Former executives from Virgin Galactic, Maxar, and Bank of America bring decades of industry and operational expertise as Capella Space rapidly delivers higher volumes of data from space
SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2021 — Capella Space, an information services company that provides high-quality, high-speed Earth observation data on demand, today announced several new members of its leadership team as the company continues to grow its satellite constellation and expand service offerings. Jon Campagna joins the team as the company’s first CFO, Julie Ambory as the VP of people, and Nate Ricklin as the VP of product engineering.
Campagna, Ambory, and Ricklin join a growing team of industry veterans and experienced leaders supporting Capella’s mission to provide high-resolution, high-quality SAR imagery on demand. With decades of experience, they join the rest of the leadership team to deliver greater value to customers and will help guide Capella Space into a new chapter of growth.
Campagna, Capella’s new CFO, has over 20 years of experience at both public and private companies. Most recently, he was the CFO at Virgin Galactic, where he led that company’s successful transition from a privately held to a public company via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger in 2019. Prior to his time at Virgin Galactic, Jon held various financial leadership positions in the US and Europe at Ericsson and ICON Aircraft.
“Data is the most valuable asset in space and I’m thrilled to join a company that has reached commercial operations and is delivering significant value to customers,” said Jon Campagna, the CFO of Capella Space. “There is a large market opportunity for timely and reliable information from space, and I look forward to working with Payam and the team to continue to grow and scale the company.”
In addition to a new CFO, Capella today announced a new VP of people, Julie Ambory, who will lead Capella’s global recruiting, people operations, talent development, total rewards, and organizational effectiveness while championing Capella’s highly collaborative, inclusive, and innovative culture. Julie has more than 20 years of experience and a proven record of guiding organizations through successful transformational changes. Prior to Capella, Julie held HR leadership positions across multiple industries and organizations, including Medtronic, First Data Corporation, Bank of America, Motorola, and Honeywell.
In his role as the vice president of product engineering, Nate Ricklin will lead the architecture, development, and execution of Capella’s industry-leading Earth observation products and services. Ricklin has spent the last 15 years building technology to manage Earth observation data, extract insights and deliver them to customers. Most recently, he led engineering at Arturo.ai, prior to which he led the online imagery platforms EarthWatch, SecureWatch, and Global EGD at Maxar Technologies. In addition, Ricklin led Maxar’s engineering for GBDX, a cloud-based platform-as-a-service that applies artificial intelligence to satellite imagery.
“As the recent blockage in the Suez Canal showed, the need for reliable, on-demand, high-resolution data about what is happening on Earth has never been greater,” said Payam Banazadeh, the CEO and founder of Capella Space. “As our constellation delivers high-frequency data and adds greater value to a growing base of customers, Jon, Julie, and Nate, along with the rest of our leadership team, will help us continue to grow the team with an innovative, collaborative, and inclusive company culture that delivers an informational edge for our customers.”
Capella Space is the first American commercial SAR provider and the first commercial company to provide 50cm resolution SAR imagery, the highest resolution commercially available. Capella’s SAR systems image in all weather and light conditions, day or night. The company is growing its constellation with plans to launch more satellites in the coming months. To learn more about Capella’s SAR technology and information services, visit https://www.capellaspace.com/technology/.
About Capella Space:
Capella Space is an information services company that provides on-demand 50cm high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Earth observation imagery. Through a constellation of small satellites, Capella provides easy access to frequent, timely and flexible information affecting dozens of industries worldwide. Capella’s high-resolution SAR satellites are matched with unparalleled infrastructure to deliver reliable global insights that sharpen our understanding of the changing world – improving decisions about commerce, conservation and security on Earth. Learn more at www.capellaspace.com.
Capella Space Media Contact:
Alex Nelson
capellaspace@inkhouse.com