercial activities, strategy development and execution in the Americas region as well as government activities worldwide. In addition to helping secure pre-series A investments of $20 million, he helped secure two strategic investment partners and more than $2B million in pre-launch memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for commercial services.

Michael also held various leadership roles at Inmarsat over a 10-year period, including serving as senior vice president of its global government division. A sought-after subject matter expert and speaker, he has presented at industry-leading events including SpaceCom, ITEXPO and MILCOM among others and is a consultant working with Department of Defense leadership on the intersection of software engineering and space and weapons systems development.

Dan Adams is Head of Business Development and Sales for KSAT Inc. at Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). Prior to joining KSAT, Dan previously led business development for civil space programs at United Launch Alliance (ULA). A space enthusiast, Dan is energized by the mission and the positive impacts space enables in our everyday lives.

KSAT is a world-leading provider of ground station services for satellites, rocket launchers, and experimental spacecraft. With over 50 years of experience, KSAT’s network today spans over 180 antennas at over 20 ground station locations across the globe (including Pole to Pole coverage from Antarctica to the Arctic) and is constantly expanding. KSAT is proud to be the behind-the-scenes bridge back to earth, supporting the vast majority of space companies, agencies, and start-ups.

Mr. Andaleon is a Manager, Business Development & Technology, at Innoflight with 35 years of high technology business development and marketing experience.  David joined Innoflight shortly after the company was awarded a NASA contract to develop an on-orbit reprogrammable high-performance reconfigurable technology package for the DARPA System F6 program.  This F6 Tech Package is a direct predecessor of its very successful cyber-secure CFC-400X compact flight computer family.  Since joining Innoflight David has provided significant leadership growing its spaceflight computing, software-defined radio (SDR), and communications security (COMSEC) & cybersecurity portfolios.

 Prior to joining Innoflight, Mr. Andaleon was a Director of Business Development at CommScope providing cable telecommunications solutions to cable operators.  His area of expertise was streaming video solutions using content delivery networks (CDNs) with Digital Rights Management (DRM).  Prior to CommScope, David was a strategic marketing and technical marketing manager at LSI Logic specializing in semiconductor solutions for digital video compression.

Mr. Andaleon began his career as Sandia National Laboratories focusing on fault-tolerant digital signal processing, initially focused on space-based missile warning and tracking of ballistic missiles.  David graduated with a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Stanford University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the Washington State University.

Eric Anderson is President of And One Technologies and a startup investor, advisor and mentor in aerospace, IoT, mobility and medical systems. He has contributed to dozens of space products, missions, and programs. Eric currently supports technology and business aspects of several satellite and space activities. He emphasizes delivery of data and services via new technologies, channels, and business models including government access and use of emerging commercial space products and services.

As Chief Technologist for Space at Moog, he helped lead the company’s space business and collaborated with worldwide colleagues on business strategy, technology and innovation across multiple markets. Eric was part of the leadership team at the nationally-recognized small company CSA Engineering, serving several years as President.

He was on the technical staff at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, worked at Sikorsky Aircraft, served eight years as a city Planning Commissioner and is on the board of the Kenya-based education non-profit The Kilgoris Project. Eric earned BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

Julián Fernández is the CEO and Co-founder of FOSSA Systems, the Spanish company democratizing mass access to interoperable low-power IoT devices from space with 13 picosatellites of its constellation already in orbit. Julián has experience in the design of pico and nanosatellites, having launched the first Spanish picosatellite FOSSASAT-1 in 2019 at the age of 16 and later founding FOSSA Systems as a company. He was chosen as a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2022 and as one of the Top 105 NewSpace Executives. He has a background in telecommunications engineering, LPWAN technologies and currently manages a team of 25 people.

Randall Barney is the Director of the Certification and Membership programs for the World Teleport Association. Responsible for membership management and services, he is the project manager for WTA’s continuing program of research as well as the Teleport Certification program.  He is host and producer of WTA’s Executive Dialogue video interview series conducted at major industry events around the world, moderator of the Satellite Workshop at the annual PTC conference in Hawaii, frequent moderator at Space Tech Expo European and producer of the annual Ground Segment Forum and Teleport Awards for Excellence at Satellite.

Mr. Baugh serves as the President and Founder of Northern Sky Research (NSR), which he created in 2000 to provide independent, actionable market research and consulting services to the satellite industry. Mr. Baugh directs all NSR multi-client research reports and single-client consulting projects and manages a global team of analysts that stand at the forefront of satellite industry expertise.

Before forming NSR, Mr. Baugh served as Senior Analyst for Pioneer Consulting where he covered all aspects of the satellite market. Prior to Pioneer, Mr. Baugh was an International Trade Specialist and Economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC. While at the Department of Commerce, Mr. Baugh was a recipient of the Charles F. Meissner Memorial Award for his work on trade negotiations in the International Trade Administration.

Mr. Baugh also has extensive legislative and analytical experience from his work for the Committee on International Relations and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, both in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Baugh holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Westminster College and a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University.

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).

Shalini is a Principal in Deloitte Consulting and is the leader of Deloitte’s commercial space practice

Shalini has over 20 years experience across industry and consulting, driving business stand up, mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and transformation activities across a multitude of industries including financial services, technology, media, telecom, private equity and space. Her focus is on driving business outcomes and value creation through organic and inorganic transformations.

Shalini leads Deloitte commercial space practice across industries, and with a significant focus on Technology and Aerospace sectors. She has spearheaded the creation of a singular global, cross industry and cross solutions practice that covers the gamut of the Space value chain from business strategy, go to market, front office operations, back office operations, supply chain and manufacturing operations and ecosystem plays to support

Shalini graduated in commerce and economics from University of Mumbai and subsequently earned an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She is also an avid artist, jewelry designer and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two boys

Curt Blake is president of Spaceflight’s launch services group and previously served as senior vice president and general counsel. Curt has led efforts to expand Spaceflight’s global network of launch service providers while building relationships with key commercial-, civilian- and defense-related customers. Over the last several years, Curt oversaw the company’s growth from its early commercial rideshare launches on the Antares and Soyuz vehicles to become the industry’s rideshare leader and the world’s first commercial spaceline.

Curt brings more than 25 years of executive experience in high-growth and tech industries, with past experience including a range of senior executive and general counsel roles at Microsoft, Starwave, Corbis and Aldus. He’s a current and active board member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Seattle-based Pacific Science Center, as well as a contributor to numerous small-satellite conferences.

Growing up in Thailand and Ethiopia, Curt is a student of the world and still enjoys traveling for work and pleasure (but don’t ask him to take a middle seat).

Brad brings over 20 years of software development experience in the aerospace industry to the ATLAS team. He has designed, developed, tested, and deployed satellite command and control, mission planning, and data management applications throughout his career. Now, Brad, as the architect and visionary behind Freedom GSaaS, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of satellite passes and terabytes of data collected. He holds an MS in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University.

Andy Bowyer is CEO of Kleos Space, a Luxembourg based space-powered RF Geolocation data-as-a-service company. Andy co-founded Kleos in 2017, taking the company through an IPO in August 2018 to fund the build out and launch of the 1st cluster of four satellites flying in formation. The second cluster was launched on June 30 and the third is scheduled for April 2022. Prior to Kleos, Andy co-founded UK based Magna Parva in 2005, a Space Engineering and Technology company delivering instruments, structures and mechanisms to ESA EO and planetary exploration missions.

Natalia Larrea Brito is a Principal Advisor at Euroconsult. In this role, she manages consulting missions for government and private institutions including the assessment of government programs, defining new policies, socio-economic studies, and the strategic analysis of new technologies and space markets. Natalia is also the editor-in-chief for Euroconsult’s Prospects for Space Exploration research report.
She is the recipient of numerous merit awards, including the “Promise Award” and “20 under 35” of the Satellite Society Professionals International (SSPI), and the “35 under 35 Space Industry Award” of the International Institute of Space Commerce (IISC).

Prior to joining Euroconsult, Natalia worked as a Systems Engineer at MDA, as a Research Associate at NASA Ames and as a trainee at the European Space Agency (ESA). She holds a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from McGill University (Canada), a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio (Spain) and a Diploma in Astronomy and Planetary Science from the Open University UK. She is also a graduate of the International Space University (ISU).

James Bruegger, the co-founder and CIO of Seraphim, is a prolific venture capitalist investor in the global Space Tech domain. James was the early VC investor in Arqit, Iceye, LeoLabs and D-Orbit and led investments in several companies that went public including Spire Global and AST & Science. Previously he worked at YFM Equity Partners and Burlington Consultants, a boutique strategy consultancy that was acquired by Deloitte & Touche. James holds a first-class degree in History from University College London.

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. 

Dan cofounded LeoLabs to accelerate the new commercial economy in LEO, protect satellite assets, and preserve the space environment. LeoLabs is the first commercial data source for tracking satellites and mapping LEO. Prior to co-founding LeoLabs Dan was a Program Director at SRI International where he supervised the Allen Telescope Array and developed advanced radar imaging technologies. Dan holds a Ph. D. from U. C. Berkeley in electrical engineering.

As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Starburst Aerospace Accelerator, Francois Chopard is pioneering today’s aerospace renaissance, uniting early-stage technology innovators with private investment to build the next wave of transportation, communication, and intelligence. Since founding Starburst in 2012, Chopard has created 6 innovation hubs around the world (Paris, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Seoul) where his global team works alongside +1000 technology startups that are developing new aircrafts, spacecrafts, satellites, drones, sensors, AI, and software. He has invested in +120 startups, 2 of them became unicorns.

John Conafay is a Veteran of the United States Air Force and Co-Founder + CEO of Integrate Space Corporation. Conafay has been an early employee and interned at three space unicorns and is deeply familiar with both the launch and demand sides of the new space economy. Most recently, Conafay was Head of Business Development at ABL Space Systems leading the sale of launch services to Amazon Kuiper and onboarding to OSP-4. Prior to ABL, he was Director of Business Development at Spaceflight Inc., Business Development and Operations Manager at Astranis, Business Development Associate at BryceTech, and interned at Spire Global while Executive Director for Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, USA.

Dr. Ioana Cozmuta is the managing partner of Gravity Free Consulting and CEO of G-Space Inc, two small, women-owned businesses. These two portfolio companies are a reflection of Dr. Cozmuta’s driving passions: (1) to discover new revenue opportunities at the intersection of Space and Earth Technologies and to help accelerate the time to market AND (2) to develop, design and optimize advanced and new materials by liberating the potential design space from the limiting effects of gravity.

Dr. Cozmuta’s work at the confluence of Space and Earth is based on a nineteen years career in academia, at NASA and in the start-up world uniquely combining expertise in physics, computational chemistry and materials research; data science and space technology with business and entrepreneurship. From her early work in nanotechnology research to engineering projects for missions such as Hypersonics, Stardust, Mars Science Laboratory, Orion or the International Space Station, dr Cozmuta has built a legacy on transforming the status quo, opening new avenues for innovation and devoting her energy, enthusiasm and collaborative spirit to advance the new space entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Dr. Cozmuta holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and post-doctoral specializations in computational chemistry and material design from the California Institute of Technology respectively Genomics and Biotechnology from Stanford University.

After leading software research and development for over two decades, Jimi is the founder & CTO of Orbital Insight. Orbital Insight helps business and policy decision-makers understand economic and societal trends through geospatial analytics. His corporate focus is to develop artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision, creating a new source of market data for diverse industries.

Before a successful $1B Monsanto acquisition, Jimi was the SVP of Science and Engineering at the Climate Corporation. Prior to that, he was CTO and Software Architect at Moon Express whose goal was putting the first commercial robot on the moon. As the Engineering Director for Google Book Search, he was in charge of Google’s project to scan, index, and make searchable all the world’s books. As EVP of Engineering at Composite Software, he led product development around data visualization.

At Nasa Ames Research Center, Jimi led Autonomy and Robotics projects and authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications, resulting in five patents. Jimi earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and BA in Math and Computer Science from Rice University.

He has a long-term interest in photography which led him, most recently, to eastern Idaho to photograph the August total eclipse.

Viktor has been working on satellite systems engineering through various positions at EnduroSat for the past 6 years. He took the role of CTO in early 2021 and has been responsible for the company’s satellite-as-a-service and satellite hardware products portfolio since. His background in theoretical physics and numerical programming drives him towards formal descriptions and modelling of all technological aspects from the early mission phase to in-orbit operations. His previous role as a Mission Manager at the company has placed him in direct communication with many of EnduroSat’s customers, helping him to bridge the gap between technical and business needs.

Viktor holds a MSc in Theoretical Astrophysics from Sofia University of Bulgaria and is expected to acquire his PhD from the same university in early 2023. He is also a graduate of the Innovation & Growth program of Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mark Dankberg is Chairman of the Board and Executive Chairman of Viasat, Inc. He co-founded the Company in 1986, and held the position of CEO until he became Executive Chairman in November 2020.As Executive Chairman, Mark focuses on advancing the strategic technology and business direction of the Company, as well as shapes the national and global space and broadband regulatory environments that are critical to Viasat’s global strategy. Under his leadership as CEO, Viasat has consistently been one of America’s fastest growing technology companies, and has been recognized multiple times by leading business and industry publications including BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, DefenseNews, SpaceNews, and Washington Technology for its leadership.

Mark is an acknowledged industry expert in aerospace, defense, and satellite communications, and is the leading visionary for a new generation of high-capacity satellite systems. He has co-authored several military standards on satellite networking, and holds a number of patents in communications and satellite networking technologies. He has participated on Department of Defense advisory panels and was invited to testify before a Congressional committee on high technology growth companies and IPOs.

Mark Dankberg is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Viasat, Inc. He co-founded the company in 1986.

As CEO, Mark focuses on advancing the strategic technology and business direction of Viasat. He is responsible for the executive and operational leadership of the company, with an emphasis on building and growing a customer-centric organization that will continue to deliver compelling global services and products.

Under his leadership, Viasat has consistently been one of America’s fastest growing technology companies, and has been recognized multiple times by leading business and industry publications including BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, DefenseNews, SpaceNews, and Washington Technology for its leadership.

Mark is an acknowledged industry expert in aerospace, defense, and satellite communications, and is the leading visionary for a new generation of high-capacity satellite systems. He has co-authored several military standards on satellite networking, and holds a number of patents in communications and satellite networking technologies. He has participated on Department of Defense advisory panels and was invited to testify before a Congressional committee on high technology growth companies and IPOs.

Mark has received a number of awards for his industry and business leadership:

• 2022 San Diego Business Journal’s SD500 Leaders
• 2022 Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC) Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2018 CONNECT Entrepreneur Hall of Fame
• 2017 LEAD San Diego Economic Opportunity Award
• 2017 Elected a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
• 2016 Director of the Year Honoree by San Diego-based Corporate Directors Forum
• 2015 Society of Satellite Professionals Hall of Fame
• 2013 San Diego Business Journal Most Admired CEO Founders Award
• 2013 Arthur C. Clarke Foundation Industry Innovator
• 2012 Visionary Executive of the Year, Satellite Markets and Research
• 2008 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aerospace International Communications Award
• 2003 Satellite Industry Executive of the Year in 2003
• 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year in San Diego in 2000

Mark previously served as Executive Chairman of Viasat from November 2020 to June 2022, and as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer from Viasat’s inception in 1986 until November 2020. He currently serves on the board of directors of Lytx, Inc., a privately-held company that provides fleet safety management solutions, and was a founding member of the board of directors of the San Diego Telecom Council (now CommNexus), and served on the San Diego County Regional Economic Advisory Board.

Mark has been an invited speaker on communication technology, entrepreneurship, and executive management at several universities including Rice University, NYU, and University of California at San Diego. In addition, he has been invited to serve as a judge several times at the local and national levels for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program.

Prior to founding Viasat, Mark was Assistant Vice President of M/A-COM Linkabit, a manufacturer of satellite telecommunications equipment, from 1979 to 1986, and Communications Engineer for Rockwell International Corporation from 1977 to 1979.

He earned B.S. EE and M.S. EE degrees from Rice University and is a member of the Rice University Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame.

Bryn brings 40 years of experience in high-tech development to the MethaneSat team. He has an extensive background in electro-optical, electrical and software engineering.  In Bryn’s most recent role he served as System Architect at Lockheed Martin Space where he developed conceptual designs for new space system and executed advanced design studies.

Previous roles included Program Manager, Director of Software Engineering and Director of Systems Engineering.  Bryn spent six years on the SBIRS program as Director of Spacecraft Products, culminating in the successful launch and operations of SBIRS Flight Vehicle #1.

Bryn led the Systems Engineering effort for Lockheed Martin’s Commercial Space Programs during its transition after the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta.  Bryn has had multiple assignments as a subcontract manager, working with many of the leading companies, large and small, in the Aerospace and Defense sector.  During a hiatus in his career with Lockheed Martin, Bryn was the Senior Vice President for Development of a pre-IPO startup in the telecommunications industry, focused on high-capacity fiber-optic networking equipment.

Before joining Lockheed Martin, Bryn worked for GTE Sylvania Systems and Hughes Aircraft Company.  Bryn has a BS in Physics and an MSEE from UCLA.

Jai Dialani is the CEO and Managing Director for Leaf Space USA, a leader in ground segment services  for satellite operators and launch vehicles. Prior to joining Leaf Space, he was responsible for product management at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He led the launch of AWS Ground Station service in 2019, expanded their global network, managed customer onboarding and business development. Previously, Jai has held product management roles in various capacities at Iridium and Orbcomm leading maritime, land mobile, aerospace, cloud-based IoT platforms, and transportation asset tracking product portfolios. He has also created and successfully exited IoT-based startups. 

Matthew Erickson is SpiderOaks Vice President of Solutions guiding federal clients in applying zero trust and distributed ledger technologies to securing sensitive data, communications and hybrid space environments.

Joining SpiderOak in 2010 Matt is the architect of the companies initiative to expand the federal use case for blockchain in Hybrid Space, DoD and Intelligence.

In 2018 Matt was Executive Director of the Digital Privacy Alliance where he was responsible for bringing together sectors of the tech industry that respect user privacy enabling  them to speak with a single voice in legislatures across the country.

Dr Marco Esposito is Managing Director at cosine Remote Sensing.

Marco completed his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Naples, specializing in airborne remote sensing for air quality and land management. Having worked on various aerospace projects in Italy, most recently as coordinator of the Environmental Research Aircraft Lab of the Italian National Research Council, Marco moved to the Netherlands.

Marco spent almost 4 years at ESA ESTEC as calibration engineer first, in the science department working on EUV to IR sensors calibration for future planetary missions, and then as performance engineer in the Earth Observation department working on Sentinel 5 Precursor spectrometer TROPOMI.

Marco has been involved in a variety of research and development activities at cosine, all focusing on the miniaturization of optical instruments for Earth Observation and miniaturized suites of instruments for planetary exploration. Marco has been leading the development of space products including space Lidars for vegetation and bathymetry, as well as intelligent spectral imagers for EO from small satellites. He has produced more than 40 scientific publications, either as first author or as a co-author.

Having gained experience as system and performance engineer, project manager, program manager and team leader at cosine, Marco became managing director of cosine Remote Sensing as well as of the Italian branch of cosine.

Marco led the commercialization of the hyperspectral product line at cosine, the first ever miniaturized class of imagers able to connect hyperspectral, thermal imaging and artificial intelligence techniques in one compact solution for the Earth observation market.

Marco is currently leading the scale-up of the remote sensing business at cosine as well as the setup of the space factory for the series production of smart remote sensing instruments for Earth Observation.

Debra Facktor is the Head of U.S. Space Systems for AIRBUS U.S. Space & Defense, Inc., reporting to the Chairman and CEO of Airbus U.S. She joined the company in March 2020 and is responsible for managing the two businesses within U.S. Space Systems: National Security Space and Space Exploration. She also represents Airbus on the board of Airbus OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between Airbus and OneWeb operating a high-volume, high-speed satellite production facility in Florida, leveraging Airbus’ long standing heritage in satellite manufacturing.
Prior to joining Airbus U.S., Debra was Vice President and General Manager of Strategic Operations for Ball Aerospace, leading the company’s Washington DC operations, strategic development, and marketing and communications. Her extensive business experience includes serving as President and Owner of AirLaunch LLC, a small business that won funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning for Kistler Aerospace Corporation, a company that was developing a privately-funded reusable launch vehicle for the telecommunications satellite and International Space Station commercial resupply markets. Earlier in her career, Debra was Chief of Moscow Operations for ANSER’s Center for International Aerospace Cooperation.
Debra is actively engaged as a board member, advisor and mentor in the aerospace community, with organizations such as the Intelligence and National Security Association (INSA), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Future Space Leaders Foundation, Brooke Owens Fellowship Program, Women in Aerospace and the International Women’s Forum. She serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the University of Michigan aerospace engineering department and as an adjunct faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University systems engineering department. She is a fellow of AIAA and the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and an academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
Debra received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, and is an alumna of the International Space University summer session program in Strasbourg, France.

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.

• Tim Farrar has over 25 years consulting experience across the telecom and satellite industries, having worked for leading technical and strategy consultancies in both the UK and US. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, and since 2002 has run his own consulting company, Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, Inc., based in Menlo Park, CA, which specializes in the technical and financial analysis of wireless and satellite ventures. He was also President of the Mobile Satellite Users Association (MSUA) from 2006 to 2015 and from 2010 until 2014 served as an independent board member for NTS, Inc., a publicly traded CLEC, based in Lubbock, TX. Since September 2016 he has been an independent director of Marlink, the largest independent distributor of satellite services to the maritime industry.
• Over the last 20+ years, Tim has worked for numerous operators, suppliers and investors, including several prominent Silicon Valley companies, on market analysis, business planning, product requirements specification and due diligence assignments across the satellite and telecom sectors.

Feher’s professional career includes more than 18 years in business and technical leadership roles at Momentus, Maxar,and Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

As VP of Business Development at Momentus, she built up product development, sales and marketing from scratch and led revenue growth.

At Maxor, she co-founded a Strategic Ventures business unit to diversify offerings  and bridge products and services to emerging markets.

Feher earned an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University. She is passionate about expanding access to the aerospace industry.

Feher is currently the Chief Revenue Officer at SpaceRyde and  a board member of SSPI serving as the Co-Chair of the Elevating Women Committee. She remains an active advocate for diversity & inclusion, collaboration, and team building.

Fletcher Franklin is a space industry consultant at BryceTech, where he leads projects analyzing and forecasting space industry trends. Prior to joining BryceTech, Mr. Franklin was a government affairs consultant representing space companies ranging from small startups to established primes before Congress and the executive branch on space policy issues. Mr. Franklin holds extensive experience analyzing the intersection of the government and commercial space sectors, and has demonstrated expertise in the federal budget and procurement processes. He holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MA in Global Security Studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Declan Ganley is an entrepreneur and the founder, chairman & CEO of Rivada Networks, a leading innovator in market-driven wholesale wireless network sharing and provider of broadband communications services. Rivada Networks is sole owner of Rivada Space Networks, which is deploying a fully networked 600-satellite LEO constellation.

Declan is co-inventor of 48 patents in the wireless sector, including Rivada’s core Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage technology. Rivada’s DSA and tiered priority access patents enable the dynamic sharing of wireless networks, lowering barriers to entry and driving innovation in wireless.

Rivada Networks has provided award-winning emergency communication services in the US to customers including the Department of Homeland Security, US Northern Command, the National Guard and leading police forces.  Rivada has been in operation since 2004 and has continued to successfully grow its customer base and services in the US and elsewhere.  Rivada has offices in Co. Galway, Ireland, Munich, Germany, and Washington DC.

Declan was also founder of wireless broadband and cable TV businesses in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, including Broadnet, which operated broadband wireless networks in ten EU countries, and Cabletel, with a cable multimedia network in Eastern Europe.

Declan is married to Delia. They have 4 children.

Dennis founded LEOcloud to bring to market the first space-hardened, scalable, multi-cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  LEOcloud Space Edge IaaS will enable the lowest latency and highest security for AI and analytics applications hosted in LEO, the lunar region and beyond.  Multi-cloud services hosted in space will drive competitive and operational advantage for commercial, government and military organizations.

Prior to forming LEOcloud, Dennis was the Chief Commercial Officer for Cloud Constellation Corporation where he had global responsibilities for sales, marketing, channel management, and strategic alliances.

With 35 years of experience in terrestrial, avionics and space-based technology, solutions and managed services, he has a track record of bringing emerging technologies to market for managed services working with global partners and service providers to introduce next generation solutions into their communications and cloud service offerings.

Dennis was recognized with a Certificate of Achievement from Boeing for his contributions and efforts on the Boeing 777 development program.

Mr. Gatens earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and his MBA from Radford University.

Tina is Mynaric’s Chief Commercial Officer, as well as the President of Mynaric USA. An aerospace industry veteran with 20 years’ experience in airborne and satellite communication and connectivity, Tina’s career has taken in senior roles at Yahsat, Panasonic Avionics, and The Boeing Company.

Tina has additionally helped shape connectivity strategies at Airbus and Thales, as well as at new space satellite start-ups. Tina manages all customer-facing activities, ensuring the launch of our products in the various geographical and industrial target markets.

As Vice President of Strategy at Omnispace, George Giagtzoglou is responsible for developing corporate strategy, market and competitive intelligence, and supporting strategic partner development initiatives for the company that is redefining mobile communications.

Previously, George was the President of Alazo Consulting. In this role he delivered expert satellite industry insights to support strategic investments and acquisitions. The company serves companies seeking to invest in satellite communications, satellite operators, satellite industry vendors, banks, bondholders with satellite industry debt, private equity firms, and satellite bandwidth customers seeking to restructure their business.

George was also previously the head of Corporate Development at ABS Global with responsibilities including corporate development, corporate & regional strategy, business planning, market intelligence, satellite business case development, and financing.

Prior to ABS he was with Intelsat for 11 years as the head of Corporate Strategy & Planning and also led Corporate Development, Global Marketing, Product Strategy & Development, and Business Development.  Mr. Giagtzoglou was instrumental in various company sale processes in 2005 and 2008, and the acquisition of PanAmSat in 2006.  He played a key role in developing and commercializing the company’s capabilities, primarily in the area of broadband services.

Prior to joining Intelsat in 2000, Mr. Giagtzoglou’s career in the space and telecommunications industry included engagement leadership positions in the telecommunications practice of A.T. Kearney Management Consultants, and senior engineering and business management positions at Telstra (Australia).

Mr. Giagtzoglou has a master’s degree in Business Administration from The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), in addition to a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

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.

Katherine is the Chief Executive Officer for ManSat which specializes in international spectrum regulation and market access.  Before joining ManSat, Katherine worked with U.S. defense contractors to bring commercial satellite and terrestrial communication technologies to austere environments in support of military, diplomatic, first responder, and commercial initiatives.

Katherine serves as Chairwoman of Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), mentors entrepreneurs through the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, and supports the ITU’s Girls in ICT initiative.

A graduate of the International Space University’s Executive program, Katherine holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

Lori Gordon, MPA, PMP is a Systems Director in the Corporate Chief Engineer’s Office at The Aerospace Corporation, leading national security, cybersecurity, and infrastructure protection and resilience enterprise integration initiatives for the space enterprise. With almost two decades of experience in the Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) and private sector communities, she has advised a range of federal agencies in initiatives to accelerate technology innovation in complex systems while mitigating national security and civil space enterprise risk. Ms. Gordon is a Partner with Aerospace’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy (CSPS) and a Fellow at the National Security Institute (NSI), and has served on several curriculum advisory boards in cybersecurity and information technology, law and government, and resilient design. Ms. Gordon holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Dr. Burke Greer is Director of Product at Edgybees, a cutting-edge company making aerial video and satellite imagery data more accurate and harmonized through ML/AI. 

 Burke has been working within the geospatial industry for almost 20 years. Previously he was Chief Science Officer at Geosite, a YC-backed startup in Palo Alto, California. Here Burke was responsible for using data science to help insurance companies navigate a changing world under climate change and increasing natural catastrophes, among other R&D initiatives. His past work in plant science in Agriculture and Forestry, and his years of everyday geospatial science work taught him how harmonized data is key to success in mapping and ML-based projects.  

 Dr. Greer graduated from the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan, received a Master’s in Geography from UC Santa Barbara, and achieved his PhD at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. 

Jeromy is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rogue Space Systems Corporation.  He started his career in the US Army, where he specialized in missile guidance systems for both ground and air defense platforms. Since then, he’s attended Harvard University’s School of Extension Studies where he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Government and International Relations, respectively.

After founding and running a successful technology services company, Jeromy founded Rogue Space Systems Corporation in 2020 and brought his expertise in AI, tech, and robotics to advance space systems, orbital vehicles, and space services.

Ward Hanson analyzes the economics and marketing of new technology.    Other areas of interest include the role of competition, policy issues involving the evolving role of interactivity, optimal product line pricing, and the emergence of the commercial space industry.  As a pioneer in studying the commercialization and impact of the Internet, he has published research articles, a leading text, and created online courses on Internet marketing. He has served as an expert witness in areas of patent validity, e-commerce, Internet advertising, and industry analysis. He has recently published a number of articles on the economics of new space and serves on the editorial board of the New Space journal.

Dr. Hanson has taught at Stanford since 1995, first at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, then at the Department of Economics and the Public Policy program as part of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Previous faculty positions include Purdue University and the University of Chicago.  He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Dr. Shay Har-Noy (Shy) is the Chief Executive Officer of Edgybees, a cutting edge company making aerial video and satellite imagery more accurate through ML/AI.

Shay has extensive experience as an executive at leading satellite companies Spire and DigitalGlobe/Maxar. At DigitalGlobe/Maxar, he was responsible for their Platform business — their high growth effort to get DigitalGlobe’s 15 year digital library in the cloud and available for ML/AI. He also saw first hand the importance of accuracy in large scale automation through his experience at Uber leading the product group responsible for detecting and fixing map errors in real time.

Dr. Har-Noy graduated summa cum laude from Rice University and received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering with research in image processing from UC-San Diego.

Over the course of his career, Dan has served in senior leadership roles across a wide range of aerospace programs, spanning human spaceflight, satellite development, launch, and missile defense, and running through all phases of the aerospace product life cycle, from research and development through design, production, and spaceflight operations.

Dan currently serves as President and CEO for Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s pioneering commercial space firm, which launches small satellites into space from a rocket carried under the wing of a modified Boeing 747. It is Virgin’s contribution to the massive transformation going on in space technology, and has the clear goal of opening access to space to improve life on Earth.

Dan joined Virgin Orbit after more than three decades of aerospace leadership at the Boeing Company, where he most recently served as Vice President of Government Satellite Systems. In that position, he oversaw Boeing’s government satellite programs, developing and managing missions for the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA, and other national programs. Dan’s portfolio included marquee programs such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Wideband Global SATCOM, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) system, and the X-37 spaceplane.

Outside of Virgin Orbit, Dan serves on the U.S. Investment Advisory Council (IAC), which advices the Secretary of Commerce on the development and implementation of strategies and programs to attract and retain foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States. Additionally, in early 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom selected Dan to join the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery, which works to develop actions government and businesses can take to help Californians recover from the COVID-19 induced recession.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the State University of New York at Albany and attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. He is a passionate and committed advocate for STEM education, and serves on the Executive Board of the California Science Center, as well as the Dean’s Advisory Council for California State University, Long Beach’s College of Engineering

Aaron Hawkins serves as the Director for Viasat’s Real-Time Earth (RTE) Ground-Segment-as-a-Service (GSaaS) business area. He is charged with enabling the network’s global expansion, strategic business development, and creating innovative solutions to enhance the RTE customer experience.  Aaron has also led business development efforts within Viasat’s Antenna Systems full-motion antenna business area.

Aaron brings over 17 years of defense and commercial aerospace experience. He started his professional career as a national security representative within the executive branch of the United States government where he led efforts domestically and internationally to confront transnational threats through engagement with allied partners, often utilizing geospatial tools.

David holds an engineering and corporate strategy degree from Ecole Polytechnique, the leading university for science in France. He completed his education with a Master Degree from the University of Cambridge in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management. David has experience in the French Air Force and has been working at Swiss Space Systems, a New Space start-up which designed a suborbital launcher for small satellites. He had an engineering role in the Propulsion department. He then worked in a Corporate Venture Capital (ENGIE New Ventures). David founded Exotrail in 2015. The company has the mission to provide agility to space, with miniaturized electric propulsion systems and mission design & operation solutions for small satellites. Exotrail now employs more than 20 people in Paris region and in Toulouse and has raised more than 6M€ to date. David is President & CEO of Exotrail and leads Exotrail’s vision and global execution.

Brian has over 35 years of experience in progressive space system engineering and program management. He has led large multi-disciplinary teams that have developed complex commercial and government space systems with state-of-the-art technology.

From managing $1B project costs to raising equity and supporting multi-faceted boards, Brian’s expertise ranges across the spectrum. Previously, he has built two start-up companies from the ground-up. Being one of the foremost team members and the CTO of O3b Networks, he was instrumental in delivering all its technical systems through the start of service. He headed OneWeb Satellites as its CEO for the first two years and helped raise the initial capital. At OneWeb, he was directly responsible for setting up the joint venture with Airbus Defense and Space, with operations both in the US and France.

Brian holds a B.S in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech, where he currently serves on the department’s advisory board. He also has an M.S in Space Systems Engineering from George Washington University.

An outdoor person, he loves exploring new places and finds joy in cooking for family and friends.

Phillip (Phil) is a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2002 as an Analyst in the firm’s Melbourne, Australia, office. In 2004, he relocated to the New York office where he joined the Global Industrials Group. Phil specializes in the coverage of Aerospace & Defense, Security and General Industrial companies and has worked on a variety of M&A and capital markets transactions for clients across these industries.

Notable space-related transactions include the IPO of MDA, the SPAC merger of Rocket Lab with Vector Acquisition Corp, Harris Corporation’s acquisition of Exelis and its merger-of-equals with L3 Technologies, and debt and equity financings for several commercial and government-customer focused space companies including Virgin Galactic, Maxar and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Phil is a passionate supporter of the space community outside of the work environment, most notably as an executive mentor under the Mathew Isakowitz Fellowship Program and as a member of the ASCEND Guiding Coalition. Phil graduated from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons). During and after his years at university, he served as an Infantry Officer in the Australian Army Reserve. Phil currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Laura and their four daughters.

Talbot Jaeger is founder, chief technologist and vanguard developer and provider of New Space products and services at NovaWurks™ Inc., comprised of visionary and inventive teams of pioneering engineers, software architects and technicians that are delivering “Superior Space Logistics and Exquisite Game-Changing Operations for Everyone” and enabling new solutions for energy, ecology, and exploration.

Jaeger’s vision of “cellularized” satellite technology has led to the development of the SLEGO™ architecture and his patented Hyper-Integrated Satlet, or HISat™. The biologically inspired HISat has all the attributes of a traditional satellite compressed into a building block form factor but with advanced aggregation and conformity capabilities which enable multiple HISats to “wrap” around and support payloads and systems of any type. HISat cellularization revolutionizes the space industry by drastically decreasing the time and cost of creating traditional & new spacecraft, by opening the NewSpace market segment to enable commercial and government users with affordable OSAM spacecraft, and by using an open architecture that is applicable at all levels of users.

Jaeger has successfully managed and directed cutting-edge aerospace project concepts, systems engineering, ground and 14 end-to-end spaceflight operations including the Mayflower propulsive CubeSat, launched onboard SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 rocket.  Jaeger began his career at TRW as a draftsman and electrical engineer, later turning next-generation instrument, payload, and spacecraft developer.  Jaeger’s career includes stints as the lead of vehicle design and concept developments at Scaled Composites, as chief architect for the initial phases of the System F6 program, and as Director of Innovation at Northrop Grumman.  Jaeger has degrees in biochemistry, information computer science, and electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He also holds a professional graduate certificate in optical sciences from the University of Arizona.

As Director of Spectrum and Standards for EchoStar Corporation, Munira’s focus is on advancing satellite technology to be part of the next generation of integrated networks across the 5G ecosystem. In this capacity Munira plays an active role at 3GPP and other forums in contributing to and advocating for non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to be included in the 5G specifications and its evolution towards 6G. Along with others satellite stakeholders, Munira helped lead the successful effort to gain approval for work items leading to the completion of NTN-NR and NTN-IoT specifications in 3GPP Rel-17. Prior to EchoStar, Munira served as a senior advisor developing business and technical strategy for the design and execution of deployment plans for FirstNet, the US nationwide public safety LTE broadband network, incorporating both terrestrial and non-terrestrial solutions.

Earlier in her career Munira held various key positions with telecom and technology organizations including Sprint Nextel, Lockheed Martin, and LCC International. Her roles included managing and participating in numerous wireless deployment and spectrum management projects. Munira is currently Chair of the Standards Working Group of Global Satellite Operator Association (GSOA) https://gsoasatellite.com. She received her MBA from the George Washington University and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She also holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute.

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.

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.

George John ensures regulations do not disrupt innovation and investment for established and emerging technologies particularly in the aerospace, telecommunications, sports, medical, and mobility industries.

Technologies empowering satellite connectivity, smartphone downloads, the monitoring of ball trajectory and speed or athlete biometrics at sporting events, real-time telehealth applications, and drone deliveries encounter U.S. and international regulation.

Operators of these and similar platforms regularly rely on George to navigate related legal, policy, and technical challenges. He advises clients on radiofrequency (RF) spectrum use, orbital debris mitigation, and remote sensing licensing while engaging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, national administrations outside the United States, and international standards bodies, including the International Telecommunication Union. Those interactions have helped him shape and streamline regulations on RF spectrum, the safety and sustainability of space, and Earth imagery; negotiate RF spectrum rights at international fora; and complete associated due diligence for venture-capital and private-equity investments.

Before joining Hogan Lovells, George served as in-house regulatory and transactional counsel for a pioneering nanosatellite company, where he secured satellite, earth station, and remote sensing licenses and negotiated satellite launch and insurance agreements. Other previous stops include the FCC’s International Bureau Satellite Division, where he tackled satellite and earth station licensing and rulemakings, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Chief Counsel, where he undertook commercial space launch, reentry, launch site operation, and other aviation regulation projects.

Outside of work, George actively mentors young lawyers and others interested in space, telecommunications, and technology.

Dr. Clemens Kaiser brings along more than 20 years of experience in the space business. Between 1999 and 2013 he served as a Managing Director / COO at Kayser-Threde GmbH, a systems house specialized in high-technology solutions for aerospace and science, where he was responsible for the development of  KAP (Kayser-Threde Arianespace Platform). From 2014 – 2018, Kaiser was Director Programme Development at EUMETSAT, an intergovernmental organization founded supplying weather and climate-related satellite data, where he was involved into the sentinel 3 program.

Clemens has an in-depth knowledge of system engineering and program management for the development of complex operational space-based infrastructures.

Mike Kaplan is a leader in the space arena with an impressive track record of building diverse teams that achieve powerful results. He is a visionary thought leader with extensive experience in government and commercial industries, previously holding senior leadership positions at NASA, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, Ball Aerospace, Space Systems Loral, and Belcan.

Mike has led teams in the development of new space technologies, including highly complex payloads, spacecraft subsystems, spacecraft buses, planetary landers, and robotic satellite servicers. He’s also contributed his expertise to entire missions from LEO to deep space in the civil, commercial, and national security arenas. Recently, his focus has been on proliferated LEO constellations to revolutionize weather prediction.

Mike earned a bachelor’s in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences/Engineering Physics at Princeton University and a master’s in Electrophysics at The George Washington University.

Casey is a business development manager at Kongsberg NanoAvionics, a global prime provider of wide-applicability End-to-End small satellite constellation technology, including full scale of satellite mission services – satellite design, manufacturing, assembly, payload integration, testing campaign, launch brokerage, logistics and finally – mission operations and data delivery to a customer. Responsible for NanoAvionics business development and partnerships in USA, Canada and Mexico, Casey is well equipped with the knowledge about space technology developments in the region, and existing ecosystems of emerging upstream and downstream players.

Karl A. Kensinger is the Chief of the Satellite Division of the Federal Communications Commission’s International Bureau.  Mr. Kensinger’s experience and expertise covers a broad range of satellite policy and licensing matters, including licensing of small satellites and satellite constellations, international coordination of satellite networks, radio spectrum policy, and transfers of FCC licenses.  He has been a primary FCC point of contact on orbital debris matters since 1995. Mr. Kensinger is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Chicago.

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.

Mr. Letarte is a Vice President at AE Industrial and is primarily focused on origination, transaction due diligence, executing new investments, and monitoring portfolio investments. Mr. Letarte has helped lead AE Industrial’s recent space investments in York Space Systems, Redwire, Firefly Aerospace, and Sierra Space. Additional active investments at AE Industrial include Belcan, BigBear.ai, Resolute Industrial and Kellstrom Aerospace. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of AE Industrial portfolio company Belcan. Prior to joining AE Industrial in 2018, Mr. Letarte was an investment banker at Moelis & Company for 5 years, where he focused on M&A, restructuring and strategic corporate advisory across a broad spectrum of industries including aerospace and defense. Prior to joining Moelis, Mr. Letarte was in J.P. Morgan’s Leveraged Finance Group, where he provided debt capital solutions and acquisition financing. During his career, Mr. Letarte has completed over $50 billion of mergers and acquisitions across 60+ transactions and assisted in over $100 billion of debt financings.

Janna is a senior attorney and technology strategist focused on national defense, intelligence, and commercial space sectors. She has unique, cross-sector expertise in guiding programs and technology development for U.S. government and commercial initiatives, including engagements directed to launch services, satellite communications, unmanned vehicles, C5ISR sensors and network architectures, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, Janna was with Northrop Grumman, where she facilitated innovation and strategic collaborations for their Missions Systems Sector to advance defense and intelligence capabilities. Prior to that, Janna worked for Facebook, where she supported Facebook’s mission to enable global internet connectivity. She helped to frame industry partnerships to catalyze delivery of space-based and high-altitude global connectivity solutions. Before Facebook, Janna was in private legal practice, where she served as legal counsel to U.S. and international clients in the aerospace and defense, commercial space, and telecommunications industries.

Janna is a volunteer with the Space Foundation, served on the Defense Innovation Board, Space Advisory Committee, and is a registered patent attorney. She frequently speaks about the rapidly evolving laws and policies affecting the defense, intelligence, and commercial space industries. Janna is committed to diversity in the space industry, and is a strong advocate for new space professionals.

Jarmo Lindberg is a retired Finnish general and former Chief of Defence,the highest ranking officer of the Finnish Defence Forces, from 2014 to 2019. Lindberg began his career as a fighter pilot, and was promoted to Commander of the Finnish Air Force in 2008 and then Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics and Armaments in the Defence Command in 2012.

When American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets were purchased to become the frontline fighter jets for the Finnish Air Force in the 90´s, Lindberg attended a seven-month US Navy F/A–18 Hornet training course in Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. Since then, Gen. Lindberg has been liaising on many levels with the US Air Forces and Pentagon on various aerial and long-range weapons systems acquisitions, programs and bi-lateral collaboration.

Currently, retired from active duty, Gen. Lindberg is a board professional and advisor for Finnish hyperspectral satellite company, Kuva Space.

Whitney Lohmeyer is a leading satellite communications industry advisor, serves on the faculty at Olin College of Engineering and is a Research Affiliate at MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics. At Olin, she directs the Olin Satellite + Spectrum Technology & Policy (OSSTP) Group – managing a team of more than twenty undergraduates who collaboratively contribute to the technical and regulatory field of satellite communications systems – and she also works closely with industry to advise on end-to-end system design, antenna systems, radiation tolerance and spectrum strategy.

Whitney is passionate about enabling affordable Internet access in order to improve agriculture, healthcare and education. As the first engineer hired at OneWeb, a company launching hundreds of low earth orbit communications satellites to provide global broadband and bridge the digital divide, she held a variety of roles both technical and policy-focused. In her role as a Systems Engineer, she designed the RF Link Budget, focusing on the LTE waveform and the user terminal antenna. In addition, she actively contributed to policy reform at the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United Nations (UN) International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and represented OneWeb on the U.S. Delegation to the 2015 World Radio Conference, the culmination of a three-year regulatory review cycle.

Since her time at OneWeb, she has advised more than twenty-five satellite companies on technical, financial, and regulatory related matters – including but not limited to the management and drafting of Experimental and Part 25 FCC Market Access Filings.  Prior to joining the OneWeb team, she worked as a hardware engineer at Google, and spent time in technical roles at Inmarsat and NASA. Whitney received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2015, and her M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2013, both funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. She earned her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from NC State University in 2011, as the only female in her class of approximately ninety students, and now serves on the board of North Carolina State University’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department. She has been invited to speak at a variety of events including New America, NC State’s 2018 MAE Commencement Ceremony, the UN Women’s Gender Equality and Mainstreaming (GEM) The Internet of Women: Challenge or Opportunity? and the UN’s and ITU’s Women’s Leadership Workshop on Empowering Women in Radiocommunications Negotiations.

Pam Lugos is currently the Senior VP at CPI Satcom Products responsible for global business development. Pam joined CPI in 1993 and has held various roles in Product Management, Worldwide Service and Customer support, Program Management of New Product Development and Business Development. She has 25 years of experience in the Satcom ground equipment segment specific to amplifiers and amplifier technology. Pam received her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo in Industrial Technology and her MBA from Santa Clara University.

Campbell Marshall currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Skyloom Global Corp., a telecommunications company founded with the mission to develop, deploy, and operate one of the fundamental pieces of tomorrow’s space communication infrastructure to provide data transport services on a planetary scale.

Prior to joining Skyloom, Campbell was part of the executive leadership team at Omnispace, where he successfully built and led their government and military-focused business, as well as played a key role in market expansion from the company’s inception.

Previously he was part of the small investment team at the Xerion Fund, a special situations hedge fund within Perella Weinberg Partners Asset Management in New York with over $3 billion under management. Prior to that, Campbell served as a Counterterrorism Operations Officer in the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service, conducting successful operations and liaising with partner services around the globe. Previously, as a key aide to U.S. Trade Representative and later Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick in the George W. Bush administration, he worked closely with trade delegations, foreign ministers, and heads of state to achieve landmark trade deals. Campbell also worked in key strategy and policy roles for both the George W. Bush and Jon Huntsman Jr. presidential campaigns, as well as on the 2000 White House Transition Team.

Campbell received a Master’s in Business Administration in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also pursued a Masters of International Studies at the Lauder Institute. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy from Duke University. He is a member of the Meridian International Center’s Rising Leaders Council, and a “Young Atlanticist” with the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. He is fluent in Spanish.

Dr. Martin joined Astroscale U.S. in August 2019 as SVP of Operations and Programs. She brings many years of space technology management, operations, and engineering expertise to the Astroscale team.

Dr. Martin previously held the position of the Director, Orbital Solutions at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). She was responsible for the management and technical performance of the engineering staff and delivery of projects, including planning and managing technical and programmatic solutions to ensure quality, business, and financial objectives were met.

Prior to joining GA-EMS, Dr. Martin was the Chief Operating Officer at Surrey Satellite Technology US, where she led the Surrey project management and engineering teams. As a member of the Surrey Satellite US executive team, Dr. Martin managed the bidding, negotiation, and execution of projects, and was responsible for ensuring the company’s cost-effective methods were appropriately applied to the execution of programs.

Dr. Martin joined Surrey Satellite US from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the United Kingdom, where she held several positions including the Head of Telecommunications and Navigation business unit, encompassing the Galileo payload programme. Prior to Surrey, Dr. Martin was a project manager and scientist at QinetiQ.

Dr. Martin earned a Master of Science in astrophysics and a Doctorate in mathematics and computational sciences from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Michael C. Morgan, Ph.D. is the assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction. In this role, Dr. Morgan is responsible for providing agency-wide direction with regard to weather, water, climate, and ocean observations, including in situ instruments and satellites, and the process of converting observations to predictions for environmental threats.

Dr. Morgan has more than 25 years of demonstrated scientific leadership. Prior to joining NOAA, he had most recently served as a professor and associate department chair in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his research was focused on the analysis, diagnosis, prediction, and predictability of mid-latitude and tropical weather systems.

In addition to his roles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Morgan recently served on the World Meteorological Organization World Weather Research Programme’s Scientific Steering Committee. In addition, he recently served as a member of the board of directors of the American Institute of Physics and as chair of their Public Policy Advisory Committee. He also recently completed two terms on the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Dr. Morgan has previously served as the division director for the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at the National Science Foundation, and as an AMS/UCAR congressional science fellow, working in the office of U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (MD) as a senior legislative fellow on energy and environmental issues.

Dr. Morgan is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He earned his S.B. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Before founding Cailabs in 2013, Jean-François Morizur was Senior Associate at the Boston Consulting Group in their Paris office. Jean-François holds two doctorate degrees in quantum optics from the Sorbonne University and the Australian National University and is a graduate of the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. 

Ahsun Murad is the President and CEO of Optimal Satcom, which he co-founded as a spin-off from Lockheed Martin and Comsat in 2002. Over the last 18 years since its founding, Optimal Satcom has grown to support a large segment of the satellite industry with products and customized solutions that help its customers run their business – over 15 satellite operators, 20 of the largest satellite service providers, and major US Government DoD and civilian agencies use Optimal Satcom products and systems today. As a world expert in satellite communications technology, Mr. Murad advises satellite companies and governmental agencies on satellite system design, application of emerging technologies, and formulating policy decisions.

Mr. Murad has worked for over 25 years in various positions across the satellite communications industry. Immediately before founding Optimal Satcom, he held management positions at Lockheed Martin and COMSAT Laboratories. In these positions, he headed the development of products for transmission planning and satellite capacity management and was the lead system architect for a number of commercial SATCOM and MILSATCOM projects. Before joining COMSAT Laboratories, Mr. Murad worked at the NASA Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks where he was involved in research and development related to hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile communications systems, and complex multi-satellite systems. Mr. Murad graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.

• Armand Musey President and Founder of Summit Ridge Group. He has over 15 years of equity research, investment banking, and consulting experience. Armand has completed dozens of financial valuation, strategic analysis, business development, corporate governance, and business plan creation assignments in the communications industry and has experience working on numerous financing and M&A transactions. His projects include leading Summit Ridge Group’s support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust division’s review of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Armand’s involvement with a wide breadth of companies has allowed him to develop a deep understanding of a range of media and telecom issues and the complex web of relationships underlying the sector’s competitive dynamics and associated regulatory issues. His legal background allows him to understand the heavily regulated telecom sector. During litigation support assignments, Armand’s legal background also allows him to quickly digest legal documents and identify industry issues likely to be most relevant to the legal team he supports.
• Prior to founding Summit Ridge Group, Armand led the satellite industry research teams for Banc of America Securities, and later Solomon Smith Barney where he also covered the wireless tower industry. He earned numerous honors as a research analyst including being named to the Institutional Investor “All American” team three times (2000-2002) and the Wall Street Journal “All-Star” team. He was ranked as the top satellite industry analyst by Greenwich Associates. He was previously president of a boutique investment bank specializing in the satellite, media, and telecom industries.

Sunil Nagaraj is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ubiquity Ventures, a seed-stage institutional venture capital firm with close to $100 million under management and a focus on “software beyond the screen”® startups. This includes B2B technology companies that utilize smart hardware or machine learning to solve business problems outside the reach of computers and smartphones. By transforming real-world physical problems into the domain of software, Ubiquity startups tap into large greenfield markets and offer more effective solutions.

Sunil currently serves on the boards of Esper, Halter, Kinetic, Parallel Domain, PAXAFE, Safehub, Sensable, ThruWave and other undisclosed investments.

Prior to founding Ubiquity Ventures, Sunil spent six years as a venture capitalist with Bessemer Venture Partners where his work included leading the seed and Series A rounds of Auth0 (acquired by Okta) and Zapier as well as investments in Defense.Net (acquired by F5 Networks), Rainforest QA, Rocket Lab, Spire, Tile, and Twitch (acquired by Amazon). Prior to being an investor, Sunil was founder/CEO of Triangulate, a VC-backed online dating startup using machine learning and behavioral data to improve matching accuracy. He has also worked at Bain & Company, Cisco, and Microsoft.

Sunil holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (the largest general astronomy education society in the world with past Presidents including Edwin Hubble and Frank Drake). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School California Research Center and as an Alumni Advisor to the Harvard MS/MBA program. He spends his free time playing piano, sailing, and nerding out on new technologies.

As leader of the firm’s Transportation and Space Group in Washington, D.C., Dara Panahy’s practice involves representation of satellite and space infrastructure operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications and data services companies, banks, private equity firms, hedge funds and other investors in debt and equity offerings, project, structured and vendor financings, corporate matters, mergers & acquisitions, financial restructurings, and in negotiating commercial contracts. He also advises on regulatory, risk management, sanctions, anti-corruption, national security and export control matters.

Lawrence (Larry) Paul is the VP of Corporate Business Development at Inmarsat based in Washington, DC. Larry has worked in the satellite industry for 20+ years in senior roles at Airbus, Vizada, Telenor Satellite Services, Lockheed Martin, and Comsat. He started his career in the satellite hardware team at Mitsubishi International. Larry’s responsibilities have ranged from business development to product management to capture and proposals in both the commercial and government satellite service markets. Larry has worked with most of the world’s major satellite operators.

Michael Pavloff has been in the space business for 35 years, working in satellite and launcher products for commercial, international and US Government customers.  In the early part of his career, Mike served as chief engineer and program manager on a number of US Government programs for Boeing and Raytheon.  He also served as executive director at Maxar, managing a number of European contracts in the GEO telecom world.

More recently, Mike has served as CTO of RUAG Space (now Beyond Gravity) and OneWeb Satellites.  In his role as VP Strategic Solutions at Terran Orbital, he is responsible for developing new satellite architectures and industrialization plans for constellations and serial production, as well as technology roadmaps required to support those architectures.  Mike has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard and a master’s degree in aero and astro engineering from MIT.

Dave Pechner has over 35 years of experience developing and delivering complex communications and sensing systems for both commercial and military markets. His background includes system architecture and system engineering, DSP algorithm design, high speed FPGA and digital hardware design, and project management.  Mr. Pechner was Chief Technology Officer at SA Photonics for 12 years before they were acquired by CACI Inc at the end of 2021.  In this role, Dave drove the system level design of SA Photonics’ free-space optical communication systems for terrestrial, airborne and space applications.

Prior to joining SA Photonics, Mr. Pechner held positions at ArrayComm, where he developed smart antenna MIMO and Beamforming solutions for 4G wireless systems, at Terayon where he worked on cable modem head end equipment, at Kestrel Solutions where he matured optical communication systems, at Applied Signal Technology where he developed signal collection and analysis systems, and Lockheed Martin, where he worked on optical systems. Mr. Pechner received an MSEE from Stanford University with a focus on digital communications and signal processing and a BSEE from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo.

Chris is the president of Quilty Analytics, an independent research and consulting firm that provides strategy, competitive benchmarking, financial analysis, and investment diligence on all aspects of the Satellite & Space industry.

Prior to establishing Quilty Analytics in 2016, Chris served as a sell-side research analyst with Raymond James for 20 years, publishing hundreds of company-specific, macro, sector, and thematic research reports on the industrial, defense, space, wireless, and communications industries. Chris is widely-acknowledged as the leading Wall Street analyst on the Satellite & Space sector and has participated in 30 capital markets transactions over the past five years valued at over $2.5 billion

Chris received a BS degree in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1989 and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1994.

Giulio is CEO of Avio SpA since October 2015. He is also a board member of Arianespace SA, Europropulsion SA and Regulus SA in France. In 2016 he founded In-Orbit SpA, and investment vehicle through which he co-invested with 50 Avio managers, acquiring a 4% share of Avio’s capital. In 2017 he listed Avio on the Milan Stock Exchange on the STAR segment with over 70% free float.

From 2011 to 2015 he was Senior Vice President Corporate Strategy of the Avio Group and worked on the de-merger of the aero-engine business, which was sold to General Electric in 2013. In 2014-2015 he supported the post-merger integration with GE Aviation.

Between 2007 and 2011 he was Co-General Manager and CFO of the Italian activities of Cementir Holding, an international group operating in the building materials industry.

Giulio started his career in Booz Allen Hamilton, a global strategy consulting firm where he worked in the period 2000-2007 as Associate, Senior Associate and Principal within the Global Aerospace&Defense practice for several clients in Europe, US and Middle East.

Giulio holds a Laurea cum laude in Civil Engineering from the University of Rome and a PhD in Structural Engineering from a joint program between the University of Rome and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Between 1996 and 1999 he was a Graduate Research Assistant and Development Engineer at the University of California San Diego and he has co-authored a number of scientific publications on international journals in the domain of Structural Engineering.

Giulio was born in Rome in 1971, he is married and he has two children.

Mr. Reed is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Quantum Space LLC, a commercial space company dedicated advancing humanity’s journey to the stars – focused on safe, reliable and efficient space travel further from earth.

Prior to Quantum, Mr. Reed served as Vice President Engineering for IBX – an innovation and investment firm.

In 2018 he served as Director Civil Space Policy for the National Space Council, Executive Office of the President.

Mr. Reed worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for 22 years, his final role being Chief of Exploration and In-Space Services Division. He was lead materials engineer on the last three Hubble Servicing Missions.

Ryan Reid is President of Boeing Commercial Satellite Systems International, Inc. (BSSI), which oversees the strategy, integration and execution of Boeing’s commercial satellite business. Reid is responsible for general management of all Boeing commercial satellite, ground system and services contracts. Reid also leads the team that is designing and building the next generation of spacecraft in the Boeing satellite factory.

Prior to his current position, Reid was the director of the O3b mPOWER satellite program where he led the Boeing team responsible for the development and execution of an advanced 11-satellite constellation for SES.

Previously Reid was the director of Space System Architectures, where he led the engineering team responsible for cybersecurity implementation in space applications, architecture modeling, simulation, analysis, system development and deployment. Since joining Boeing in 1999 as a payload systems engineer supporting commercial satellite programs, Reid has held engineering, management and program leadership roles across both commercial and government businesses.

Reid received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from University of California Riverside and a master of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.

Steve Richeson joined Mission Microwave in 2017 and is responsible for the company’s global sales and marketing. He has over 30 years of Satellite and Radio Frequency (RF) experience in engineering and executive roles across the wireless and satellite communications industry including positions at Harris Corporation, EchoStar, Scientific-Atlanta, GTE Spacenet International, Radiation Systems SATCOM Technologies, and Schlumberger. As a Schlumberger Field Engineer Steve launched the LOGNET service in the Gulf of Mexico with a portable VSAT terminal on a semi-submersible drilling platform – in 1986. This was the first commercial mobile VSAT system. Steve is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Registered Professional Engineer. He earned his engineering degree at Georgia Tech and an MBA at Georgia State University.

Christopher Richins is Founder and CEO of RBC Signals, a provider of global satellite communication “infrastructure as a service.” Richins began his career as an RF Communications Engineer at Boeing Sea Launch, where he supported multiple launch campaigns from the ship-based equatorial launch site. After business school, he completed an internship with SpaceX before joining Bain & Company as a management consultant. Post Bain, Richins held management roles at Arkyd Astronautics (Planetary Resources), Space Angels Network, Expedia, and Applause. Richins earned an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Fellow, a master’s degree in Astronautics from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University.  

Noel Rimalovski is a Managing Director at GH Partners, an independent New York-based investment banking firm. Mr. Rimalovski leads the firm’s representation of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, debt financings, and strategic advisory services to domestic and international clients. At GH, Mr. Rimalovski specializes in the telecom, media, technology, space and defense sectors.

Prior to joining GH, Mr. Rimalovski was with Macquarie Capital, Wasserstein Perella, and Lazard Frères.

Mr. Rimalovski graduated from Tufts College and received an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Even “Jolly” (U.S. Air Force (USAF) call sign) Rogers is the co-founder and chief executive officer of True Anomaly, a venture-backed space technology startup providing superior capabilities for a secure and sustainable space environment to protect the interests of the United States, its allies, and other Liberal Democracies.

Prior to co-founding True Anomaly, Even served as an officer in the USAF for nearly a decade, leading interdisciplinary teams of space operators, scientists, and engineers to develop and evaluate the operational performance of military systems and tactics designed to protect U.S. and allied assets in orbit.

Even is the author of seminal texts that serve as the U.S. military’s foundation for tactical operations in space, including Spacepower: Doctrine for Space Forces and six other publications. He has held leadership positions in space system Developmental and Operational Test, training, spacecraft operations, and Joint Fires–providing key insights into the practices needed to successfully deploy space security satellites and supporting infrastructures.

Even also holds experience as a Service Chiefs Fellow with the esteemed Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and as a Johnson Space Center (JSC) Rendezvous and Proximity Operations and Robotics intern with NASA.
He graduated with Honors from Virginia Military Institute and holds a Master of Arts from University of Chicago in Social Sciences.

Dr. Miguel O. Román serves as Chief Climate Scientist and Technical Fellow at Leidos- a FORTUNE® 500 science and technology leader. As part of the Leidos Civil Group, Román is responsible for planning, leading, directing, and growing a $100M/yr portfolio of integrated and advanced capabilities, including earth-observing data and information systems, renewable energy, disaster resilience, and sustainable infrastructure.

Dr. Román has served in multiple leadership, organizational management, and technical capacities across the federal government, academic, and nonprofit sectors. Since 2014, he has led the Terra/Aqua MODIS and NOAA-20/Suomi-NPP VIIRS Science Teams, a worldwide group of investigators and technical staff in charge of one of the largest and most comprehensive polar-orbiting satellite systems operated by NASA and NOAA to monitor our planet’s vital signs.

A leading expert in the fields of satellite remote sensing, disaster risk reduction, and sustainability, Román has championed translational research and data-intensive approaches to assess and address climate-related risks. His work is internationally recognized for shedding light on the disproportionate hardships experienced by socially-vulnerable and underserved communities following major disasters.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dr. Román was recognized by President Barack Obama in 2016 with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He is also a 2014 Service to America Medal “Sammies” finalist, one of the highest honors for federal civil servants. Dr. Román holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, a master’s degree in systems engineering from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in geography from Boston University

Alvaro is the co-founder and CCO of Leanspace, a European startup building the digital infrastructure of the space industry. He is in charge of all the commercial aspects, which includes sales, marketing, CX and customer success.

Throughout his career, he has been an R&D engineer for Formula 1 race cars, project manager for multi-million corporate strategic investments, and has held various management roles in the space industry. Alvaro has worked in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.

Alvaro holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and a degree in Astrophysics from the Australian National University. He is an alumnus of the RealAcad Venture Management & Leadership Program at both Stanford University and National University of Singapore. Since 2008, he has been a coach at the Coaching SIL organization, with a particular focus on Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

When Alvaro is not on the job, he loves playing music, traveling somewhere far and dusty, and experiencing how people see the world.

Alexis Sáinz is the global co-leader of the Hogan Lovells Space and Satellite practice and a member of the Infrastructure, Energy, Resources & Projects group.  She regularly represents export credit and multilateral development agencies, satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, financial institutions, project sponsors, private equity firms, hedge funds, and other industry participants on structured, project and vendor financings, in negotiating commercial and corporate transactions, and with commercially strategic regulatory matters. She also provides industry advice in connection with debt and equity offerings, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, and financial restructurings.

Alexis works with investors and lenders to understand the underlying issues impacting space projects and companies, at the intersection of commercial, regulatory and financing aspects of a transaction.  She works with project parties to focus on key deal points and to identify appropriate industry-based risk mitigants and efficient allocation of risk in order to build consensus and drive closure.  She works with companies to build a project and financing strategy from the ground up, anticipating financing issues early in the development of a new project or the growth of a company.

Alexis co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Committee on Space Law.  She co-authored the chapter on “Commercial Satellite Programs” in the Routledge Handbook of Space Law.  Prior to beginning her legal career in 2007, Alexis spent over 10 years working in internet-based industries, including e-commerce and media. She previously served as a consultant for the World Bank, National Geographic, and domestic non-profit organizations in connection with internet-based technology, and she was an early member of KPMG Peat Marwick’s financial service’s e-commerce consulting practice, where she focused on emerging technologies.

Alex Saltman is former Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, representing the fast-growing commercial space industry. During his tenure, he led policy development and business operations to build government support and create an effective regulatory regime.

Also served as Legislative Director to Congressman Adam Schiff, advising on science and technology, space, energy, environment, and non-proliferation issues, serving key roles in helping expand the use of nuclear forensics to track nuclear material and in shepherding the 2010 NASA Authorization Act through to passage. Alex holds an AB from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford University, both in Physics.

Experienced CEO with a large professional background in the Telecommunications Industry, Jaume Sanpera is a classic in technological entrepreneurship in Spain.

Founder of various companies mainly telecommunications, creating a business group that was listed on the stock market and with a wide international presence, such as Eurona, (1st telecom satellite operator in Europe that was listed in 2010), Ambientum , (leading the enviromental sector in Spain), Cidec a praxis technology, TechnoTrends, Festuc etc.

Jaume is backed by almost 30 years of experience in Telecommunications and recognised  achievements in this sector.

Its consolidation as an entrepreneur and CEO expert in the Telecommunications Industry makes him a very present figure in the media, forums and other information and broadcasting platforms.

Mr. Schmidt is a Managing Director at KippsDeSanto & Co., recently acquired by Capital One’s commercial bank, and co-heads the Aerospace & Defense Group, where he focuses on sellside and buyside M&A advisory engagements and sourcing growth capital.  Key areas of experience includes space, defense electronics, and armaments.  Prior to joining KippsDeSanto & Co., Mr. Schmidt worked at a competing investment bank where he helped create a leading Aerospace·Defense·Government Services industry banking group.  Notable space-related clients and assignments include multiple General Dynamics space businesses, BEI Precision, Orbital Sciences, GeoEye, and other space-component businesses.

Leading up to his entry into investment banking, Mr. Schmidt served in various combat arms assignments in the US Army across the globe and in various Joint and Army staffs working on classified intelligence assessments, equipment modernization, and weapons testing.  Mr. Schmidt earned a B.S. in (aeronautical) engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an M.S. in operations research from the Naval Post Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is registered with FINRA as a General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7, 63).

Rob Schwarz is Momentus’ Chief Technology Officer and is responsible for the vision and technical direction of the full line of Momentus products He has more than 20 years of experience working in space systems engineering and product development. He thrives on finding innovative solutions to the complex challenges of spaceflight.

Before Momentus, Rob was the CTO of Space Systems Loral and Maxar satellites. There he supported the development, manufacturing, launch, and operations of over a dozen spacecraft before moving into management roles. Rob also served as Executive Director of Systems Engineering at SSL where he was responsible for creating a new Product Management organization and providing leadership to several new product concepts including in-space servicing, software-defined spacecraft, commercial space stations in geosynchronous orbit.

With 20 years of in-house general counsel experience, Randy Segal brings an individual perspective to every matter she handles, both as your outside counsel and as someone who has walked in your shoes. With a focus on satellite, wireless, drone, and technology transactions, Randy provides commercially practical solutions in industries where technological change is ever-present. Randy’s practice often involves multi-level chess games, where every move needs to be considered from a multitude of angles to be successful.

As a result, Randy’s practice is reflected in three segments. First, as co-leader of the Space and Satellite practice, Randy has handled many types of transactions, from day-to-day matters to the most complex international transactions for industry operators, investors, and technology providers. She has been involved in taking companies public, advising on acquisitions, divestitures, and complex cross-border joint ventures, as well as large satellite system development, deployments and funding.

Second, as an advisor to technology investors and their portfolio companies, Randy has advised on transactions focused on big data analytics, IT, wireless systems, spectrum licenses, environmental analytics, wireless proximity analysis, drone technology, terrestrial positioning, and other innovative technologies.

Third, Randy provides “strand of pearls” advice to global clients, working seamlessly with our international offices to develop familiar, comfortable and “right-sized” solutions. Randy’s extensive cross-border experience has resulted in an extensive tool-kit of resolutions for the most complex of legal regimes. Randy’s transactional and advisory experience is both deep and broad, working throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and on the most complex of international programs and legal issues.

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.

Pratish brings 30 years of engineering, business development, marketing and management experience across enterprise, consumer electronics and defense industries to Aitech. In addition to leading the American business unit, Pratish helps develop the company’s global growth initiatives as well as manage its technology offerings.

For 10 years prior to joining the company, he lead global military defense companies, identifying new opportunities, leading mergers and acquisitions and building successful businesses

Vagan Shakhgildian is the President of Comtech Satellite Networks Technologies Corp in Montreal, Canada . Previously he held various senior management positions at Comtech, including CEO of the Memotec subsidiary. Vagan first joined Comtech as part of the acquisition of Canada-based UHP Networks. As the CEO of UHP Networks, he led the company from a virtual start-up to a market leader in high-performance VSAT systems.

Prior to that Dr. Shakhgildian was the President and COO of Advantech Wireless, Head of Research at Adaptive Broadband and held senior R&D positions with Motorola and Signal Processors. Dr. Shakhgildian holds advanced degrees in mathematics and electronic engineering, as well as an MBA from the London Business School.

Tim Shroyer is the Chief Technology Officer of the Satcom & Antenna Technologies Division of Communications and Power Industries, LLC, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of satellite communications antennas, power amplifiers, and earth station equipment.  He is a satellite communications systems engineer and has managed, designed, built, installed, and operated satellite earth stations around the world.

Mr. Shroyer has designed and installed uplink stations of all types in many countries, in all the world’s continents, and developed new earth station architectures including pioneering the development of L-Band IF (Intermediate Frequency) systems, now common in commercial and military satcom.  He was one of the principal architects of Satcom-On-The-Move Systems.  He has worked closely with the Federal Communications Commission in the United States to create a licensing class for this entirely new generation of satellite communications systems.

Mr. Shroyer’s first satellite communications experience was as an officer in the United States Navy and with the Defense Information Systems Agency.  While at Stanford Telecommunications he served as the Program Manager for the development and installation of the Network Control system that still manages U.S. military communications satellites.  Since that time he has managed the development and installation of satellite Network Control and TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking and Control) systems for many satellite networks around the world.  He also was the founder and president of a VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) transceiver manufacturing company.

Pawel Skonieczka is a Director at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, focusing on Space Technology Sector coverage.

Deutsche Bank’s Space Technology team provides a broad range of investment banking advisory and capital market services, in public and private markets, to clients globally.

Pawel has over 15 years of experience in finance and investment banking, advising clients on M&A, debt and equity raising transactions.

Pawel graduated from Columbia Business School

Nina has more than 10 years of experience in the satellite industry, having held various positions while at KSAT. With a background from publishing and content marketing, she is currently responsible for the company´s communication across the business units.
Representing KSAT, Nina travels to countries around the world speaking on panels and seminars, engaging government and commercial stakeholders.

In her previous role as International Sales Manager, Nina’s main focus was Maritime Monitoring services based on SAR data (Synthetic Aperture Radar). KSAT provides oil spill monitoring and vessel detection services globally and has pioneered the industry with pushing the timelines for Near-Real-Time (NRT) delivery of actionable information- leveraging the global ground network, especially the unique Svalbard station.

Nina has had the opportunity to work with several of the most significant international oil companies (IOC´s), government authorities, coastguards and other stakeholders with key focus areas in Latin America, South America, and the Middle East.

Her portfolio also included the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), an Agency providing technical assistance and support to the European Commission and Member States on maritime safety, pollution by ships, and maritime security.

Nina is former Chairman of the Norwegian Oil Spill Control Association, (NOSCA), a non- profit association dedicated to promoting products and services within global oil spill preparedness and response, representing more than 30 Norwegian companies.

She lives in the Arctic Capital of Tromsø in Norway- an ideal place for Polar Ground Stations and cross-country skiing.

Sita Sonty is Partner and Associate Director in the Aerospace And Defense and Public Sector practices of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She held senior roles as a former U.S. diplomat and aerospace executive.

Sita made history as the Head of Human Spaceflight Sales at SpaceX, where she executed the first private spaceflight sales on the Crew Dragon on a Flyer and to the International Space Station. Sita also guided global market strategy for Starlink’s expansion Lower Earth Orbit Free as the next generation telecommunications market offering.

As Vice President for International Business with the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), Sita directed Business Review Teams on international defense and space sales pursuits, including capture management, risk mitigation, legal, tax, finance, supply chain, engineering, and product design.

A Director for National Security, Sita led Raytheon’s corporate engagement with U.S. Executive Branch agencies and ensured the corporation’s compliance with legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks for multiple governments.

Sita amassed over seventeen years of service as a career U.S. diplomat. Sita led the International Security Advisory Board bringing A&D companies’ strategic recommendations to Secretary Kerry; she also served as Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs and Senior Advisor for Defense Sales to South and Central Asia.  Her overseas posts include Croatia, Libya, Syria, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (2004), and Egypt.

She graduated with distinction from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; studied at Jussieu in Paris (1998) and the Centre des Etudes Maghrebienne en Tunisie (CEMAT) (2001); and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in Political Science and Economics.  Her native tongue is Telugu; she also speaks Hindi, French, Arabic, Croatian, and Urdu.  Sita serves as Executive Board Member for Women in Aerospace, The Johns Hopkins University President’s Alumni Council, and the Washington Leadership Program.

At Lynk, Tyghe manages and coordinates Lynk’s technology development activities and coordinates internal engineering resources and priorities. Prior to Lynk, Tyghe was the Principal Spacecraft Systems Engineer at NexGen Space, where he was responsible for system design and technology application on NexGen Space technical projects. Tyghe also worked as a Management Consultant for Accenture developing supply chain analytics and simulation capabilities for the DoD. While at Accenture, Tyghe founded and was the global lead for Accenture’s commercial space community of practice, which he created to develop a portfolio of projects and clients for the firm in the commercial space sector. Tyghe gained his experience in orbital mechanics, satellite navigation and control, and spacecraft systems design as a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on terrestrial satellites and a Mars rover. He holds a BS and M. Eng in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

Mr. Spice has served as Rocket Lab’s Chief Financial Officer since May 2018, and has served as the Secretary and Treasurer since May 2021. From January 2011 until May 2018, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at MaxLinear, Inc., a provider of radio frequency, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications. From October 2009 to November 2010, Mr. Spice was the Chief Financial Officer of Symwave Corporation, a venture backed fabless semiconductor company until its sale to Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC). From July 2000 until September 2009, Mr. Spice held a variety of financial and operational executive roles at Broadcom Corporation, a creator of semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. From June 1996 until July 2000, Mr. Spice worked as a finance manager for Intel, a microchips manufacturer. Mr. Spice has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Brigham Young university and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Brooke is a Partner in McKinsey’s Aerospace & Defense practice, supporting clients on space and defense engagements.  In particular, she is a core leader of the firm’s space work, working with established companies, disruptors, and investors.  Her focus is on growth strategy, innovation, and transactions related work, supporting clients on topics such as go-to-market strategies, market sizing, strategic portfolio reviews, ecosystem market scans, equity story development, and market diligences.

Brooke’s most recent work includes leading market evaluation and growth efforts with disruptive space companies, spanning space technology areas.  She has also worked closely with multiple investors in the sector.

In addition to her client engagements, Brooke has co-led McKinsey’s space knowledge partnerships, including collaborations with the Aerospace Industries Association and the World Economic Forum.  She is currently leading McKinsey’s knowledge partnership with the World Economic Forum, having recently published a report on the outlook for the space sector and satellite-enabled applications across industries.  She has also spoken at industry events and in the media on space industry dynamics, in addition to serving as a mentor to early-stage space companies via the Creative Destruction Lab incubator program.

Her published work covers topics such as space investment funding trends, satellite constellation performance analysis, the role of space in global priorities, and industry R&D funding analysis.

Brooke’s background prior to McKinsey is in finance and business economics, and included work with a boutique financial and economic analysis firm, where she worked closely with leading economists on complex analysis of financial markets.  She is a graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as well as Bucknell University.

As President of SIA, Tom Stroup is the trade association’s lead advocate for regulatory and policy issues of critical importance to SIA’s membership, including spectrum and licensing issues, defense and public safety matters, and export control and international trade issues. He also manages the day-to-day operations of SIA, including member communications, staff leadership and organization of SIA sponsored events.

Prior to joining SIA, Mr. Stroup was with Shared Spectrum Company (SSC), a leading developer of spectrum intelligence technologies, where he served as CEO. For more than a decade, he served as the President of the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA). Previous to his position at SSC, he founded and ran several companies in the technology industry, including Columbia Spectrum Management, P-Com Network Services, CSM Wireless, and SquareLoop.

Mr. Stroup holds a BS, summa cum laude, in Public Administration from the University of North Dakota. He is also a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center where he served as Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Experienced innovation and engineering executive across multiple industries including wireless networking (cellular and WiFi), consumer electronics, silicon platforms, and large-scale cloud client computing. Currently CTO of Carnegie Technologies. Other roles included SVP Software Engineering at Comcast NBC Universal, VP of Engineering at Cable Vision Systems, VP Silicon Platform at Motorola PCS, CTO of Dell’s Client Solutions Group, and CTO Broadband at Texas Instruments. He was a founder and CTO of two successful startups: Wi-Fi innovation leader Aironet Wireless (acquired by Cisco) and 4G wireless innovator Raze Technologies. He started his career at the National Security Agency.

Al Tadros is the Chief Technology Officer of Redwire. In this role, he is focused on making strategic investments that support Redwire’s customers, advancing technology development and commercialization, and maintaining a nimble and collaborative technical culture. With nearly three decades of experience as an aerospace executive, Al is a thought leader in in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing with a proven track record in maturing satellite and space systems programs for exploration, national security, and commercial innovation.

Previously, Al was Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Space Infrastructure at Redwire. In this role, he oversaw the company’s long-term growth strategy and business development activities, and was responsible for advancing development, increasing adoption, and building momentum for Redwire’s mission-enabling capabilities within the civil, defense, and commercial space sectors.

Prior to Redwire, he served as Vice President of Space Infrastructure and Civil Space at Maxar Technologies, where he led significant innovation in next-generation spacecraft design and space infrastructure, integrating robotics and in-space satellite manufacturing, servicing, and assembly capabilities. Over the course of his career at Maxar, Al contributed to 13 missions and launch campaigns, many of which deployed cutting-edge communications and remote sensing systems. Al has worked with both commercial enterprises and government agencies to develop space systems for communications, satellite servicing, remote sensing, and exploration.

An authority in in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing, Al holds patents in the field of attitude control systems and was responsible for early telerobotics research for the International Space Station.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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.

Joel Thompson is the Vice President of Global Product & Service Management at Iridium Communications Inc., where he brings more than 15 years of experience in strategy consulting, research, competitive intelligence and analysis, product marketing, and business line management. In this role, he is responsible for managing all aspects of Iridium’s existing product and services offerings.

A thought leader in the industry, Mr. Thompson served as the former Chairman of the Board at Mobile Satellite Users Association (MSUA). Before joining Iridium, Mr. Thompson served as the Vice President of Product Management at XM Radio, where he led the team that developed XM’s retail product strategy, conceptualized and delivered new products and services, and managed device analytics and forecasting. Prior to XM, Mr. Thompson worked for Nextel Communications (then Sprint-Nextel Communications) for seven years, working in a various research, strategy, and product management roles, most recently as the Director of Product Management, Wireless Devices. He was responsible for leading product management activities for all wireless devices developed and launched by Sprint-Nextel. Prior to Nextel Communications, Mr. Thompson worked on the Value-Based Management team within Deloitte Consulting’s Telecommunications practice in Toronto, Ontario.

Mr. Thompson earned his MBA from the Western Business School (now Richard Ivey School of Business) in London, Ontario. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Operations) from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario and his Canadian Securities Course.

Abhi Tripathi has been working in Human and Robotic Space flight for over 20 years. He is presently the Director of Mission Operations at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab (SSL).  The lab currently operates 3 NASA missions and has 4 more it is actively building and testing in preparation for launch.  This includes the twin spacecraft ESCAPADE mission to Mars.  Abhi is also an advisor to several exciting aerospace startups, both through his involvement at the Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator, and on his own.

Prior to his role at SSL, Abhi spent 10 years working at SpaceX, starting a month before the first launch of the F9.  He led certification (by NASA) of the Cargo and Crew Dragon programs at SpaceX.  These vehicles were certified faster than any visiting vehicles, before or since.  He served as the Dragon Mission Director from mission control on a dozen cargo re-supply missions to the International Space Station.  He also served as a Dragon Chief Engineer for Flight Reliability on the Crew Demo 1 and Demo 2 missions.  Before SpaceX, Abhi spent 10 years as an Aerospace Systems engineer at NASA Johnson Space Center.  There he worked on NASA’s long term planning and design work for Moon and Mars campaigns.

Abhi has degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and University of Colorado.  He holds a Ph.D. in Geology/Micropaleontology from UCLA.

Ronald van der Breggen, Chief Commercial Officer of Rivada Space Networks, has more than 30 years’ experience in the terrestrial data-networking and satellite industry where he worked in leading management positions.  A native of the Netherlands, van der Breggen began his telecom career at Dutch Telecom incumbent KPN.  From 2003 to 2013, he served as Vice President Customer Account Management at SES, one of the world’s leading satellite operators.  Having worked in both the fiber and satellite industries, Ronald knows first-hand the traditional limitation for data on satellites as compared to fiber.  With Rivada’s unique constellation network this will now change as it brings opportunities for customers they never had before.  Ronald holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nijenrode University as well as a Master’s in Business Telecommunications from the Technical University of Delft, both in the Netherlands.   

Raúl Verdú is Co-founder and COO of PLD SPACE with training in Industrial Engineering and more than 10 years of experience.  

Spanish Scientific Asociation Plaque of Honor and recognized by the American association KAIROS SOCIETY as one of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs in the world.

Buffy Wajvoda is the AWS Global Leader for Aerospace & Satellite Solutions Architecture. She was a founding leader of the Aerospace & Satellite Group at AWS during its inception in 2020 after serving at the AWS Ground Station Solutions Architecture leader. Before AWS, Buffy started and led the Solutions Engineering & Architecture team at Capital One and was the lead architect during Capital One’s transition to AWS.

Buffy started her career working at the National Security Agency (NSA) for 15yrs with a focus on cryptanalysis and Radio Frequency (RF) analysis & engineering for satellite and high bandwidth communications. Her last position at the NSA was the Technical Director for Field Operations. Buffy graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees Chemistry and Economics. She is an avid Chicago Bears fan, loves creating lead-came stained glass projects, and playing video games with her kids.

Bill is a multi-time Chief Executive Officer who has spent the entirety of his career leading people in high growth technology environments solving some of the world’s most difficult problems. He most recently founded First Light Acquisition Group, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company that completed at $230M public raise in September of 2021 (NYSE: FLAG).

Prior to First Light, Bill served as president, CEO and board member of KeyW Corporation, a 2000+ person, $500+M publicly traded company (NASDAQ: KEYW). KeyW excelled in agile cyber operations and warfare, data analytics and geospatial intelligence solutions for U.S. government intelligence and defense customers and commercial enterprises. Following the unexpected passing of KeyW’s founder, Bill joined KeyW and successfully lead the company through a 3+ year transformation, focusing on consistent growth and operational discipline – culminating in the merger of KeyW with Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: J) in the Spring of 2019.

Bill joined KeyW from XLA, a privately-held technology firm supporting the areas of national security and diplomacy, where he served as president and chief operating officer. Prior to XLA, he served as president of Kaseman, a privately-held technology services firm supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Americas Warrior Partnership, a non-profit organization focused on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to end US military veteran suicide as a measurable statistic.

He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and began his career serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army, is an Airborne Ranger and was awarded the Bronze Star for actions during Operation Desert Storm. Bill holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis and is a graduate of The Executive Program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Tony Wilkey is Executive Vice President at AvL Technologies with responsibility for Sales and Marketing. Tony has 30+ years of experience in satellite communications in engineering, sales, program management, and general management roles. He began his career at Ford Aerospace in Palo Alto, California (1981-1983) before joining RSI SatCom Technologies (1983-1987, 1992-1995), Georgia Tech Research Institute (1987-1992), COMSAT RSI (1995-1998), and TriPoint Global (1998-2000). Most recently he served as Director of Antenna Systems Business Development for ViaSat (2000-2008), a $500MM US satellite ground systems equipment provider, before joining AvL Technologies in 2008. Tony earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 1981 and his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1983.

Dr. Xiaoming Yin is a Senior Investment Manager at Lockheed Martin Ventures. Her primary investment focus at Lockheed is in Space Technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Next Generation Computing Technologies, Quantum Technologies, and Materials & Manufacturing.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin Ventures, Xiaoming was a Fintech Associate at Pivotus Ventures. At Pivotus, she developed the investment thesis and worked on product development for a next-generation digital bank. Before joining Pivotus, Xiaoming worked five years as a Quantitative Researcher in Citigroup Option Market Making trading division.

Xiaoming received M.S and Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, where her work was published and presented in several international journals, as well as conferences. Xiaoming also received B.A in Economics and B.S in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.

Louis A. Zacharilla is Director of Innovation for Space & Satellite Professionals International www.sspi.org the world’s largest trade association for professionals in the commercial space and satellite community.

Mr..Zacharilla serves as strategist where he initiates new events and programs for the SSPI franchise. Mr. Zacharilla created the popular Better Satellite World campaign and hosts the popular Better Satellite World podcast. www.bettersatelliteworld.com

He has written hundreds of articles for trade and business publications, appears in the media regularly, moderates industry panels (like this one) and is co-author of three books, including Brain Gain.

He runs the monthly New York Space Business Roundtable in alliance with the New York Space Alliance.His company manages World Teleport Association www.worldteleport.org the industry trade association for teleport and ground segment operators where he founded and hosts the annual Teleport Awards for Excellence Luncheon in Washington.

He is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum think tank, which accelerates the relationship between broadband communications and economic growth among communication companies and smart cities.

Mr. Zacharilla holds a Masters Degree from the University of Notre Dame (USA) and lives in New York City.

Zimmerman currently is leading HawkEye 360’s data science strategy, guiding a team as they apply machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to maximize value from HawkEye 360’s large-scale geospatial data sets. She previously worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she managed a Machine Learning Solutions Lab division serving Intelligence Community and Defense Department customers. Among many projects, Zimmerman explored maritime security analytics that leveraged HawkEye 360’s RF data and underlying vessel characteristics and behavior to predict whether a given vessel was likely to engage in nefarious activity.

Before joining commercial industry, Zimmerman was an active-duty officer for the United States Air Force, where she worked on RF satellites and ground systems at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). She is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, with degrees in Computer Engineering and Electrical and Electronics Engineering. While developing her master’s degree, Zimmerman analyzed the utility of machine learning of RF waveforms.

Ignacio is a leader who works with technologists and scientists to help them productize and operationalize Earth Observation Missions. Mr. Zuleta believes that the most successful products are realized when design and operations are tackled simultaneously using a user-centered agile approach. He has supported Remote Sensing development groups as well as Payload Systems Engineering teams where they were able to operationalize novel data products at scale using a combination of hardware and software for the first time in their industries. Ignacio has extensive experience in instrument design, physical sciences, systems biology, earth observation and systems engineering in addition to innovation management.

Ignacio has previously served as Head of Remote Sensing at Indigo Agriculture, Inc. and Senior Director of Payloads at Planet Labs, PBC. He holds a doctorate in Physical chemistry from Stanford University and has served as a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Francisco.