Speakers

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.

Dr. Victor Aguero is now serving at Chief Technology Officer for Cambrian Works, a new startup focused on developing the commercial potential in space. Until mid-2020, Dr. Aguero served as a Senior Principal Research Engineer at SRI International, where for nearly 23 years he worked as a space technology developer and architect. His primary areas of interest are space systems and advanced technology related to small satellites, satellite constellations, and space missions. Dr. Aguero founded the small satellite program at SRI supporting the DoD/IC community by focusing on technology innovations, developments, and mission concepts during the mid-2000s through 2020. While at SRI, Dr. Aguero’s work led to eight patents and over 15 publications in refereed journals. His most recent work has focused on communications and networking architectures for LEO constellations, new technology applications in space, robotic space systems, and cluster and constellation missions – all of which he is working to apply to commercial space.

At SRI, Dr. Aguero was responsible for the development or support of over 13 CubeSats involving SRI payloads, and he supported the integration and launch of over 55 additional CubeSats through the CubeSat Experiment Pipeline launch integration team he helped establish for the US government in 2009. Prior to joining SRI, Dr. Aguero worked two Space Shuttle missions carrying out research and engineering for the NASA Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1, 1992), its re-flight (TSS-1R, 1996) and associated payloads. During his graduate student years, Dr. Aguero also helped found and lead the Stanford Small Satellite Program through the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Dr. Aguero holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Aguero received graduate school funding through National Science Foundation and NASA Fellowships, and strongly supports engagement in space mission activities by universities.

Bharath Aiyer is a Partner in McKinsey’s San Francisco Office and has almost a decade of consulting experience. Bharath serves technology investors broadly and has a deep focus on cyber-security topics. He recently led the Firm’s thinking on the evolution of corporate cybersecurity paradigms and the adoption of multi-layered strategies, assessing how companies are responding to both architectural evolution and evolving threat landscapes.

Eric Anderson is President of And One Technologies and an angel investor in emerging space and IoT. He has contributed to dozens of space products, missions, and programs within small and large companies, government and academia. He currently supports technology and business aspects of several space, near-space, and air system developments with an emphasis on the delivery of data and services via new technologies, channels, and business models.

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 earned BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, was on the technical staff at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, worked at Sikorsky Aircraft and serves as board chair for the Kenya-focused non-profit The Kilgoris Project.

Natalya Bailey is the CTO and co-founder of Accion Systems, a company providing in-space propulsion for spacecraft. An Oregon native, Natalya moved to Cambridge to complete her doctorate in space propulsion at MIT with a focus on a novel ion engine technology. Prior to MIT, she researched a new chemical rocket technology during her MS at Duke University. She is a partner at XFactor Ventures, investing in female-founded companies, and is on the board of Youth CITIES, a non-profit that teaches entrepreneurship and STEM skills to diverse youth cohorts. In her free time she enjoys traveling to Maine with her husband and three children and completing Python katas on Codewars.

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.

Peter Beck is the founder and chief executive of Rocket Lab, the world’s leading dedicated small satellite launch provider. Rocket Lab provides end-to-end mission services, including complete satellite build and launch solutions, that provide rapid, frequent and reliable access to space. Rocket Lab has been launching since May 2017, delivering satellites to orbit for commercial and government customers, including DARPA, NASA, the United States Air Force and more.

Since founding the business in 2006, Peter has grown Rocket Lab to become a globally recognized industry leader in space and a billion-dollar company employing hundreds of world-class engineers. In addition to creating Electron, the world’s first fully carbon-fiber orbital launch vehicle, Peter also oversaw the development of the world’s first and only private orbital launch range, located on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula. He played a crucial role in establishing international treaties and legislation to enable orbital launch capability from New Zealand.

Under Peter’s guidance, Rocket Lab will launch thousands of small satellites to orbit, enabling vital science, research, and services from orbit including weather monitoring, communications, technology demonstrations, and Earth-observation.

Cliff is an accomplished executive with expertise in managing equity-backed companies, particularly within aerospace, cyber-security, defense intelligence, and cloud infrastructure. Having 25 plus years of progressive experience providing leadership and strategic direction to high growth technology companies, their board of directors and senior management.

Today Cliff serves as CEO, President of Cloud Constellation Corporation, a Los Angeles CA based company, having a presence in Washington, D.C. that is developing the first global satellite data security platform for governments and financial institutions.

In 2008, Mr. Beek cofounded Star Asia Technologies PTE, Ltd, with offices in Singapore and the Philippines. SAT competes across aerospace, data management, and mobile broadband industry segments. His accomplishments include: financing of multi-million dollar space based infrastructure assets.

Additional career highlights: Cliff led the Asian Development Bank’s formation of the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation Information Highway (SASEC
Project) a fiber optic communications network. Participating countries included Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Cliff successfully negotiated the funding and bilateral agreements on behalf of ADB.

Cliff earned an MBA from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from the George Washington University.

Dr. Bryan Benedict serves as Senior Director of Innovation & Spacecraft Programs at SES Government Solutions. During his career, he has worked extensively within both the DoD and US Civil Agencies to socialize the advantages of hosting imaging payloads on commercial spacecraft. Additionally, Dr. Benedict has been a key advocate in the commercial industry for the use of space robotics for both recovery and life extension of geosynchronous satellites.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Benedict served as the Product Line Manager for Commercial and Civil Hosted Payloads at Intelsat General Corporation, Director of Hosted Payloads at Intelsat, Director of Engineering for Satellite Bus & Launch Service Acquisitions at PanAmSat and was a System Engineering Manager at Hughes for the BSS601HP product line.

Dr. Benedict started his career as a chemical engineer in the petroleum industry – inventing and patenting several catalysts still used for the stabilization of jet fuels. Dr. Benedict earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1986, where he conducted research on the stabilization of high energy materials within crystalline lattices.

Dr. Benedict has been awarded a number of patents throughout his career – the latest for delivery of microsatellites to orbit piggybacking on the nadir deck of geosynchronous communication satellites.

David Bettinger is a business and technology visionary with 30 years of experience in system engineering, focused on innovative satellite communications. He is a strategic thinker with a track record of capturing opportunities, cultivating partnerships, and transforming startup ventures into a competitive position.

Before joining SpaceLink, Mr. Bettinger was VP of the Communications Systems and Advanced Development Group at OneWeb. He was a founding member of the satellite network operator, which was established in 2014, and he led a team of satellite, aerospace and communications engineers to design its first- and second-generation satellite payloads, user terminals, and ground segment.

At OneWeb he was successful in supporting investment activities and was responsible for the corporate technology roadmap. His expertise includes communication systems architectures, RF and digitally regenerative satellite payloads, optical inter-satellite links, electronically steered phased array antennas, and network architectures.

Previous to his role at OneWeb, Mr. Bettinger spent more than a decade as CTO and Senior VP of Engineering at ST Engineering iDirect, a $250 million satellite communications technology company which provided VSAT solutions to over 400 customers in 120 countries.

In this role he was responsible for the oversight of all technology decisions and led the technology team to make iDirect the largest TDMA enterprise VSAT manufacturer in the world. He drove the strategic direction for product development, research, technology alliances, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Bettinger began his career at Hughes Network Systems where he was a member of the Technical Staff in the Satellite Networks Division. There he contributed to the development of several generations of the Personal Earth Station (PES) satellite network, which was Hughes’ flagship product line at the time. He was also a member of the design team that developed and deployed the Claircom air-to-ground telephony system for commercial and private aircraft.

A graduate of Virginia Tech, Mr. Bettinger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1989 and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1992. A frequent spokesperson at industry events, he has authored more than 50 technical papers and articles and holds seven patents in satellite communications.

Brad brings over 21 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 is the genius behind the ground-breaking Freedom™ Software Platform. He holds an MS in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University.

Mark Boggett is CEO of Seraphim Capital a London based venture firm. The team manages the recently launched Seraphim Space Fund, a pioneering new fund backed by a range of leading space corporates seeking investments in space-related start-ups. He is also director of UK Space Tech Angels and is Chairman of the London Co-investment Fund – one of the most active seed investors in Europe. Prior to Seraphim he was at YFM Equity Partners serving on their mainboard for a number of years and working on the British Smaller Company VCT 1 and 2. He has a degree in Accounting & Finance, an MA in Economics & Finance from the University of Leeds and a range of professional investment qualifications.

Dr. Chris Boshuizen is an Operating Partner at DCVC (Data Collective) leading investment in space (Capella Space, Rocket Lab) and other deep tech companies. Chris was co-founder of Planet Labs, a DCVC company providing unprecedented daily, global mapping of our changing planet from space. As the company’s CTO for 5 years, he took the company from the drawing board to having launched more satellites into space than any other company in history, completely transforming the space industry along the way. Chris was previously a Space Mission Architect at NASA Ames Research Center. After working on a number of traditional spacecraft programs at NASA, Chris co-created Phonesat, a spacecraft built solely out of a regular smartphone. Chris received his Ph.D. in Physics (with honors) and a BSc. in Physics and Mathematics, both from the University of Sydney.

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group. Virgin is one of the world’s most irresistible brands and has expanded into many diverse sectors including travel, telecommunications, health, banking, music, leisure, and aerospace.

Having started Virgin as a mail order record retailer in 1970, Richard founded Virgin Records. There are now more than 40 Virgin companies worldwide, employing approximately 71,000 people in over 35 countries.

Since starting youth magazine Student at the age of 15, Richard has found entrepreneurial ways to drive positive change in the world. Richard established Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of Virgin Group, which unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world. Most of his time is now spent building businesses that will make a positive difference in the world.

Don Brown is the General Manager and Senior Management Official of Telesat U.S. Services, LLC. In this role, he is responsible for global government business for the state-of-the-art Telesat LEO constellation currently in development. Each spacecraft in the Telesat LEO fleet will include four (4) Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs): one of the first commercial networks to deploy OISLs at scale.
Mr. Brown has spent 25 years developing commercial space opportunities for national security and civil government missions. At Telesat, his team is responsible for Telesat’s contract with DARPA on the ground-breaking “Blackjack” satellite program, and for Telesat’s contracts on the Air Force Research Labs “DEUCSI” (Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Satellite Internet”), U.S. Space Force “CASINO” (Commercially Augmented Space Inter Networked Operations) development programs, and NASA NextSTEP-2 Study Program, among others.
Prior to Telesat, Mr. Brown was Vice President of Hosted Payloads for Intelsat General Corporation, where he was responsible for government communications, navigation, sensor and scientific systems aboard Intelsat spacecraft. Successes of Mr. Brown and his team included the Cisco “IP Router in Space” (“IRIS”) payload on Intelsat IS- 14, launched in November 2009, and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) UHF payload, launched on Intelsat IS-22 in 2012. The ADF Hosted Payload was named by “Via Satellite” magazine as one of the “30 Events that Shaped the Last 30 Years in Satellite.”
Prior to the merger of Intelsat and PanAmSat in 2006, Mr. Brown was Vice President of DoD Systems at PanAmSat’s G2 Satellite Solutions, a major provider of commercial satellite capacity for UAVs. Mr. Brown has held senior positions with Quincy Jones’ QRadio, American Mobile Satellite Corp., and in the Satellite Systems Division of Federal Express Corporation. He was also the co-founder of USA TODAY Sky Radio, the first provider of live broadcast satellite services to the airlines.
Mr. Brown currently serves on the Space Enterprise Advisory Group (SPEAG) to U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Brown has also served on the Satellite Task Force of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee to the President of the United States and as Co-Chair of the Government Services Working Group of the Satellite Industry Association. He is a graduate of Princeton University and is a frequent speaker on commercial satellite operations and national security.

Eric Brown is the Senior Director of Mission Strategy for Lockheed Martin’s Military Space business, working with the U.S. Government and its allies developing space solutions with a particular focus on the following mission areas: missile warning and defense, military satellite communications (MILSATCOM), position, navigation, timing (PNT), space control, space domain awareness, and tactical missions. Mr. Brown leads Lockheed Martin’s efforts to combine the company’s investments in future capabilities with those of teammates in industry, academia, research labs, and the U.S. Government to establish new architectures responsive to emerging threats to space and missions. Based on the criticality of space to today’s global security, Mr. Brown coordinates across Lockheed Martin’s complete portfolio, which includes fighter aircraft, missiles and mission systems, to architect the infrastructure needed to enable Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO). As part of this work, he leads Lockheed Martin Innovation Partners, the company’s initiative to engage, accelerate, and onboard non-traditional companies and partners to programs of record.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin Space, Mr. Brown led PwC Strategy&’s global space community of interest, providing strategic consultation on topics of competitive positioning, new technology introduction, and inorganic strategy to executives across aerospace, defense, space, industrial, and technology sectors. Previously, he supported various agencies across the intelligence and defense communities in t he development of mission and organizational strategies and concepts of operations to respond to evolving threats and critical national requirements.

Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Arts from Davidson College, a Master of Arts in National Security Policy from Georgetown University, and an Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Astrotech Space Operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.

Steve “Bucky” Butow is the Director of the Space Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). He joined the team in 2015 as an early plank owner when DIU was known as the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) and helped establish the organization’s operating locations in Silicon Valley; Boston, Massachusetts; and Austin, Texas.

Prior to joining DIU, Butow was the Vice Chief of the Joint Staff, California Military Department with responsibilities including cybersecurity, incident awareness and innovation. He is a former Commander of the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Federal Airfield, CA, where his responsibilities included organizing, training, equipping, and maintaining 970 combat-ready forces and $1 Billion dollars of MC-130P aircraft, HH-60G helicopters and special mission equipment supporting the U.S. Air Force’s combat rescue and personnel recovery missions. He has additionally served as the Deputy Director of the Joint Search and Rescue Center for U.S. Central Command in 2005, and as Chief of Personnel Recovery for U.S. Air Forces Central in 2007 supporting Operations IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM. He has more than 3,500 flying hours in T-37, T-38, C-130, HC-130 and MC-130P aircraft. In his reserve capacity, Butow is a Brigadier General serving part time as a Special Assistant to the Director, Air National Guard in a federal (Title 10) status.

As a researcher with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, Butow worked on instrument concepts for Mars surface soil analysis at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. He later served as co-principal investigator for a series of airborne science missions for which he was recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the Space Science Division in 1999 and received an Ames Honor Award as a member of an Astrobiology Mission Project Team in 2000.

Butow graduated from San Jose State University with a B.A. in Physics & Astronomy and earned a M.S. in Management with specialization in Air and Space Strategic Studies from the University of Maryland. He has also completed executive courses at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was a member of the National Leadership Preparedness Initiative (NPLI) Cohort 16. Butow is a lifetime member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for academic achievement.

Rob Call challenges the status quo in commercial space industry. He is versed in smallsat design, manufacture, launch and operations. He is particularly interested in the development of virtual networks which dynamically integrate both ground and space nodes.
Rob was a pioneer in CubeSats, where he evangelized the elevation of CubeSats from kits to turnkey spacecraft for sophisticated government customers. More recently Rob promoted Swedish Space Corp’s ground station business in the Americas.
Rob began his career at Bain & Company in Palo Alto, Boston and Moscow offices. While in Eastern Europe, Rob developed large, highly profitable consumer products businesses.
He brought his pioneering energy to space, challenging convention and business models. His interest in space, his interest in Russia, and in international cooperation all stem from one event: Apollo-Soyuz.
A graduate of Stanford University, he completed dual majors in Economics and Russian Literature. He earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Rob is driven by units which are measured in dollars rather than in milliamps or micro-radians and believes that human capital, not technology, is what makes the world better.
He holds a current amateur radio license and SCUBA certificates as well as expired sky-diving credentials. He speaks Russian and is a fan of Mariinskiy ballet.

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.

Carissa Christensen is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Bryce. She previously co-founded defense company The Tauri Group, acquired by LMI in 2019, and quantum computing software company QxBranch, acquired by Rigetti Computing in 2019. She is an active investor who serves on several early stage boards.

Ms. Christensen is an internationally recognized expert on R&D processes, technology forecasting, and the space industry. She is currently a member of the National Research Council Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable, which advises NASA. She has served on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council since 2018. She is a Senior Advisor to the annual US Air Force Schriever Wargame. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.

She guest lectures at universities internationally, has testified before Congress on space markets, and speaks regularly at events, including the White House Frontiers Conference, and the Harvard Business School Dialogue. She publishes extensively and is often cited in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Fortune, and Le Temps. She has also appeared in space documentaries by The Financial Times and Bloomberg.

Ms. Christensen is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where she specialized in science and technology policy. She attended the London School of Economics and was a Douglass Scholar at Rutgers University. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures in Chicago. Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund and also on the Technology Equity team with Masters Capital, a hedge fund. Mike was Vice President at Merrill Lynch in the M&A Group as well as an Associate in M&A Division with Duff & Phelps. Mike has invested in over 60 software/hardware startups and is currently on the board of Spire, Layer, Kurbo Health, Gauss Surgical, Dispatch, Enview, FirstLine, and Daylight Solutions. Mike received his BS in Math and a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.

Kuan Collins is a recognized expert and resource in specialized engineering and data analytics. A Ph.D., Kuan draws on her judgment and expertise derived from her 19 years of experience to develop technical strategies, architectures, and roadmaps for solving total system challenges for intelligent software and analytics customers.

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.

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Clint Crosier is Director of the AWS Aerospace & Satellite Solutions business, responsible for providing commercial and government customers with tailored, secure, and cost-effective cloud solutions for building satellites, conducting space and launch operations, and reimagining space exploration.

Prior to joining AWS, Crosier served 33 years in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, retiring as a Major General. During his career, he operated GPS, SatCom, and missile warning satellite constellations, launched Atlas and Titan rockets putting national security payloads in orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office and Air Force Space Command, deployed to the Middle East during Operation Enduring Freedom as USSCENTCOM’s Director of Space Forces, and led Requirements and Strategy Development for the entire US Air Force. He has commanded at the Squadron, Group, and Wing levels, and held leadership roles as a US Senate Staffer and in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

Prior to retiring from military service, he was the lead planner and architect of the stand-up of the US Space Force, the first new military service in 72 years.
Crosier earned his degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University. In 2020 he was inducted into the ISU Aerospace Engineering Hall of Fame. He has also earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi (Summa Cum Laude), and a Master’s of Science in National Security Studies from the US Naval War College with Highest Distinction. His military academic awards include earning Distinguished Graduate and Top Graduate accolades at Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and the Naval War College.

Alex da Silva Curiel is a recognised expert on small satellite mission capabilities, markets and their applications, and has been involved in the small satellite revolution since 1989 working on over 60 small satellite missions. Alex holds a B.Eng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a M.Sc. degree in Satellite Engineering from the University of Surrey, and is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He is the co-chair for the International Astronautical Congress small satellite symposium, and is a member of several conference technical and international committees. Alex has been employed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. since 1989 and currently is responsible for international business development, previously holding positions in communications systems engineering, systems engineering, Head of Research and Development, and as Group Technical Director. Alex is responsible for over 200 conference and journal publications, and has both led and supported various international panel discussions and specialist short courses.

Gregg Daffner is co-founder and CEO of GapSat, which leases in-orbit, operational satellites to satellite operators for use in their orbital slots for interim periods of time, generally until the operator launches its own satellite. Gregg is also president of G3 Global Communications, an international satellite venture incubation and consulting firm.

Previously Gregg co-founded and was president of Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS). He headed satellite services for Hong Kong Telecom, was VP for PanAmSat and Lockheed Martin, and Director of International Policy for the US government’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Gregg is a founding member and current President of the Asia Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC), Chairman of the AVIA (formerly CASBAA) Satellite Wireless Action Group, and a member of the Board of Governors and Secretary of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC).

Gregg is an attorney who began his career as a New York-based filmmaker and video artist.

Tim brings 30 years of space system experience ranging from satellite design, operations, acquisition to policy and intelligence. He holds a degree in Space System Design from University of Colorado and a Digital Communications degree from University of Nebraska.

Margo Deckard is a Co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Lynk Global, Inc. Her work analyzing BGAN usage data from the 2014 Ebola Pandemic Crisis Response drove the Lynk team to design a global connectivity solution that uses the unmodified phone in everyone’s pocket. Margo leads Public Safety and Government Programs for Lynk. Previously, Margo served as VP of Programs for NexGen Space LLC, where she was the Project Manager for the Ultra-Low-Cost Access to Space Study for the United States Air Force. This study focused on how the United States Government could leverage free enterprise to achieve low cost access to space to meet U.S. National Security needs in the next 5 years. She was the PI for NASA-funded research on the environmental impacts of space solar power (SSP), and co-authored a study for the National Security Space Office on SSP. Margo wrote a web data connector for NetHope to connect data from the United Nations Humanitarian Crisis Response Syrian Refugee Crisis REST APIs and populate Tableau. This product will guide over 43 NGOs in their efforts to meet the needs of the Syrian Refugees. She has a BS in Genetic Engineering from Purdue University and an MS in Systems Engineering from Wright State University.

As an experienced entrepreneur and CEO, Dominic has built a wealth of commercial knowledge through founding and managing his own data business before entering into the world of EO analysis and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).
Having secured recognition from Glassdoor and Business Insider for running the UK’s best technology company to work for (2015), Dominic was also recognised by the Sunday Times ‘Tech Track’, Sunday Times ‘Export Track’ & The London Stock Exchange – ‘Companies to inspire Britain’.
At PlanetWatchers, Dominic is turning months of manual claims adjustment into just minutes of automated analysis across the insurance industry… and having a lot fun along the way.

As Vice President of Business and Strategy at Virgin Orbit, Stephen Eisele is responsible for leading all sales and strategies around commercial and international business efforts, engaging with the civil, commercial and the new space small satellite community. Part of his initiatives includes initiating the Virgin “VIP” Program (or Virgin Interplanetary Program) for satellite missions to journey beyond LEO to GTO, the Moon, Mars and beyond. In addition, he has spearheaded Virgin Orbit’s international spaceport architecture, setting up spaceport partnerships around the world including in the UK, Japan, Italy and many more to be announced.
Prior to joining Virgin Orbit, Eisele served as a senior business development executive for Surrey Satellite Technology US, where he helped lead Surrey’s business growth opportunities through strategic partnerships, including OTB Missions.
Stephen previously served as Vice President of Space Services Inc, a commercial space holdings and investment company, where he managed multi-million dollar companies and start-ups; served as head of sales and marketing for Excalibur Almaz (EA), an international space exploration company created to provide routine, affordable access to and from space; and also worked as the Marketing Director for the X PRIZE Foundation’s Google Lunar Lander Challenge in 2007. Prior to working with entrepreneurial aerospace firms, Stephen worked as a senior analyst for DFI International (now Avascent Group) in Washington, DC, managing and researching numerous projects for Fortune 100 aerospace and defense firms.

Stephen holds a bachelor of arts in international studies from the Johns Hopkins University and a master of arts in international economics and strategic studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he received the William C. Foster Award for “sound scholarship and a record of distinguished service and leadership.” He also holds a master’s certificate from the International Space University in space business.

Tim is co-founder and CEO of Relativity, the first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader for satellite constellations. Relativity is the market leader for a new platform to build and fly rockets and other aerospace products. They recently created the largest robotic metal 3D printer in the world and tested their entirely 3D printed Aeon rocket engine over 124 times. Tim played a leading role in closing over $80M of partnerships with the U.S. Government, including the first-ever venture-backed company to win an Air Force launch site award at Cape Canaveral. Previously responsible for bringing metal 3D printing into Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and a propulsion development engineer on Crew Capsule RCS thrusters, BE-4, and New Glenn. Alumni of USC and played a leadership role in launching the first student-designed and built rocket into near space. Testified to the U.S. Senate on commercial space policy and is the youngest member of the National Space Council UAG by nearly 2 decades, and directly advises the United States White House on all space policy. Has spoken at numerous conferences including CBInsights Aha! and TEDx. Relativity is backed by Playground Global, Social Capital, Y Combinator, Mark Cuban, USC, and Stanford.

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.

Dr. Gregory Falco is an Assistant Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University where his lab, the Autonomy OWL, focuses on matters of assured autonomy, space system cybersecurity, space habitation and future satellite capabilities. His work on space cybersecurity has been incorporated into national policy and he actively works with government agencies, the military and private companies to improve their space asset resilience. Dr. Falco completed his PhD at MIT in Cybersecurity and was previously listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions to Enterprise Technology.

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.

Richard French is Director of Business Development and Strategy for Rocket Lab’s Space Systems Division. He spent over a decade at JPL, where he led development of the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator program, managed technology partnerships with industry, and spent two years on detail to NASA HQ as a Staff Technologist in STMD, leading development of the Tipping Point and Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity. His earlier career includes a lead mechanical systems engineering role on the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, helping to land the Curiosity Rover on Mars as a member of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry, descent, and landing systems engineering team, and supporting design of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) forebody headshield. He holds a M.Eng. in space systems engineering and a B.S.E. in aerospace engineering, both from the University of Michigan.

Karl Fuchs joined iDirect Government in 2004 as the Director of Sales Engineering, just as the satellite-based IP communications company was expanding its very small aperture satellite (VSAT) market presence into the federal government and international Internet Protocol (IP) networking world. He now works as the Sr. Vice President of Technology.

With more than 25 years of experience in technology and with the federal government, Fuchs leads iDirect Government’s team of federal sales engineers, hardware engineers, software engineers, and serves as chief architect for new product integration.

Prior to joining iDirect Government, Fuchs was Director of Systems Engineering at Nortel Networks, where he oversaw the Verizon account team of systems engineers, leading the design of IP, Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks. Before joining Nortel, he designed IP and ATM networks for Sprint and the federal government.

Active in the satellite industry for more than 20 years, Fuchs has contributed editorial to numerous publications including Federal Computer Week, Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, COTS Journal, Military Information Technology, Via Satellite, MILSATCOM and Satellite Evolution Global. In addition, he has been a featured speaker at leading industry events including the DoD SATCOM User Workshop, ISCe, IBC, Pacific Telecommunications Council and Emergency Management Talks.

Fuchs holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. and an MBA from Averett University, Danville, Va.

Yoel Gat is a well-known satellite communications expert, a visionary entrepreneur making an impact on multiple industries. Yoel Gat is a well-known satellite communications expert, a visionary entrepreneur making an impact on multiple industries. Yoel has 35 years of experience in the satellite industry.

Main Achievements

1. Founder of Gilat Satellite Networks and taking it public on NASDAQ in 1993

2. Leading Gilat to over $500M in sales with over 2,500 employees and market cap of $4.5B.

3. Created StarBand – first Consumer Satellite Broadband service launched in 2000.

4. Leading the Low-Profile satellite steering antennas making RaySat a prominent name.

5. Published 3 books about the companies he built.

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 the ManSat Group. ManSat is the world’s largest commercial provider of satellite spectrum and offers bespoke consultancy services in spectrum regulatory matters.

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 on the Board of Directors for Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) and mentors entrepreneurs through Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator.
Katherine is a graduate of the International Space University’s Executive Space program and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

Dr. Rajeev Gopal, vice president, at Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), leads the company’s advanced engineering programs, developing innovative solutions for resilient and protected communications in defense applications. Dr. Gopal’s work spans Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) technologies, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud, and cyber security innovations.

In more than 25 years at Hughes, Dr. Gopal has held a variety of leadership roles in satellite network systems engineering and software development. Most recently, he has focused on AI/ML, software-defined networking, 5G, and enterprise management architectures. Prior to joining Hughes, Dr. Gopal led automation projects for clinical and cancer research and development at CTIS.

Dr. Gopal holds several patents and has published more than 40 technical papers. A member of the IEEE 5G World Forum, he serves on the editorial board of Wiley’s International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking (IJSCN). Dr. Gopal earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) in Pilani, India.

Consumers, businesses, governments and communities around the world benefit from the connected experiences enabled by Hughes technologies and services. To learn more, visit our website at www.hughes.com or follow us on Twitter @HughesConnects and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/HughesConnects

Stella Guillen is a VP of Sales & Marketing for Arianespace, Inc. (AEI) responsible for all aspects of Arianespace’s launch services sales and marketing activities for US and Canadian clients. She is also responsible for working with companies developing LEO constellations and small satellites providing global satellite communication services, remote sensing, and earth observation services, and science and technology.

Ms. Guillen’s background spans the satellite industry, from telecommunications to launch services. She has led global sales efforts for SpaceX, Spaceflight and some of the largest satellite fleet operators, such as SES and Intelsat.

Ms. Guillen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University and has a Master’s of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. She was born in Peru, is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is learning French at the moment.

Dave Hansen is currently the Director of Radiation Effects and Hardening at Space Micro, an engineering-driven supplier of affordable, high-performance, rad-hard systems for space. He has over 20 years in space radiation field with a primary area of focus on radiation induced degradation of semiconductor devices. He has more than 50 papers and his research has covered both the effects on a variety of technologies including non-volatile memories, CMOS ASICs, SiGe, InP and photonic devices, as well as the development of models to predict those effects on orbit.

Dr. Hansen, holds a PhD in Physics from The University of Nevada Las Vegas. Prior to working at Space Micro he spent 9 years as the radiation physicist at Data Device Corporation, and was an Associate Technical Fellow of the Boeing Company.

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 currently a mentor with Boulder Techstars, Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, and the Techstars Allied Space Accelerator working with startups around the world to help them bring products to market.
Shay most recently worked on the Uber Maps product team and as Uber Boulder site lead. Previously, he was VP and GM of DigitalGlobe’s Platform business. Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, Shay was founder and CEO of Tomnod combining crowdsourcing and machine learning on satellite imagery. Tomnod was acquired by DigitalGlobe in early 2013.
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 space-flight operations.

Dan currently serves as President and CEO for Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s pioneering commercial space firm, launching 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 a 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.

After beginning his career with McDonnell Douglas supporting the Spacelab Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Dan was soon loaned to the European Space Agency to support system integration, followed by roles on the Delta and Delta II launch crews, then leading the Systems Engineering, Integration and Test Team for the development of the Delta IV Launch Vehicle. Dan was subsequently named Chief Engineer for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) anti-ballistic missile system before becoming Chief Engineer over all of Boeing’s space programs.

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 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education, and serves on the Executive Board of the California Science Center.

Dan knows his way around an electric guitar and full drum kit but is holding out for the return of Virgin Records before unleashing his debut album on the world.

Mr. Shayn Hawthorne works in the AWS Region Services Division as the Colorado Lead, Space Technical Lead, and General Manager of the AWS Ground Station service. In this role, Shayn works backward with commercial and Government space customers around the world. Shayn is focused on developing services and features that disrupt how space and intelligence operations are conducted and enabling space customers to share, fuse and leverage space data to improve their missions and products.

Prior to AWS, Shayn worked at the MITRE Corporation. In his last role, Shayn served as the Technical Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), responsible for directing the engineering activities of MITRE engineers in support of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Program, Command and Control Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) System, the Ballistic Missile Defense Overhead Persistent Infrared Architecture (BOA) and the Midcourse Tracking System (MTS) and many other programs.

Previously, Shayn led the MDA Space Knowledge Center as the Technical Director, which performed independent technical assessments and evaluated experiments related to MDA space programs. In previous MITRE work efforts, Shayn has led Advanced Development efforts for Air Force space situational awareness, missile warning, and missile defense sensors, as well as the Command and Control (C2) systems and correlator/tracker systems responsible for detecting and tracking air, space and missile threats to the United States and Canada.

Additional MITRE efforts include developing the Satellite as a Sensor concept and leading the start-up of the Rapid Attack Identification Detection Reporting System. Shayn was personally requested to support DoD Space System Vulnerability analyses that led to the National Security Space Protection Policy. He also played a critical role in starting the Space Radar program, focusing on theater tasking and Ground Moving Target Indicator data.

As a member of the Air Force Reserve, Shayn volunteered to mobilize in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) and fielded a satellite protection system while leading the Defensive Counter-space Testbed (DTB). Shayn supported the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Electronic Security Command (ESC) as an Active Duty Air Force Officer.

Shayn received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Air Force Academy and a Master of Science Degree in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

James has 30 years of experience in space and satellites. As CEO of OneWeb Satellites, he is responsible for strategic planning of its Space Systems business. Other satellite experience includes time at Airbus and Boeing.

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 and advocating for non-terrestrial-networks (NTN) to be included in the 5G specifications. 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 and involvement included managing cellular network planning and participating in numerous wireless deployment and spectrum management projects. Munira 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.

Steve Jurvetson is an early-stage venture capitalist with a focus on founder-led, mission-driven companies at the cutting edge of disruptive technology and new industry formation. Steve was the early VC investor in SpaceX, Tesla, Planet, Memphis Meats, Hotmail, and the deep learning companies Mythic and Nervana. He also led founding investments in five companies that went public in successful IPOs and several others that became billion-dollar acquisitions. His board seats include SpaceX and Tesla.

Before co-founding Future Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Steve was an R&D Engineer at Hewlett-Packard, where seven of his chip designs were fabricated. He also worked in product marketing at Apple and NeXT and management consulting with Bain & Company. He completed his undergraduate Electrical Engineering degree at Stanford in 2.5 years, graduating #1 in his class, and went on to earn a MSEE and MBA from Stanford.

In 2017, Steve received the Visionary Award from SV Forum. In 2016, President Barack Obama appointed Steve as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. Steve has also been honored as one of “Tech’s Best Venture Investors” by Forbes, and as the “Venture Capitalist of the Year” by Deloitte. Here is a recent podcast interview on 20VC.

Emiliano Kargieman serves as Chief Executive Officer at Satellogic. He has spent the last 25 years building technology and technology companies.
In 2010, after spending some time at the NASA Ames Campus in Mountain View, he started developing the concepts that would become Satellogic.
Prior to co-founding the firm, Mr. Kargieman co-founded Core Security Technologies, where he has served in several operational roles and developed the first automated penetration testing software, earning the loyalty of clients such as Apple, Cisco, Homeland Security, NSA, NASA, Lockheed Martin, and DARPA.
Previously, Mr. Kargieman has independently consulted for several corporations and government agencies. He also started three other technology endeavors and served as a Member of the Special Projects Group at the World Bank.
As the co-founder and Managing Director of venture capital firm Aconcagua Ventures, Mr. Kargieman focused on investing in high-tech startups in Latin America to develop them as global businesses. In 2009, he co-founded GarageLab, a problem-solving laboratory based on an innovative multidisciplinary approach involving science, technology, art and business.
Emiliano is 45, has a formal background in Number Theory and Philosophy and is married to Pola, a fiction author who shares his passion for technology. When not thinking about, or building technology, Emiliano enjoys reading, writing, playing chess and other random sports. He is trying to learn to play the trumpet.

A corporate partner and satellite practice co-head, Steve Kaufman uses industry knowledge and versatility to negotiate and close many types of deals globally.

For 18 of his 30 years at the firm, Steve served as outside general counsel for satellite clients, leading strategic joint ventures, “bet-the-company” contracts, financings, and M&A.

What Steve does best: understanding complex business issues and translating them into legal documents. If a client can describe something, Steve can draft it. Working from complicated to simple, he has many times reduced a lengthy contract into a few pages of bullet points, showing the client what it needs and how to obtain it. He has even written a business and financing model for parties in the form of an agreement. Many clients comment that the business guidance from Steve is as valuable as the legal advice.

Steve relies on his familiarity with issues common to satellite and communications companies to give him an edge in negotiations. This experience produces extra benefits when Steve deals with specialized satellite contract terms, targeted warranties, creative covenants, use of insurance to close gaps, license and spectrum issues, and even finance and accounting matters. According to Chambers Steve Kaufman is “a real authority and somebody who will always know the answer.”

In advising clients, Steve emphasizes practicality, striving to achieve the client’s business objectives for the transaction, whether economic, risk reduction, regulatory/compliance, or transaction speed. This carries over into deal management as well as negotiations, where he willingly takes the lead. Steve and satellite practice co-head Randy Segal are regulars at the satellite conferences, making connections among clients and even adverse parties. He is listed in Chambers, Super Lawyers, and Legal 500.

Prior to founding H.S. Dracones, she served as the Director of Business Development for Perceptronics Solutions Inc. and as a Congressional Liaison for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) providing advice to senior leadership and technical offices on Congressional engagement strategies to maintain the agency’s position and reputation as a premier science and technology organization. Kelli holds a Master’s Degree in Government and Security Studies from the Johns Hopkins University, a certificate in Public Policy from the Leon and Silvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution from San Diego State University.

Adam is an Affiliate Principal Advisor at Euroconsult with specialization in Earth observation (EO) and disruptive technologies. In over 20 years in the industry, he has advised a wide range of clients including government organizations, investors and commercial actors along the value chain. Adam has managed over 100 consulting and market intelligence projects focusing on EO markets and industry, satellite imaging and operations, and government space programs. He Initiated Euroconsult’s research and consulting activity in the EO sector including the Satellite-Based Earth Observation: Market Prospects report; now in its 13th edition (2020), the first annual research report focused on evolutions within the EO sector. He has held various positions in the company, including director of the company’s Space Practice and Managing Director of Euroconsult North America from 2015 to 2017. Previous experience includes working for the European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN) within the Directorate of Earth Observation, and the UK National Remote Sensing Center (now Airbus). He is a frequently invited speaker and moderator at international events focusing on evolution, market trends and dynamics within the space sector

As Founder, Chairman and CEO, Chris leads the overall company strategy and direction for Astra. Chris previously served as CTO of NASA and founded OpenStack, an open-source cloud computing infrastructure software project that is one of the three most active open source projects in the world.

At NASA, he partnered with Google and Microsoft and helped create Google Moon and Mars (online maps that allow you to explore the planets) and worked with the White House to develop the cloud computing strategy for the government. Chris advises and serves as a board member at various tech companies.

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).

Stephen Kitay co-leads Microsoft’s efforts to connect Azure with the space sector. The rapid advances in commercial, government and international space capabilities provides a unique opportunity to both enable the space industry through the power of Azure and leverage these space services for Azure customers. Stephen and the Azure Space team are developing capabilities and services to extend connectivity across the world, simulate digital space environments, discover new insights, and drive innovation both on the ground and in orbit.

Prior to Microsoft, Stephen served in the United States Government, most recently as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy where he had a key leadership role in the establishment of the U.S. Space Force. He has also held a range of positions in the Air Force, Intelligence Community and Capitol Hill. Stephen has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of West Florida.

Per Koch has 25+ years of experience in Technical Leadership, Business development and Program management in global organizations within the Electronic-, Telecommunication-, space- and IT industry.  Education: Master’s degree, Eletronic Systems and Telecommunication, Aalborg University, 1995 and a Bachelor Business Administration. Aalborg University, 2001

Since graduation Per has worked with technical development and architecture in several telecommunication and semiconductor companies. Past 20 years mainly in leadership positions in global telecom and intelligence enterprise organizations such as Texas Instruments and BAE Systems.

Per has since the past 5 years successfully headed more smallsat data communication missions with Gomspace A/S.

In the current position the experience from the telecommunication world and the experience from the space world are combined to secure advanced 5G communication products for the smallsat industry.

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.

Matt is Responsible for AWS account management of U.S. Space Force and other U.S. Government space related activities. Matt also served as a leader in Lockheed Martin’s aerospace and defense business with a focus on satellites. He holds business degrees from University of Colorado, the George Washington University, and Auburn University.

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.

Johanne Lecomte is Vice-President, Business Development and Sales for Thales Alenia Space (TAS), in Arlington, VA. Over the last 7 years, she has been responsible for increasing Space business in North America in the institutional and commercial markets, for the Telecom, Remote Sensing, Exploration, Planetary Sciences and Navigation domains. Additionally, over the past few years, Ms. Lecomte has also been leading TAS North America Government Strategy, making particular inroads in the DoD market in the USA and DND in Canada.
She has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunication and satellite industries. She was Vice-President of Sales and Marketing in North America for 10 years at Airbus Defense and Space and Vice-President, Sales, Marketing and Communications at International Launch Services (ILS). She also occupied various leadership positions at Telesat, Amos by Spacecom, Dynegy, Teleglobe International and Bell Canada. Throughout her career, she conducted various in-country Business Development projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Johanne holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Ecole Polytechnique and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering/International Program Management (MBA/MSEE), from Sherbrooke University in Canada.

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.

Janna is a senior attorney and technology strategist with more than 17 years of experience counseling clients in the aerospace, national defense and 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 experience with satellite, launch, unmanned vehicles, C4ISR architectures, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, Janna worked for Northrop Grumman as Corporate Counsel-IP, supporting their Mission Systems Sector, where she facilitated innovation and strategic partnerships 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 global space-based and high-altitude connectivity solutions. Before Facebook, Janna was in private legal practice, where she served as senior legal counsel to U.S. and international clients in the aerospace and defense, healthcare, software, and telecommunications industries.

Janna is a member of the Defense Innovation Board, Space Advisory Committee and a volunteer with the Space Foundation. She frequently writes and speaks about the evolving legal and cultural landscapes in the defense, intelligence, and space industries, and has been recognized for her proactive, results-oriented approach to client counseling. Janna is committed to diversity in the space industry, and is a strong advocate for new space professionals.

Ron joined Astroscale as Managing Director in April 2019 to lead the company’s business operations in the United States.

Ron brings over 25 years of government and industry experience, encompassing systems engineering, program management, sales and marketing, technology/research and development management, and strategy formulation.

Ron started his career as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Air Force, serving as the focal point for Space Situational Awareness capability development at Air Force Space Command’s Space Control Division. He then joined Boeing and worked on various
programs as a Systems Engineering Manager within Boeing Research & Technology and Phantom Works and led business development activities for the Network & Space Systems division throughout the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Astroscale, Ron led
the Defense & Space Asia Pacific sales team at Honeywell Aerospace, helping the company achieve significant sales growth and expansion into new markets.

Over half of Ron’s career has been spent working and living in Japan, and he is an active member of The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation’s U.S.-Japan Space Forum.

Ron earned a Bachelor of Science from The United States Air Force Academy in 1993.

Dr. Ben Malphrus is Professor of Space Science at Morehead State University where he also directs the Space Science Center. He has served as PI on several nanosatellite missions including Lunar IceCube, KySat-1, CXBN 1 and 2, and TechSat-1.  Dr. Malphrus has served as the project lead on over $30 million R&D grant funding and led the design of a $16 million R&D center for space sciences that opened in Kentucky in 2010. He is currently PI on Lunar IceCube, a NASA mission to the Moon to investigate the transport physics of lunar volatiles including water ice. Lunar IceCube will launch on the maiden voyage (Artemis 1) of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Dr. Malphrus is co-editor of the recently released CubeSat Handbook, a resource for smallsat developers. In the late 1990s, he developed a theory of galaxy formation that has gained wide acceptance among the astronomical community.

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.

Jeff is a specialist leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP with more than 18 years of private and public sector experience focused on finance, enterprise architecture transformation, technology commercialization, and market strategy. Currently, he is a leader in Deloitte’s Government & Public Sector Space Industry practice where he provides subject matter expertise on commercial space technology trends, industry strategies, and launch systems economics.

Before joining Deloitte, Jeff served as the director of venture strategy and research for the Space Frontier Foundation where he was also a board member. His previous experience as an advisor in $600M+ of venture capital raises for early stage technology companies, commercializing government technologies, and deep insight into the commercial space market allows him to bring a unique perspective to government and commercial clients. Jeff has contributed expertise and analysis on the space industry to Reuters, Forbes, NBC News, Discovery News, The Wharton School, the Open Group, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Jim McClelland, in mid-2020, rejoined Maxar as the Vice President of Mission Architecture where he leads the company’s efforts to structure and develop compelling solutions in support of commercial, civil, and national security customers.

Prior to joining Maxar, Jim spent 2 years as the Airbus US Chief Technology Innovation Officer and 1 year as the Chief Technical Officer of OneWeb Satellites where he helped drive forward the OneWeb and Arrow satellite designs in support of the OneWeb and other US commercial and government customers.

With 35 years of experience in the aerospace industry at small and start-up companies such as Spectrum Astro, DigitalGlobe, Skybox Imaging, and Millennium Space Systems, Jim brings in-depth expertise in program and technical management as well as systems engineering and is a strong advocate for driving transformation in the space industry.

Jim holds a Bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana), a Masters degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the University of Colorado (Leeds School of Business).

Jarrod is a Senior Sales Manager at SpaceX responsible for sales and commercial business development efforts for SpaceX’s small satellite rideshare customers. In this role, he focuses on deepening the relationship between SpaceX and the worldwide small satellite community. SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program provides small satellite operators with competitive pricing, increased flight opportunities, flexibility, turnkey service and—most importantly—a ride to space on the world’s most advanced and proven launch vehicles.

Jarrod holds a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Prior to co-founding ThinKom (www.thinkom.com), William (Bill) Milroy held the position of Senior Engineering Fellow within the Electromagnetic Systems Department of Raytheon’s Electronic Systems (ES) Segment.  During his 20 year tenure at Raytheon (Hughes Aircraft), Mr. Milroy managed and lead the RF antenna design, development, and production of a wide range of antenna array implementations for radar and communication applications in both the commercial and military marketplaces including 1-D and 2-D Electronically-Scanned Arrays (ESA’s).  These efforts have included the creation and invention of a number of innovative EM modeling and RF design improvements, including the invention of the Continuous Transverse Stub (CTS) Array and its variants.  He left Raytheon in May of 2000 in order to co-found and incorporate ThinKom Solutions, where he currently holds the titles of Chairman and CTO.  Located in Hawthorne, California, ThinKom Solutions is focused on the design and development of innovative antenna access solutions and products for the Broadband Wireless Communication market.

Mr. Milroy is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, earning BSEE, MSEE, and Engineer (Ph.D. course, field, and examination requirements) degrees in 1979, 1981, and 1986, respectively and is a graduate of the Hughes (Raytheon) Corporate Program Manager Development Course (PMDC) and Engineering of Systems Course (EOSC) curricula and the Executive Marketing Program at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business Management.  He is the author or co-author of nine journal and symposia papers in the fields of Network Analysis, Circuits, Antennas, and Microwaves.  He is the inventor or co-inventor of more than thirty-five awarded and pending patents in the fields of Electromagnetic Scattering, Materials, Microwave Devices, and Antennas.  Mr. Milroy is a past Chairman of the Los Angeles Chapter of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (APS), a periodic Guest Lecturer at the UCLA Anderson School of Business Management, and a Technical Reviewer for both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the IEEE APS Transactions Journal.

EDUCATION:

Engr.  Electromagnetics (Minor: Circuits, Applied Math), UCLA, 1986

M.S.    Applied Electromagnetics, UCLA, 1981

B.S.     Electrical Engineering, UCLA, 1979

Rafal Modrzewski is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ICEYE. ICEYE is launching and operating a constellation of small radar imaging satellites, providing access to timely and reliable Earth observation data. ICEYE is the first company that has successfully miniaturized a SAR satellite, making it possible to launch more units to reliably image any location on Earth, every few hours, every day. With its growing SAR satellite constellation, ICEYE offers its partners a set of unprecedented satellite imaging capabilities, accessing any area of interest faster, more frequently, and at a lower cost. Since co-founding the project in 2012, which became the company in 2014, with Pekka Laurila, Modrzewski is responsible for overseeing the organization’s growth and implementing ICEYE’s overall vision. Modrzewski brings with him deep domain expertise in SAR engineering, and he has received the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 Technology award based on the world-first achievements of ICEYE. Prior to co-founding ICEYE, Modrzewski researched innovative products at VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in the RFID and wireless sensing group. He attended Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, where he studied Electrical Engineering and co-founded the Multimedia Technologies Science Group. Modrzewski continued his studies in Radio Science and Engineering at Aalto University where he led the on-board data handling team working on Aalto-1, Finland’s first nanosatellite. Awards 2018 Forbes – 30 under 30 Technology Geospatial World Leadership Awards 2020 – Techruptor of the year NSP – Executive of the Year 2019 Polish Business Council award in the category “Vision and Innovation” (2019) Finnish Engineering Award 2019

Katherine Monson is the CEO of KSAT USA (Kongsberg Satellite Services). 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. We are proud to be the behind-the-scenes bridge back to earth, supporting the vast majority of space companies, agencies, and start-ups.

Lynne Montgomery is a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP where she represents satellite companies before the FCC as they seek to bring new services to the market and navigate changing regulations in a rapidly evolving industry.  Previously, during a 10-year career at the FCC, Lynne spent significant time at the FCC’s International Bureau’s Satellite Division where she worked on satellite policy and licensing matters, including the allocation of licensed and unlicensed spectrum resources, transfers of FCC licenses and the review of GSO and NGSO satellite applications.

Ted Muelhaupt is the principal director of Aerospace’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS). Applying more than 40 years of experience in analysis and operation of space systems, Muelhaupt provides corporate oversight for space debris analysis for Aerospace. In CORDS, Aerospace has one of the largest concentrations of space debris and collision avoidance experts in the world.

Muelhaupt is also the principal director of the Southwest Regional Office at The Aerospace Corporation, working out of the corporation’s Albuquerque, New Mexico, office. Muelhaupt is the deputy operations lead for National ETG, tasked with expanding the application of Aerospace’s subject matter expertise located in the Engineering and Technology Group (ETG) to our increasingly diversified customers in locations such as Albuquerque.
In addition to space debris and space traffic management, Muelhaupt’s technical specialties include orbit analysis, modeling and simulation, performance analysis, and software development. He has been a leading proponent of system visualization techniques and a leader or sponsor of major software tool developments. Throughout his career, he has also been a corporate leader in information technology issues, especially as they are applied to users. Muelhaupt joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1980.

Muelhaupt received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in mechanics from the University of Minnesota.

Muelhaupt is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

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.

Over the past two decades, Mr. Murray has established durable relationships with senior executives at wireless carriers, mobile device manufacturers, satellite communications ventures, aerospace and automotive primes, remote sensing providers, media conglomerates, and major Internet companies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Murray has built a broad network of contacts in the venture capital community that fuels ongoing technology and business model innovation in these industries. Mr. Murray consults frequently with regulators and lobbyists in Washington who influence the evolution of mobile technology.

Mr. Murray has led advisory teams on public and private company mergers, leveraged buyouts, special committee assignments, and corporate restructurings. Over the course of his career, he has accumulated extensive public and private capital markets experience, helping clients raise over $150Bn in investment grade and non-investment grade bank debt, bond, and equity capital. Mr. Murray has advised on the successful IPOs of numerous TMT companies on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and LSE.

Mr. Murray spent 14 years at Morgan Stanley in New York and Chicago, where as a Managing Director he was responsible for coordinating the firm’s relationships globally with the satellite and wireless industries.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Murray spent 5 years at Monitor Company, a strategy consulting firm. Based in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Boston, Mr. Murray focused on corporate strategy, competitive intelligence, supply chain optimization, brand marketing, and point-of-sale activation for consumer goods companies. Mr. Murray also worked closely with global telecom firms on market entry alternatives, with an emphasis on the then-emerging economics of wireless technologies and spectrum auction strategy.

Mr. Murray received an AB in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and studied International Relations and Economics at the London School of Economics.

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

PRIMARY FOCUS & EXPERIENCE

Mr. Panahy’s practice focuses on representing clients involved in the aerospace and communications industries. His experience includes representing satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, banks, private equity firms and hedge funds in numerous financings involving public offerings, high yield debt, investment-grade bonds, project and vendor financings, mergers & acquisitions, financial restructuring and reorganizations and in negotiating project contracts. He also counsels clients on domestic and international regulatory and trade matters, including licensing of communications systems, economic sanctions, regulation of foreign direct investment, anti-bribery and corrupt practices, national security and export control laws and regulations and risk management.

Akash Patel is an Architect with Microsoft’s new Azure Space business where his role is to create the best cloud network management capabilities for Satellites and other Space related endeavors. His previous role as the Head of Artificial Intelligence programs for Lockheed Martin Space enables him to work with both commercial and government partners to better allow new AI and ML methods to propagate throughout customers mission areas. He is a PhD Candidate at University of Denver where his dissertation is on using a system of satellites, air, and water sensor data to better predict hurricane intensity and trajectory using Bi-Directional LSTM’s and other deep learning techniques. He received a Bachelors of Science from Purdue University in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and a Masters of Science from University of Texas at El Paso.

Mr. Peterson is a Business Development Director for the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). He has more than 20 years of industry experience supporting ESA, NASA, military, and commercial space missions. SSC is a global provider of advanced space services. Offering the world’s most flexible, high performance, global ground station network, SSC provides reliable access to spacecraft from single satellites to constellations, from LEO to Lunar and beyond. Our partners trust SSC to manage all necessary ground network services. With more than 50 years of experience, SSC is the first company in the world to offer communication services to lunar missions with regular lunar contacts for more than a decade.

Mr. Placido is an independent consultant and senior analyst with over twenty five years of international experience in telecommunications and entertainment. Joining NSR in 2007 with focus on emerging technologies and satellite markets, he serves as a regional and IP applications expert on satellite communications and regularly provides his analysis and strategic assessment to NSR’s consulting practice.

Carlos Placido has conducted numerous analytical and management projects, spanning from global market research studies for NSR, to strategic assessment of emerging technologies, to business development support, R&D and project management. Until 2004, he led a service development team at INTELSAT, where he was responsible for identifying and validating future satcom uses of emerging video and IP data technologies. Prior to INTELSAT, he commenced his career as a network engineer at Impsat (now Level 3) and Telecom Argentina.

Mr. Placido is also a regular contributor to specialized industry publications. He holds an engineering degree (BS+MS) from the University of Buenos Aires and an MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Melanie Preisser is Vice President of National Systems for York Space Systems in Washington, D.C. Her responsibilities focus on building relationships and positive interactions with agencies and key officials in the US Government and among industry partners.

Melanie brings over 25 years of diverse corporate and government experience in strategy and business development, acquisitions, systems engineering, satellite operations, and test and evaluation of space-based and airborne systems. Melanie began her career as an acquisitions officer and project engineer for the U.S. Air Force and retired from the Air Force in 2014.

Prior to joining York, Melanie was Vice President of Government Relations for Stratolaunch Systems Corporation. She previously served with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. She was responsible for acquisition oversight and coordination of major strategic, space and intelligence programs.

Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and master’s degrees in Systems Engineering and Business Administration.

David Provencher, Vice President & Director of New Business Development at AvL Technologies – Dave has 30+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry including roles in engineering and program management at Harris Government Communications Systems Division and IBM Federal Systems Division. He served in executive management positions including VP and GM at Andrew Kintec, President and GM at Cobham Satcom Land Systems, and was founder and President of TracStar Systems, Inc. Dave has an engineering degree from the University of Central Florida where he also holds a courtesy faculty position.

Greg Quiggle currently serves as the Vice President, Product Management at Kratos, where he is responsible for overall product strategy and ongoing lifecycle management of Kratos’ commercial product portfolio.

Prior to joining the team, Quiggle served as the Vice President of Emerging Products for VT iDirect, during which time he played an instrumental role in developing the company’s 5G/SDN strategy and ecosystem. Additionally, he has served as the Executive Vice President of Marketing for Tollgrade Communications and the Vice President of Marketing for Acterna Corporation (now Viavi). In these roles, he has spent over 25 years conceptualizing and executing successful, corporate-level product/technology strategies within the communications industry.

Quiggle has earned a BS of Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Maryland

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.

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.

Dr. Rosenberg is a co-founder of Wavestream Corporation, a leading manufacturer of SSPAs, BUCs, and transceivers for satellite communications. He serves as Wavestream’s Chief Technology Officer.

He is co-inventor of the pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (pHEMT), and of the Grid Amplifier, a chip-level spatial combiner capable of efficiently combining the outputs of hundreds of transistors in a single combining step. He is author/co-author of over 50 publications in refereed journals and conference proceeding on semiconductor devices, semiconductor processing, and microwave/mm-wave amplifiers and sources, and co-author of a textbook on engineering modeling and analysis. He is inventor/co-inventor on 13 US patents and 20 non-US patents.

He received the Sc.B. Degree in Engineering from Brown University, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from U. C. Berkeley, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

He was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Fellowship, Faculty Development Awards from both IBM Corporation and AT&T, and the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. Member of Tau Beta Pi.

Serving as Deputy Manager of JPL’s MicroDevices Lab, he oversaw the start-up of the laboratory, and led the development of new high-speed optical communications products as Director of Engineering at GPD Optoelectronics. He has held professorships at Brown University and Harvey Mudd College, and was a Research Associate at California Institute of Technology.

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).

Jacqueline (Jackie) Schmoll is general manager for the Mission Solutions division in the Space Systems sector within the L3Harris Technologies Space and Airborne Systems segment. Space and Airborne Systems provides mission solutions for space and airborne domain with defense, intelligence and commercial applications.

The Space Systems sector offers complete payloads, sensors and full-mission solutions for classified, civil and commercial customers. Schmoll assumed this position in 2020, reporting to the president of Space Systems. In this role, Schmoll is responsible for

Prior to this role, Schmoll held the role of senior director of strategy reporting to the vice president of strategy and business development in Space and Airborne Systems. She was responsible for new business orders, revenue growth, driving the Space Systems strategic growth plan, as well as leading a team of more than 40 business development professionals representing end-to-end space mission capabilities.

Previously, she was general manager for Government GEOINT Systems within L3Harris’ Geospatial Solutions business unit. Her responsibilities included managing a multibillion-dollar portfolio of competitive and sole source IDIQ vehicles with the National Geospatial Agency, multiple systems level applications for Combatant Commands, classified agencies and international governments for mapping, content management, and GEOINT search and retrieval.

Prior to her role managing a profit and loss (P&L) business area, Schmoll served as senior program manager for L3Harris’ Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance business unit. She led a small satellite program for the United States Army after transitioning from her previous role as director of business development with L3Harris’ Environmental Solutions business unit, responsible for the business unit growth strategy and capture execution.

Before joining L3Harris, Schmoll was senior manager of business development and capture management for Lockheed Martin. She was responsible for winning new business accounts with strategic customers in the United States Department of Defense and International community. Previously, she worked for a.i. solutions, Inc. as a mission analyst where she performed flight dynamics and orbital analysis for NASA and United States Air Force spacecraft missions. She moved into roles of increasing responsibility where she ultimately won and managed new domestic and international business accounts centered around the company’s software products.

Schmoll is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and supports the Modeling and Simulation Technical Committee. She received her Master of Business Administration and Bachelor’s Degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. She successfully completed a Harris leadership development program from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Schmoll was awarded the Spacecoast Business 40 Under 40 Award in 2019.

With 18 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.

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.

Alexander Serkin is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of GK Launch Services, a company established in 2017 by the State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” to provide commercial launch services from the Russian launch sites Baikonur and Vostochny. The key task for GK Launch Services is to develop the services of Soyuz-2 commercial launches and to market the Russian launch vehicles worldwide. Alexander Serkin has been the CEO of the company since its foundation.
For 15 years, Alexander Serkin’s professional career has always been devoted to space industry and commercial space launches with Russian launch vehicles. In 2005, he joined the International Space Company Kosmotras, one of the most successful companies on the LEO launch market then, where he took various positions including a Sales Director. At that period, the company increased its orders portfolio more than two times. In 2012, Alexander Serkin was appointed CEO. Under his management and close involvement, successful launches of the Dnepr LV were carried out from 2013 to 2015.
In 2017, Alexander Serkin took up duty as CEO of GK Launch Services. The company is successfully fulfilling the commercial contracts for satellite launches on the Soyuz-2 rocket from the Russian launch sites. Alexander is actively involved in Roscosmos initiatives on advancing the Russian launch vehicles and developing new solutions in that respect.

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.

Frederik Simoens is the Chief Technology Officer at ST Engineering iDirect, where he is responsible for the oversight of all technology decisions and serves to drive the strategic direction for product development, technology roadmap and technology alliances.

Previously, Simoens worked at Newtec where he worked on physical layer technologies, launched the DVB-S2X standard within Newtec’s platform, and in 2015, became VP of product management, which led to a promotion to CTO.

His key areas of expertise include physical layer technologies, satellite communications and digital modems. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of Ghent and is the author of 40+ publications.

Simoens obtained a Master degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. degree in digital communications, both from the University of Ghent. He also holds an MBA degree from the Vlerick Business School.

Dr. Mark Skinner joined The Aerospace Corporation in 2017 as a Senior Project Leader for Space Traffic Management, in Crystal City, VA, in support of the development of civil and commercial space traffic management. Prior to joining The Aerospace Corporation, Skinner was with the Boeing Company, heading up the commercial space situational awareness group, conducting research into observational and analysis techniques to advance the state of the art in space surveillance, and in developing infrared sensing and characterization techniques of resident space objects.

Skinner is internationally recognized as a researcher in space object characterization and commercial space situational awareness and specializes in the techniques of non-resolved object characterization (NROC) and non-imaging space object identification (NISOI) and has extended this research into both the infrared and time domain arenas. His current research focus is on solving pressing problems related to STM, including the tracking and identification of small objects, and mitigating the problems related to early-orbit tracking and identification of CubeSats and nanosats.

For eight years, he supported the US delegation to the UN COPUOS Working Group on the Long Term Sustainable use of outer space in the successful development of guidelines and best practices, as an expert on space debris and space situational awareness.

Education

Skinner received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, and a Bachelor of Science in the Humanities and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a Doctor of Philosophy in experimental astrophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters of Business Administration from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.

Affiliations

Skinner is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Institute of Space Law, the International Astronautical Association, and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety. He also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Space Environment Research Centre.

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.

John Stack, Managing Director, Head of Aerospace & Defense Investment Banking (US), has 25 years’ global strategy, business development and M&A experience focusing on publicly-held and private companies.

Mr. Stack previously was VP, Strategy & Business Development and a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Cessna Aircraft Company, where he led the Columbia Aircraft acquisition. Prior to that, he was Director, Strategy Development & International at Textron, where he helped reshape the company’s business portfolio and worked with company presidents on strategic plans, operational challenges and growth. During his career, he has led project, M&A and joint venture teams in more than 15 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and he lived in Switzerland for more than four years.

Mr. Stack holds a degree in Business Administration from Bryant University and an MBA from Fordham University. He is a commercial pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings. He also is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and proficient in French.

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.

Rajesh Suseelan is Senior Director for Strategic Business Development at ST Engineering iDirect where he brings together satellite operators, service providers and ecosystem partners to develop IoT technology enablers and drive market adoption across different industry verticals. Before joining ST Engineering iDirect in, he led product management and digital innovation around IoT products and solutions at Inmarsat. Rajesh has over two decades of global experience in strategy development, product management, business development and digital strategy in companies such as IBM, Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Mangalore University, India.

Richard Swardh is Senior Vice President, Premium Enterprise & Mobile Operators for Comtech EF Data. In this role, he leads the market development and direction for the telecom and enterprise markets, directing long-term strategic initiatives and defining solution suites and feature sets. A telecom industry veteran, Swardh’s background includes strategic and operational positions at Ericsson with business development, partnership management and strategy execution responsibilities. He holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Business degree in Administration and Logistics from Linneaus University in Sweden.

Florence Tan is the Chair of the Small Spacecraft Coordination Group (SSCG) at NASA Headquarters. She is also the Deputy Chief Technologist (DCT) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). In her role as SSCG Chair, she leads the SSCG to coordinate and develop NASA’s strategy and vision for small spacecraft in science, exploration missions, and technology activities and provide advice to the Associate Administrators of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) and SMD.

As the DCT for SMD, she supports the SMD Chief Technologist to survey and assess technology needs for NASA’s science. Previously, Florence worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for 32 years and has had design and build, I&T, and operational roles in eight mass spectrometers to destinations including Mars, Saturn, Titan, and the Moon. Florence has received numerous awards including the NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement, the Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement for Outreach, Goddard Division Excellence Award, Goddard Special Act Awards and Goddard Peer Awards, and multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards including the NASA Honor Award Silver Achievement Medal and others. She was the Commencement Speaker for the University of Maryland Clark School of Engineering.

Florence has made it a personal goal to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and she actively engages in outreach activities with students and the public to promote NASA science and technology advancements multiple times per year in the last 17 years. Florence holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

Flavia Tata Nardini began her career at the European Space Agency as a Propulsion Test Engineer. She then joined TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research to work on advanced space propulsion projects. In 2015, Flavia co-founded Fleet, a connectivity company set to maximise the resource efficiency of human civilisation through low cost, low power remote massive IoT. Fleet launched four of over 100 planned nanosatellites in 2018, enabling the next industrial revolution with a ubiquitous connectivity platform.

Steve Terry leads Microsoft’s Business Development efforts for Azure Space. Microsoft is developing an ecosystem of capabilities and services that extend the reach of Azure in collaboration with the space industry. As part of this work, Steve focuses on defining and deepening strategic relationships that enable the industry through the power of Azure.

Dr. Derek Tournear is the Director of the Space Development Agency (SDA). Established in March 2019, is responsible for unifying and integrating the Department’s space development efforts, monitoring the Department’s threat‐driven future space architecture, and accelerating fielding of new military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantages in space.

Dr. Tournear most recently served as Assistant Director of Research and Development for Space within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering where he was responsible for coordinating all DoD efforts in space, and initiating programs to address critical gaps.

Dr. Tournear previously held leadership roles in industry,
most recently the director for Harris Space & Intelligence (SIS) research & development. SIS was a $2B business focused on providing advanced technical solutions addressing the top National Security threats from underwater to outer space.

Prior to industry, Dr. Derek Tournear was a Senior Program Manager (SNIS‐HQE) at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). At IARPA, Dr. Tournear served as a senior scientist for space activities and space technologies in the Office of Smart Collection.

Dr. Tournear was previously a Program Manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Tactical Technology Office and Strategic Technology Office. At DARPA, he initiated and directed a large portfolio of program, with an emphasis on sensors and space.
He has professional experience at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) managing intelligence and defense programs.

Dr. Tournear has a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University and a B.S. from Purdue University. In 2010 he received an “Outstanding Alumnus” award from Purdue University and a 2008 DARPA award for “Outstanding Accomplishments in a Systems Technology Area.” Dr. Tournear is a 2011 recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, and a 2012 recipient of the Office of Director of National Intelligence Award for Exceptional Public Service.

Rosalie van der Maas is co-founder and CEO of Ellipsis Drive. A plug and play solution for using, sharing, and selling spatial data.

Before she started building her career in her twenties, Rosalie spent her time on the water as she climbed the ranks of the Dutch rowing league. Aside from a passion for sports with a finnish line, there was also a passion for art. Rosalie was accepted into a Dutch Design academy at the age of 15, which she chose not to attend in favor of a college education at the University of Amsterdam (BSc) and Wageningen (MSc), the Netherlands. Here Rosalie gained an academic background in earth and environmental sciences, development and innovation, while she organized events on Big Data & society at age 20, and founded her first company at age 22. She got a taste for tech entrepreneurship while living in Chicago and brought that dream to life with her brother, and partner in crime, Daniel.

Rosalie is driven to use technology to level the playing field and bring down barriers between people and opportunity. With Ellipsis Drive she works to make spatial insights easily accessible for all. Removing the steep technical and financial prerequisites that keeps people from informed decision making today. Rosalie believes that, for the betterment of people and planet, open data is good, accessible data is better, and unrestricted collaboration is best.

When Rosalie isn’t working she still enjoys filling up an empty canvas, and when she isn’t home, she still likes to stretch her legs. Only now having replaced sports with mountain climbing and trekking through the arctic. Always accompanied by the people she trusts most, including her brother and her wife.

Dr. Marco Villa grew up in Italy and developed an early passion for airplanes and spacecraft. After obtaining his private pilot license and serving in the Italian Parachutists Corp, Dr. Villa received his Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1999 from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Throughout his career Dr. Villa has worked on some of the most advanced and cutting-edge programs in the industry, from technology demonstration satellites to leading commercial efforts, and he has developed a unique expertise that combines management, finance and technical knowledge.

Following a brief stint as a structural analysis at Carlo Gavazzi Space in Milano, Italy, he moved to the United States and earned his Doctoral Degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2005 while also leading a small satellite development projects. Dr. Villa also earned his Master’s Degree in Engineering Management while working as system engineer and project manager for Swales Aerospace and as a contractor for NASA and the Air Force. This period provided Dr. Villa with a broad understanding of spacecraft systems as he performed leading roles for many innovative small satellite and launch vehicle systems, including the Air Force sponsored TacSat 3 spacecraft and the Autonomous Flight Safety System.

In 2007, Dr. Villa joined Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), where he served as Director of Mission Operations, with direct responsibility over the definition and execution of the Dragon spacecraft’s mission to the International Space Station. Dr. Villa was integral in the effort to secure and execute $2.5B in contracts for ISS cargo resupply and crewed Dragon development programs while also supporting the sales and business development department. Before leaving SpaceX in 2013, Dr. Villa played an important role in the on-going effort to develop the crewed version of the Dragon capsule, with responsibilities ranging from the definition of the overall concept of operations, to the establishment of the crew training methodology.

In 2010 Dr. Villa and Max Vozoff founded mv2space LLC, a Business Development, Strategy formulation and support services consultancy. Its clients include both start-ups and established companies in the government and commercial space domains, energy, automotive and digital media sectors.

With mv2space, Mr. Villa brings deep experience in strategy formulation and implementation, program management and systems engineering, and has developed advanced financial modeling and analysis tools that, when customized for each client, form the basis for their business plans, strategies and priorities.

Dr. Villa currently serves as the President and COO of Tyvak Nan-Satellite Systems Inc. His responsibilities span from day-to-day management of the company, to direct the company strategic efforts, to acquisition and execution of all nanosatellite opportunities for government, commercial and university customers both nationally and internationally.

Michael Vinter is an Executive Vice President of International Space Brokers, a division of Aon Risk Services.  Mike has spent the last twenty plus years dedicated exclusively to the space industry.  His duties include the design and placement of insurance programs for a wide variety of space sector clients.  In this role, Mike has worked with leading satellite operators, manufacturers and launch vehicle providers to deliver innovative risk management and insurance solutions.

Mike received his B.S. in Business Management from Virginia Tech and has earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations from the Insurance Institute of America.

Rich Waterman is a Vice President for Space Systems Integration for the Parsons Corporation. He is responsible for the execution and growth of space systems work for Parsons. He currently leads the $100M Launch Manifest Systems Integrator (LMSI) program, managing a team of employees and subcontractors to deliver small satellite mission manifest systems integration supporting the U.S. Air Force. Rich has supported national security, civil, and commercial space efforts for over 30 years including supporting the sale, integration, and launch of commercial and government payloads on American and Russian space launch systems working for companies including International Launch Services, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and venture capital-funded organizations. Rich holds a Master’s and Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering, from the University of Michigan.

Simon M Watts has worked in the telecommunications industry since graduation from Manchester University in 1981, with the majority of his experience gained from within the satellite communications industry. Simon has extensive experience of satellite communications and network design having overseen deployment of major satellite networks for BT International and Hughes Network Systems.
Simon has worked with Avanti in a Principle Consultant role from early 2012 on multiple ESA, UK, FP7 and H2020 projects looking at the integration of satcom in to 5G and related topics. He has brought wide experience in the telecommunications and broadband network industries at a technical and commercial level to ensure technical and commercial direction. These projects have covered areas including the integration of satellite and terrestrial networks, 5G future satellite networks, modem/antenna design, cellular and Wi-Fi backhaul, mobility, and the network design for incubator services projects in East Africa offering Wi-Fi and multicast content delivery.

He was Hughes Network Systems Europe – Chief Engineer between 2001 and 2011 Prior to this he worked at HNS Europe in multiple other roles between 1996 and 2001. His career started at BT International initially helping to design and implement ground station systems before providing VSAT systems in the North Sea for Oil Companies and a VSAT network in southern Africa for a major UK bank.
Simon regularly presents and participates in discussion panels and has supported multiple technical papers whilst at Avanti. Simon is the Avanti representative on ESOA’s 5G Standards Working Group. He is an MIET.

Dan White is Executive Vice President of Americas Business Region at Swedish Space Corp (SSC). He is responsible for sustaining and developing the customer base within the region that includes all of North and South American markets. Before joining SSC, Mr. White served as the President of COMDEV USA, a subsidiary of COMDEV International. Mr. White has over 30 years in Engineering, Program Management, and Executive leadership positions within the aerospace industry. He held the position of Vice President of Engineering at DataPath supporting the development of advanced technology ground systems for defense-related systems.

Christopher Worley is director of Digital Innovation for Defense & Civil Solutions, a mission area of the Space & C2 Systems product line at Raytheon Intelligence and Space. He leads software development, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Digital Engineering and advanced digital technology incubation, development and transition for the mission area.
Prior to RI&S, Worley served in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years as an Intelligence Officer, most recently as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director of Intelligence and previously as the Air Force Technical Applications Center’s Commander. In these positions, and throughout his career as an Intelligence Weapons Officer, Worley advised Department of Defense executives on the spectrum of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance technical capabilities, sensor operations and information technology integration.
Worley has extensive international experience across the inter-agency and with Congress. Specifically, he led operations in 59 different nations and worked directly with the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency with Nuclear Weapon Treaty monitoring, and the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction counter-proliferation strategies.
In previous assignments, Chris was responsible for developing the Air Force’s first Wing-level technology innovation laboratory, establishing and commanding a signals intelligence squadron as an expansion of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System, and leading requirements and assessments for the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence’s ISR Task Force.

Louis A. Zacharilla is Director of Innovation & Development for the Space & Satellite Professionals Internationalwhere he serves as strategist and spokesperson for the Society and the industry. He oversees SSPI’s corporate development program and is responsible for developing new chapters and events worldwide.

With the SSPI team Lou created the www.bettersatelliteworld.com campaign and Awards Dinner in London, which promotes the role of satellites as anchors of human development.

Mr. Zacharilla has written hundreds of articles and blogs for trade and business publications, appears regularly in the media and as a speaker and moderator of satellite industry conferences. He developed the World Teleport Association’s Teleport Awards Luncheon, which is now in its 23 years at the Satellite Conference in Washington, DC. He is a co-author of three books, including, Brain Gain.

He gave a TEDx Talk in 2016 and spoke at the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Spencer has over 18 years of experience in the space industry where he has covered the functional areas of research and development, spacecraft operations, business development, and executive management. His professional experience has been built up at the University of Manchester, European Space Operations Center, CGI and now SCISYS. His executive management within SCISYS includes strategy, business development, operations management, and mergers and acquisitions.

Spencer received his B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and his Ph.D. in Advanced Space Propulsion from the University of Glasgow.