Perhaps more so than any other satellite service capability, remote sensing epitomizes the rapid commercialization of previously tightly held government national security technology, allowing national security organizations around the world to buy commercial services rather than simply designing their own capabilities. Many of the world leading companies are based in the United States which provides an advantage to the U.S. and its allies.
As of late, U.S. national security elements have been leveraging more of these commercial remote sensing ventures. Maxar, Planet, and BlackSky have contracts in place for their data with intelligence agencies. About 270 of the 620 remote sensing satellites in orbit are privately-owned with about 200 of these owned by U.S. companies. In contrast, about 50 are owned. by the U.S. military or intelligence agencies
Dr. Josef Koller
Dr. Josef Koller is a Systems Director for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, serving as a senior analyst and team leader on topics that cut across policy, technology, and economics. Prior to joining Aerospace, Dr. Koller served as a Senior Advisor to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Space Policy where he directly supported key national and international strategy efforts for space-related U.S. Government and DoD policy matters including commercial remote sensing, space traffic management, and related congressional affairs. Prior to that assignment, Dr. Koller managed and co-lead over 40 scientists in the “Space Science and Applications Group” at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Koller also established and led the Los Alamos Space Weather Summer School to promote graduate student research and outreach at the Laboratory.
Dr. Koller has over 17 years of experience with global security and space science programs. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications with 700 citations. Dr. Koller has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Rice University.
Tony Frazier
Tony Frazier joined Maxar in 2017 after its acquisition of DigitalGlobe and serves as our EVP of Global Field Operations. In this role he leads all sales, business development, and services delivery activities for the company outside of the Canadian market. Prior to this role Mr. Frazier served as President of Radiant Solutions.
Mr. Frazier served as Senior Vice President, General Manager of DigitalGlobe’s Services business from 2013 and led GeoEye’s Marketing and Communications team since 2010, prior to its acquisition by DigitalGlobe in 2013. Prior to GeoEye, Mr. Frazier served as Senior Director of Product Management at Cisco Systems, where he brought to market emerging technologies core to Cisco’s video and collaboration strategy.
Prior to Cisco, Mr. Frazier held senior marketing roles at Infor, iPhrase Technologies an MIT start-up acquired by IBM, and pcOrder.com. Mr. Frazier began his career in strategic consulting at Bain & Company. Mr. Frazier holds a Bachelor of Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA with distinction from Harvard University.
Dr. Daeil Kim
Daeil Kim is the technical founder and CEO of AI.Reverie, the AI company that creates synthetic data to help organizations train their machine learning vision algorithms in a more effective, efficient way. He was formerly a senior data scientist at The New York Times, where he developed machine learning solutions to optimize audience acquisition. Kim received his Ph.D. in computer science from Brown University. His Ph.D. research focused on the development of scalable machine learning algorithms, and his research has been published in several of the top machine learning conferences (NIPS, ICML, AISTATS).
Rich Leshner
Rich Leshner has been working in the DC space policy community for nearly two decades, with experience in the non-profit, government, and industry sectors. Rich’s NASA experience had him working on international projects for collaboration in exploration, managing a $150 million portfolio of innovative small business research, and working in the Administrator’s office. He worked for two years at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he supported the development of the 2010 National Space Policy as well as championed reforms to more fully integrate commercial space capabilities into national programs. Since 2014 Rich has been at Planet, the small satellite Earth observation data and analytics company based in California. Rich was previously Planet’s Vice President for Regulatory and Government Affairs, and is now the Executive Vice President of Planet Federal – Planet’s subsidiary for work with the U.S. government. Rich has a MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford, and a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration from George Washington. He lives in DC with his wife and daughter.
John Serafini
John is the Chief Executive Officer of HawkEye 360, a developer of space-based radio frequency (RF) mapping and analytics capabilities. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Allied Minds where he led the formation of and the investment into HawkEye 360, along with other Allied Minds companies such as BridgeSat, Federated Wireless, Optio Labs, Percipient Networks, and Whitewood Encryption Systems. John’s investment activities and management expertise center upon the intersection of profit-maximizing private capital and the unique requirements and R&D capabilities of the U.S. government.
A former Airborne Ranger-qualified U.S. Army infantry officer with duty stations at the 82d Airborne Division & UNCSB-JSA of the Korean DMZ, John holds a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and an MBA and MPA from Harvard University.