SSPI

Will Porteous is the General Partner & COO of RRE Ventures. During his nearly 20 years in the industry, Will and his team at RRE Ventures have invested in a range of higher risk ventures that cover the entire ecosystem of our industry, including Spire, Spaceflight & Ursa. These have become category defining ventures, which stimulate investment from others and the confidence of entrepreneurs.  Since his first investments in space and satellite, Will has become a central figure in the NY space tech sector.

Jillian began her career at SSL through a Cooperative Education program in 2008 while working on her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University. Upon graduating from Cornell with her Master’s Degree in 2011, she joined SSL full-time as a Responsible Mechanical Engineer. She now leads SSL’s Factory of the Future initiative for additive manufacturing, which includes planning investment areas and training other SSL employees in the use and benefits of additive manufacturing.

Mike began his career in the space industry at NASA Ames, where he worked on the PhoneSat project, developing low-cost CubeSat platforms that use smartphone technology. In 2011, he joined Planet Labs as a systems engineer. As the company grew to a global organization of over 450 people, Mike moved through a wide range of roles, from export regulatory licensing & compliance, overseeing Planet’s global ground station network to managing Planet’s launch strategy, the position he holds today.

Kacific is a next-generation broadband satellite operator delivering broadband to the Pacific and SE Asia, providing in many areas, affordable capacity for the first time.  It has built a digital platform and management ecosystem to provide satellite internet even to the most dispersed rural populations, allowing local service providers, telecom infrastructure providers, tourism industry leaders, governments, regional aid programs and local companies to improve their operations and offer more services.

The DARA project is led by the University of Leeds School of Physics and Astronomy and supported by Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. as an industry partner, as well as other partners. The project aims to develop high tech skills through training in radio astronomy in a number of African countries: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

In a conversation with SSPI's Rocky Mountain Chapter Director Michelle LaMar, Lockheed Martin’s Kay Sears talks about her early years, her first role in managing people and the leadership lessons she learned, how she hires and what she has learned about leading a team bringing major innovations to market.

Randy Segal co-heads the Global Space Practice at Hogan Lovells, a position she has held for nine years. Her career in the space and satellite industry started in 1992, and includes many leadership roles, including serving as general counsel or director, for American Mobile Satellite Corporation, XM Satellite Radio, Hughes Network Systems, TerreStar Networks (now EchoStar), and Mobile Satellite Ventures/SkyTerra (now Ligado Networks).

On this episode of the Better Satellite World podcast, Lou Zacharilla speaks with Intelsat's Eileen McGowan, one of the first recipients of an SSPI Promise Award in 2006.

In a conversation with SSPI's Robert Bell, Viasat’s Mark Dankberg talks about his early years, his first role in managing people and the leadership lessons he learned, how he hires and what he has learned about leading a team bringing major innovations to market.