Stuart Daughtridge – Director & Chair
Vice President of Advanced Technology, Kratos
Mr. Daughtridge has been with Kratos since 1999, and in the satellite and aerospace industry since 1986. In his current position, Mr. Daughtridge leads Kratos’ satellite ground segment technology research and development efforts. Prior to his current role, he held several senior management positions, including SVP & GM of the Integral Systems Products Group, SVP & GM of the Integral Systems Commercial Group, as well as Program Manager of several major commercial programs. Before joining the Company, Mr. Daughtridge held various management and engineering positions with Orion Satellite Corporation, Intelsat, and Spacecom. Mr. Daughtridge holds a Bachelor of Science from Lafayette College.
Juan Deaton – Director
Research Scientist, Apothym Technology Group
Juan Deaton is a research scientist at Apothym Technologies Group, using his 20 years of telecom experience and research to build virtualized satellite communications systems. In his previous employment with Comtech EF Data, he was engaged in various types of research, such as anti-jam waveforms, satellite channel models, and developing LDPC codes for Versa FEC 2. Before working at Comtech EF Data, he worked for the Idaho National Lab, where he researched spectrum optimization, spectrum modeling, and emergency communications. He also worked for Motorola’s CDMA network division, receiving the 2005 CDMA Quality Award for developing hands-on training for CDMA cellular equipment deployments. His patented and published work includes spectrum sharing in 4G wireless networks, wireless airborne emergency communications, and mobile advertising. Dr. Deaton holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech and a BSEE from the University of Idaho.
Benjamin Hilburn – Director
Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Ben is a Principal Program Manager on the Azure Spectrum Technologies team at Microsoft. Prior to Microsoft, he ran the USRP engineering team at National Instruments / Ettus Research, was the Director of Engineering at DeepSig Inc., a venture-funded startup applying AI to the RF physical layer, and led the GNU Radio project and was President of its foundation. Ben earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer engineering from Virginia Tech, focusing on architectures for heterogeneous computing in software radio systems.
John Heskett – Director
Chief Technology Officer, Kongsberg Satellite Services
John Heskett serves as the Chief Technology Officer for KSAT. John has 20 years’ experience developing algorithms and system solutions for Space to Ground communications links and satellite ground stations. John specializes in Modem and DSP design but also has experience with ground processing and data transport solutions for both TT&C and Mission Data links. John has a bachelor’s and master’s Degree in Electrical and Systems Engineering respectively.
Ryan Stevenson – Director
Kymeta Corporation
As a founding member of the Kymeta organization, Dr. Ryan Stevenson has worked on the development of Kymeta technology since 2011. With his work at Intellectual Ventures, he helped spin out and create Kymeta. He brought an extensive background in RF/microwave engineering, photonics, and semiconductor manufacturing to his role at Kymeta. Ryan leads R&D and Intellectual Property for Kymeta.
Prior to joining Kymeta, Ryan held leadership roles in research science and system analytics in the government, public sector, and aerospace markets. It was in these markets that Ryan honed his skills in managing cross-functional initiatives that brought together engineering, hardware, software, and mechanical disciplines to deliver reliable, innovative systems architectures. His early career successes in integrated photonics, antennas, and communications system modeling set the stage for today’s efforts at Kymeta.
Ryan holds a B.S. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Carmel Ortiz – Director
Vice President of Systems Innovation, Intelsat
Carmel Ortiz has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications, satellite, and digital media industries. In her current role as Vice President of Systems Innovation at Intelsat, Carmel is responsible for the ideation, design, and development of large breakthrough technology initiatives that will reshape Intelsat’s offerings and customer experience. Prior to joining Intelsat in May of 2020, Carmel was the Vice President/Chief Systems Engineer of OneWeb, where she was responsible for the overall system engineering, design, and performance of the low-earth orbit (LEO) broadband communication system.
Prior to OneWeb, Carmel co-founded Skjei Telecom, a satellite communications engineering consulting firm serving large commercial and federal government clients. Earlier in her career, Carmel held various engineering positions at GTE Corporation, GTE Spacenet, and GE Americom. She is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with a certificate in telecommunications.
Robert Rainhart – Director
Chief Operating Officer, Hawkeye 360
Rob Rainhart, HawkEye 360 Chief Operating Officer, has extensive background in developing commercial products, technology and solutions with dual use applications in both commercial and defense and intelligence markets. Rob has been involved in technical leadership for more than 2 decades and has more than 25 years of experience in leading teams, engineering products and developing business models for new products and markets. Since February 2016 Rob has called HawkEye 360 home, building the companies RF analytic products and associated constellation of RF sensing satellites. At HawkEye Rob is responsible for engineering development, product management, and operations. Prior to HawkEye 360, Rob held various engineering and technical leadership roles with RT Logic and Harris Corporation. Rob holds a MS in Systems Engineering from Penn State and a BS in Electrical engineering Colorado State University.
James Rosenberg - Director
Chief Technical Officer, Wavestream
Jim 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, and has authored/co-authored 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 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.
Alex Moore - Director
Space Operations Lead, L3Harris
Dan Hobel - Director
Manager, Systems Engineering, Swedish Space Corporation (SSC)
Mark Jasen - Director
President and Management Partner, The Genus Group
Todd Reinking - Director
VP of Research and Development, Welkin Sciences
For more than a decade, J. Todd Reinking has designed various devices with Digital IF interfaces targeted for use in satellite communication ground terminals. Many of these devices transport signals in VITA 49 packets over Ethernet interfaces in a manner compliant with the ANSI/TIA 5041 Future Advanced SATCOM Technologies (FAST) Open Standard for Digital-IF Interfaces (OSDI). Dr. Reinking is actively engaged in migrating Welkin Sciences' existing product base to the DIFI standard, as well as designing new DIFI-compliant Digital IF devices for SATCOM signal monitoring, synthesis, and processing. Dr. Reinking continues to be active in the research of radio link performance over fading channels with emphasis on nuclear disturbed transionospheric channels. Dr. Reinking earned his Ph.D. in EE from the University of Kansas.