About Us

Frank Backes is the Chief Executive Officer at Capella Space. Previously, Mr. Backes served as Senior Vice President for Kratos Space Federal and Commercial Cyber and has spent 30+ years in the satellite launch, command, control, and communications industries. Mr. Backes is a technology pioneer in the systematic and continuous application of cyber security solutions for space systems. Mr. Backes is the former Chief Executive Officer for Braxton Technologies LLC and Braxton Science and Technology Group, LLC, leading manufacturers of launch, command and control software for intelligence, military and commercial applications based in Colorado Springs, CO. He is a space industry thought leader recognized for innovating solutions that expand organizational capability, product portfolios and market presence.

Mr. Backes is a noted industry speaker for innovative technologies and company brands delivering professional-level presentations with extensive tradeshow and large industry event experience. He was recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009 for achievements in the aerospace industry. Mr. Backes is the founder and president of the Space ISAC and serves on the board of directors for Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), and formerly, the advisory board for the University of Colorado Boulder Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department, and the chairman of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable. He received a BSEE in Semiconductor Physics from the University of California at San Diego along with minors in communications/marketing and computer hardware.

With nearly two decades of experience in the cyber field, Leslie has built a career as a visionary leader and operational expert. Most recently, she served as the Cyber Technical Director of Space DELTA 6 (DEL 6), Space Operations Command, United States Space Force, where she directed cyber capabilities and architecture for a mission-critical team spanning 13 geographically-separated locations. Under her guidance, more than 1,000 personnel executed operations supporting 11 Combatant Commands—an accomplishment that highlights her exceptional ability to navigate complex challenges with precision and innovation.

Leslie’s journey began in the Army as a Signals Intelligence Analyst, where her expertise and determination earned her the distinction of becoming the Army’s first female Interactive On-Net (ION) operator certified by the National Security Agency (NSA). Throughout her career, she has held pivotal roles in offensive cyber operations, strategic planning, and the development of innovative cybersecurity solutions. From forming the NSA’s first cyber-focused Cryptologic Support Group at DHS to launching a commercial cyber hunt center, her contributions have been both impactful and transformative.

In the private sector, Leslie co-founded and led numerous cybersecurity initiatives, creating operational platforms and cyber service programs tailored to meet the evolving needs of federal and commercial clients. She’s also an advocate for fostering cyber talent, serving as a mentor for Cyber Patriots and co-founding the Colorado chapter of Military Cyber Professionals.

Nathan Kennedy is the Senior Vice President of Operations at Capella Space, with accountability for manufacturing, supply chain management, contracts, program and mission management.  Nathan brings over 25 years of experience in these functions to Capella, having held leadership roles across multiple industries including consumer electronics, medical and aerospace/defense.  His experience has included domestic and international companies ranging from start-up to Fortune 50.

Nathan holds a BA in Economics & Spanish from Weber State University and an MBA in Supply Chain & Finance from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

August 2021 after a 35-year career, serving most recently as the Headquarters Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations from Aug 2020 to June 2022. In that role, he lead the development and implementation of policy directly supporting global operations, force management, training and readiness across air, space and cyber fields. He represented the Air Force at Joint Staff-led Tank and Ops Deputy sessions.  Prior to that assignment, Lt Gen Guastella was the Air Component Commander, CFACC, in the CENTCOM AOR from August 2018-July 2020

Lt Gen Guastella commanded the 455 AEW in Bagram Afghanistan from July 2012- July 2013.  His staff assignments as a general officer include Deputy Director of Strategic Plans and Programs, A8, Headquarters USAF; Deputy Director of Requirements, J8, Joint Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations and Intelligence, NATO SHAPE; and Director of Integrated Air, Space, Cyberspace and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance USAF Space Command.

Lt Gen Guastella is a command pilot with more than 4,000 flight hours in the F-16 and A-10. He has served multiple combat tours and instructed at the U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School. Guastella is a 1987 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and earned Master’s Degrees from the Air Command & Staff College and the National War College

Jeffrey K. Harris has contributed to US national security in both government and industry where he has fostered new technologies, programs and capabilities that have contributed significantly to US national security capabilities.  He currently consults with industry and the US Government.  

He is retired from Lockheed Martin, where he was a corporate officer and served as President of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space and President of Lockheed Martin Special Programs.  Also, he was President of Space Imaging, the first company to commercially provide high-resolution satellite imagery and information.

Before entering the private sector, Mr. Harris served in senior national leadership positions, including Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space; Director, National Reconnaissance Office, and Associate Executive Director of the Intelligence Community.  

Mr. Harris has received numerous awards, most notably the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA Distinguished Service Medal, the NRO Medal for Distinguished Service, the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, NDIA’s Peter B. Teets space industry achievement award and the James V. Hartinger Award for military space achievement.  

He is a member of the Commander STRATCOM Strategic Advisory Group, an advisor to the National Security Space Association, a director of the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, a director of the National Intelligence University Foundation and is the Chairman of the Open Geospatial Consortium. He is Vice Chair at Rochester Institute of Technology.  He serves on a number of corporate boards.

Mr. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in Photographic Science and Instrumentation from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Gil Klinger is a consultant supporting clients in a wide range of defense, intelligence, and cyber topics. From mid-2017 to mid-2020, he was Vice President for Space Programs at the Raytheon Company. He was a Vice President for National Security Future Architectures at the Harris Corporation from mid-2015 to mid-2017. In 2015, he retired from the U.S. Government after almost 31 years, during which he served as a Senior Executive in leadership positions across the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Intelligence Community (IC), and on the National Security Council (NSC) Staff.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategic, Space and Intelligence, he was responsible for acquisition oversight of all space and intelligence programs executed by the DoD, with a total value exceeding $10 Billion. He was responsible for oversight and coordination with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for most acquisition programs executed within the National Intelligence Program. During his tenure, his portfolio expanded to include strategic nuclear delivery platforms, various Unmanned Air Vehicles, Long Range Conventional Strike capabilities, and several Missile Defense systems.

As an ODNI senior official, he led the Integrated Collection Architecture, an unprecedented IC/DoD study that developed capability, architecture, and investment alternatives for recapitalizing U.S. collection capabilities.  He also played a critical role in the Imagery Way Ahead, an 18-month study that developed and gained approval for the modernization of a central element of the U.S. imagery architecture.

As the NSC Director of Space Policy, Mr. Klinger was principal author of five national space polices, including the first new U.S. space exploration vision in more than a generation, which he briefed to, and gained approval from President Bush. Previously, as Director of Policy at the NRO, he developed and oversaw implementation of all internal policy, interagency activity, and international engagement. He also created an internal body to review special access programs and activities. In earlier positions at the DoD, he authored the design used to direct a DoD wide reorganization of space management. Mr. Klinger created the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for Space, consolidating for the first time all OSD space policy development, architecture, programmatic, and operational oversight activities.

He also led the Strategic Targeting Review, called by then Secretary of Defense Cheney “the most comprehensive and in-depth study of nuclear targeting ever initiated by this department. ”Its findings resulted in significant changes to the guidance for constructing U.S. nuclear war plans and for strategic forces’ acquisition programs and formed the basis for the U.S. negotiating position in the START II talks.

Mr. Klinger began his career in the Presidential Management Internship Program.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany with a B.A. in European History and Political Science. He received a master’s degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He and his wife, Susy O’Donnell have two children; they reside in northern Virginia.

Mr. Douglas Loverro is a highly regarded national space thinker and leader who current serves as President, Loverro Consulting, LLC. There, he provides strategic advice and guidance to multiple elements of the national security and civil space sectors including Executive and Legislative Branches of government, private and public space companies, international space agencies, and equity investment firms. He most recently served as the Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations for the National Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) where he led all Human Spaceflight and Exploration activities including the mission to the moon, the International Space Station, and Commercial Crew and Cargo programs.

Previously, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy. In this role, he was responsible for establishing policy and guidance to assure United States and allied warfighters the benefits of Space capabilities and helped guide the Department’s strategy for addressing space-related issues. He also led Departmental activities in international space cooperation. He was also a prime mover in the stand-up of the US Space Force.

Over many decades of space experience, Mr. Loverro served in multiple leadership roles. From as the Executive Director for Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center, and the Air Force’s Deputy Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Space, overseeing every major DoD space effort. In prior assignments he managed multiple major DoD and National Reconnaissance space programs such as the US GPS program and the US’s Future Imagery Architecture Program.

Mr Loverro holds a Master of Science in Physics from the University of New Mexico, a Master of Political Science from Auburn University, and an MBA from the University of West Florida in addition to his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the US Air Force Academy. He was a distinguished graduate from the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College and Squadron Officer School and was the #1 graduate from DoD’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

He is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards including the Secretary of Defense’s Medal for Outstanding Public Service, AIAA’s Durand Lecture for Public Service, the National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) Bob Hope Distinguished Citizen Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Federation of Galaxy Explorers, the Society of Satellite Professional Engineers Stellar Award, and the Armed Forces Communicants and Electronics Association’s (AFCEA) Benjamin Oliver Gold Medal for Engineering amongst many other civilian and military honors.

Clay Hutmacher is a former United States Army Officer, serving most recently as Director of Operations in the U.S. Special Operation Command, Tampa, FL. Mr. Hutmacher retired after more than 40 years of service and is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  

As a former Army Special Operations Aviator, he commanded at every level during his three tours with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, where he served as the MH-60 Direct Action Penetrator platoon leader, company operations officer, executive officer and commander of 1st Battalion, Regimental Commander, and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command. His impressive list of assignments included Deputy Commanding General U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Deputy Commanding General for Support of the 2nd Infantry Division, Assistant Commanding General for Special Operations Forces Mobility, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission, and Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command. He was also assigned to the U.S. Air Force 55th Special Operations Squadron, as the Squadron Tactics Officer, Instructor Pilot, and Flight Commander; Troop Commander and S3 of the Flight Concepts Division; and Commander of 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment.

He has received a number of military awards and decorations including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Defense Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with Number 6, Combat Action Badge, Master Army Aviator Badge, Pathfinder Badge, Parachutist Badge, and Air Assault Badge.

Mr. Hutmacher holds a Master’s Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United States Naval Command and Staff College, a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Robert P. Ashley Jr. is a retired Army Lieutenant General with thirty-six years of leadership, operational, and combat experience in intelligence, global security, and risk management. He served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency responsible to the Secretary of Defense for global security and risk management.

During his time in the Army, he served as the senior intelligence officer, responsible to the Secretary of the Army for security, counter-intelligence, and intelligence systems development for an intelligence force of over sixty thousand Soldiers. As the former commandant for the Army’s Intelligence Center and School, he helped train over ten thousand soldiers annually in multiple job specialties including cyber, counter-intelligence, analysis, open source intelligence, enterprise intelligence collection systems, and was a plank holder in designing the Army’s cyber mission force.  

Mr. Ashley Jr. also has extensive combat experience as a former commander and senior intelligence officer for the Joint Special Operations Command, Central Command, and International Security and Assistance Forces Afghanistan.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, most notably the Cyber, Space & Intelligence Association / Strategic Forces Association Leadership Award, an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Strategic Intelligence by the National Intelligence University, Daughters of the American Revolution Patriot Award, Appalachian State University Outstanding Alumni, as well as recognitions as a Wash100 Awardee and a John Maxwell’s Annual Leadership Top Ten Awardee.  

Mr. Ashley Jr. holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the U.S. Army War College, a Bachelor of Science from Appalachian State University, and is a member of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Kenan Flagler Business School Executive Leader Development program.

Roger Mason is the President of Peraton’s Space & intelligence Sector—a $2 billion organization focused on delivering aerospace flight systems, advanced products, mission solutions, technology services and global operations for the civil and national security space markets and major Intelligence Community agencies.

Previously, Dr. Mason served as the first Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Systems and Resource Analyses where he was the DNI’s principal intelligence officer for determining the National Intelligence Program, IC requirements, strategic capabilities and cost analyses.  He was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal—the IC’s highest award and led his team to four Intelligence Meritorious Unit Commendations.  His overall career spans three decades that includes senior executive positions at General Dynamics, Institute for Defense Analyses and Noblis with a focus on national security and intelligence markets.

Dr. Mason’s board service includes a number of public, private and non-profit boards including Maxar Technologies, DigitalGlobe, Intelligence Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences, DNI’s Senior Advisory Group, Intelligence and National Security Alliance and the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation where he was Chairman.  He has also been a member of numerous independent reviews, studies and failure investigations for top IC leaders and Congress in the areas of overhead reconnaissance, space resilience and geospatial intelligence. Dr. Mason earned a Ph.D. in engineering physics from the University of Virginia, an MBA from Kellogg—Northwestern University and a BS in physics from the George Washington University.

Peter Tague is currently the Managing Partner at US Innovative Technology (USIT), an early and growth stage investment firm backing technology companies with dual-use applications to commercial customers and the national security community.

He was previously an Executive Vice President at In-Q-Tel, a strategic, early-stage technology investor supporting the intelligence community mission of the United States and its allies.   He joined In-Q-Tel to start up its International business unit in a new relationship with US, UK, and Australian intelligence agencies, eventually establishing an organization with two foreign offices which had completed more than 35 deals in seven countries.  Additionally, he oversaw IQT Labs, a group delivering insights around the hard problems facing national security by doing collaborative applied research.

Prior to 2018, Peter spent three decades in finance where he was most recently led Citi’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions franchise. Peter’s track record includes successful investment, advisory, defense, and capital raising transactions across a wide range of industries.  Additionally, he has significant expertise in the areas of corporate governance and national security.

Pete Williams is a Partner and the COO of Cota Capital. Pete is responsible for overseeing the Firm’s operations, finance, legal, and compliance matters. Pete also serves on the Firm’s Investment Committee. Leveraging his operational, financial, and legal experience from serving as a public SaaS company CFO and as a Corporate Finance Partner at a preeminent law firm, Pete is involved in structuring and negotiating the Firm’s private company investments as well as providing operating support to portfolio company executive teams.

Prior to Cota, Pete served in a number of executive positions at Saba, including CFO, EVP of Corporate Development, and General Counsel.

Previously, Pete was a Partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, a leading international law firm. Pete has extensive experience representing entrepreneurs and technology companies as well as venture capital and investment banking firms on venture financings, public offerings, and M&A transactions. In addition to private and public financings and acquisitions, Pete specialized in intellectual property development, licensing, and distribution transactions. During his tenure at Morrison & Foerster LLP, Pete was recognized as one of the top 20 lawyers under 40 in the state of California.

Pete has a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Ken Gonzalez is Managing Director at NightDragon, an investment and advisory firm focused on growth and late-stage investments within the cybersecurity, safety, security, and privacy industries. He has been a senior operating executive at technology companies for over 20 years. Ken led the strategy and corporate business development functions for Siebel Systems (Oracle), McAfee, Avast, and FireEye. During his career he has completed over 40 acquisitions, 23 of which have been in cybersecurity. He has created, managed, and grown numerous strategic go-to-market partnerships from technology integration to OEM, reseller, and two-tier distribution. Prior to joining NightDragon, Ken was Managing Director at ForgePoint Capital. Ken is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He also served in the U.S. Army as an infantry officer with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Matt Ocko has over three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, in the US and globally. Matt is the Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at DCVC, where his investments span computational and synthetic biology, geospatial and space access platforms, robotics, applied AI, anti-terror systems, and large-scale enterprise platforms including quantum computers. Matt has led significant investments with a Board seat in Rocket Lab (RKLB), Pivot Bio, Embark Trucks (EMBK), Capella Space, Primer Technologies, Fortem Technologies, Jupiter Intelligence, Agility Robotics, Reach Labs, Nervana (acquired by Intel) and Blue River (acquired by Deere & Co), and led the seed for and was actively engaged in SentinelOne (S) through exit.

In addition to successful IPO outcomes, several of Matt’s prior investments were acquired by companies like Illumina, Cisco, Google, IBM, Amazon/AWS, VMware, Salesforce, and Akamai. Prior to co-founding DCVC, Matt was an active angel investor, with early investments in companies like Zoom (ZM) and Uber (UBER), and his institutional venture capital experience encompasses significant prior roles at VantagePoint, SOFTBANK Technology Ventures (aka Mobius Venture Capital), Sevin Rosen Funds, and Helix Investments.

Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Matt founded Da Vinci Systems, a pioneering e-mail software vendor with over 1 million users world-wide prior to its acquisition in 1994.

Matt holds a degree in Physics from Yale University, and he is an inventor on over 50 granted or in-process patents in areas as diverse as computer systems virtualization, fraud detection, and augmented reality.

Bobby Yazdani is a Founder and Partner of Cota Capital. Before forming Cota Capital in 2014, Mr. Yazdani spent over 20 years investing in technology companies both individually and through his family office. In 1997, Mr. Yazdani founded Saba Software (“Saba”), a software company that went public in 2000 and was acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSOD) in 2020. At Saba, Mr. Yazdani served as its CEO from 1997 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2013. Prior to Saba, Mr. Yazdani served in various roles in product development at Oracle from 1988 to 1997.

Mr. Yazdani made his first investment in 1989 in medical technology company Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI. Mr. Yazdani founded his family office, Signatures Capital, in 2006, investing in over 100 private companies in the technology sector, many of which have gone on to successful exits. In 2014, Mr. Yazdani was ranked #1 out of 2000 angel investors in a report by CB Insights as having the most successful track record for investing in companies that received follow-on funding. Mr. Yazdani holds a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Matt founded GeoEye (NASDAQ: GEOY), a leading global provider of satellite and aerial imagery, digital mapping information, geospatial solutions and location analytics, in 2003. In January 2013, he concluded its sale to DigitalGlobe for $1.3 billion.

Matt has been recognized as a thought leader in the satellite, digital mapping and intelligence industries. He was elected to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s (USGIF) Board of Directors in 2007 and served on the board for five years. He has served on many Government and industry advisory panels, including the Interior Dept’s National Geospatial Advisory Council and NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing. He has won several industry awards including the USGIF’s Corporate Leader award.

From October 2015 to July 2016, Matt was CEO of OneWeb. From 2018–2020, he was a partner in Seraphim Capital, a London based venture firm focused exclusively on space.

Prior to joining GeoEye, Matt held executive positions Crest Advisors, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on telecom infrastructure, Sony Worldwide Networks, and Cablevision Systems Corporation. He began his career as a mergers and acquisitions attorney on Wall Street. Prior to his professional career, Mr. O’Connell worked for two years as a musician.

Payam Banazadeh is the founder of Capella Space and a current member of the board. Before Capella, Payam worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, where his work on two NASA missions was honored with their Mariner Award. Payam holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering, from the University of Texas at Austin, and a MS in Business and Management from Stanford. Payam was recently named to Forbes “30 Under 30” list and is a fellow of the National Science Foundation.

Brandon Smith is the VP of Space Systems leading the engineering R&D efforts along with production and missions at Capella Space. Brandon has over 16 years of hands-on experience developing complex systems and leading teams of various sizes. Most recently he worked at Alion Science and Technology where he led the development of electronic warfare systems. Brandon has a strong background in engineering leadership and received an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering Leadership at Northeastern University via the Gordon Engineering Leadership program.

Gordon is the VP of Sensor Systems at Capella Space. Gordon has 27 years of experience in radar design, construction and operation, and in the analysis of microwave radar data for atmospheric, oceanic and land measurements. He worked as an engineer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO from 2004 to 2009, where he developed microwave and millimeter-wave radars for atmospheric research. In 2009, he joined the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington (APL-UW) as Principal Investigator. At APL-UW, he focused on developing microwave radars and algorithms to extract geophysical parameters from remote sensing radar data for programs funded by ONR, NASA, NSF, and DARPA. Gordon received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. There he developed techniques to retrieve nearshore ocean wave and current estimates from microwave radar data.

Rachel Cheetham is the Vice President of Operations at Capella Space. Previously, Mrs. Cheetham founded Final Offset, a consulting firm dedicated to building bridges between government, industry, and academia. As an independent consultant, Mrs. Cheetham worked with a variety of companies to develop market capture plans, refine business models, and create strategic marketing & communication plans. Mrs. Cheetham brings diverse experience having worked for both commercial companies as well as for the Department of Defense (DoD). Mrs. Cheetham served as the Director of the DoD Defense Innovation Board’s (DIB) Space Advisory Committee supporting their mission to provide independent advice on strategic, organizational, and technological issues affecting the space domain. Prior to her work with the DIB, Mrs. Cheetham served as the Regional Director of the DoD National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) where she engaged military customers, start-ups, and academic institutions to leverage the best ideas, talent, and technology against critical national security problems. Mrs. Cheetham also served as the Chief of Staff of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems where she worked with the executive team to coordinate strategy development and execution. Mrs. Cheetham is a collaborator, mentor and has a proven record of elevating others as an advocate and champion of the aerospace industry. Mrs. Cheetham received a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business and Economics from New Mexico State University and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

Nate Ricklin is the VP of Product Engineering at Capella Space, leading the architecture, development and execution of Capella’s industry-leading Earth observation products and services. Nate 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, Nate led Maxar’s engineering for GBDX, a cloud-based platform-as-a-service that applies artificial intelligence to satellite imagery. Prior to that, Nate cofounded Tomnod, a satellite imagery crowdsourcing platform used in many humanitarian, search-and-rescue and disaster management applications. Tomnod was subsequently acquired by DigitalGlobe. Nate holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Dan Connors is the General Counsel and Secretary of San Francisco-based Capella Space Corp. responsible for all legal and regulatory compliance matters. He has more than 25 years of legal experience counseling public and private technology companies.

Prior to Capella Space, Dan served as General Counsel & Secretary of digital health company xG Health Solutions, Inc., that merged with Geisinger Health. Before xG, he was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of NASDAQ traded satellite imagery provider GeoEye, Inc., that was acquired by DigitalGlobe. In addition to his experience with New York and San Francisco based law firms, Dan served as in-house counsel for Tokyo based Tomen Corporation. Dan also served as a legal advisor to former Federal Communications Commissioner Susan Ness.

Dan earned his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School and a B.S., Finance from the University of Maryland. Dan lives in Bethesda, MD with his wife and three children.

Christian Lenz is the Chief Technology Officer at Capella Space. Drawing from 30 years of experience in aerospace engineering and operations, Christian leads the integration of mechanical, electrical, and radar engineering disciplines into an effective deployment of the Capella small sat constellation. He built his first satellite in 1994. Christian holds a MS in Aerospace Engineering from Colorado University in Boulder, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the Arizona State University. He is also a sailor, a cook, and world traveler who has sailed extensively throughout the Caribbean with his family on their catamaran “Blue.”

Justin brings over 15 years of leadership in finance and strategy within the government, international, and commercial aerospace sectors. His unique professional experience includes 10+ years leading finance for Kratos Space as well as a notable tenure at the Department of Defense Price/Cost Center. Justin also served in the US Navy where he was the lead operator of the Naval Atlantic Fleet Tax Center. Justin holds a BA in Finance as well as an MBA from the University of Texas consortium of schools.

Frank Backes is the Chief Executive Officer at Capella Space. Previously, Mr. Backes served as Senior Vice President for Kratos Space Federal and Commercial Cyber and has spent 30+ years in the satellite launch, command, control, and communications industries. Mr. Backes is a technology pioneer in the systematic and continuous application of cyber security solutions for space systems. Mr. Backes is the former Chief Executive Officer for Braxton Technologies LLC and Braxton Science and Technology Group, LLC, leading manufacturers of launch, command and control software for intelligence, military and commercial applications based in Colorado Springs, CO. He is a space industry thought leader recognized for innovating solutions that expand organizational capability, product portfolios and market presence.

Mr. Backes is a noted industry speaker for innovative technologies and company brands delivering professional-level presentations with extensive tradeshow and large industry event experience. He was recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009 for achievements in the aerospace industry. Mr. Backes is the founder and president of the Space ISAC and serves on the board of directors for Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), and formerly, the advisory board for the University of Colorado Boulder Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department, and the chairman of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable. He received a BSEE in Semiconductor Physics from the University of California at San Diego along with minors in communications/marketing and computer hardware.