Overview

Gender

male

Robert has over 30 years of experience in the space industry as an engineer, program manager, business development executive, and General Manager with Profit and Loss responsibility. He has worked on multiple programs from rovers on Mars, GPS, remote sensing, military, and commercial communication satellites, and launch vehicles.

In the mid-1990s, Robert invented innovative satellite-based machine-to-machine technologies in use by several operators. He is the founder of XTAR, LLC, the world’s first satellite services company exclusively offering capacity at X-band, which remains operational. He managed over $2B in business development at Lockheed Martin and later became President of their commercial launch services business unit, growing sales by over 50% and increasing earnings by 35%. He led the Lockheed Martin team that won several satellite programs in the middle east and the Asia Pacific, including the first and only contract signed under Shari’ah law. He also managed all organic and inorganic investments in Lockheed Martin’s space business, including investments such as RocketLab and Tyvak. More recently, he was the Chief Revenue Officer of Vector Launch. He is an investor and advisor to several ”new space” companies, a prolific author with multiple patents, a TED speaker, and has been active with non-profits.

Robert earned a degree in aerospace engineering from Arizona State University and a certificate in systems engineering from the University of Southern California.