EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: Bachelor of Science in Electrical
Engineering, Graduated in 1983.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

9/2010 to Present
SENIOR TECHNICAL MANAGER, OPERATIONS

Iridium, 44330 Woodridge Parkway, Leesburg, Virginia 20167

·         Technical manager of more than 100 subcontractor at the Leesburg Satellite and Network Control Center in Leesburg Virginia.

·         Responsible for providing Iridium’s decisions with regards to major satellite anomalies and participating with the anomaly review boards.   Additionally, I have worked day to day with the control center’s Chief Engineer to determine solutions which ranging from minor operational changes to replacing a mission satellite with a spare satellite. 

·         Responsible for maintaining service and improving L-band coverage, reducing risk of satellite losses by directing changes in satellite operations, developing satellite software upgrades, implementing the ground system changes and reviewing service and operations trending.  

·         Responsible for leading the space segment efforts to assure the space assets meet existing payload performance as new services are proposed and rolled out.

·         Responsible managing network infrastructure upgrades related to cyber security.   Additionally, I am currently responsible for rewriting Iridium’s Satellite Network Control Center security policies.

·         Responsible for authorizing conjunction avoidance maneuvers for the Iridium LEO constellation (currently 72 satellites).   Periodically met with JSpOC to improve our LEO conjunction processes.

·         Responsible for hosting tours within the control center for various customers, bankers, insurance parties, and occasionally host meetings with various government satellite operators (JPL, NASA, etc.) to show how our Iridium team performs commercial operations on 71 LEO satellites.

·         Responsible for reporting status of the constellation and ground network to Iridium’s senior management and responsible for creating a number of monthly, quarterly and yearly reports.

·         Responsible for Iridium current constellation operational and facility budgets and managing most of the capital projects related to the space segment.

10/2008 to 08/2010
DIRECTOR NEW BUSINESS

Orbital Science Corporation, 21839 Atlantic Blvd., Dulles, Virginia 20166

·         Responsible for directing Orbital’s technical responses for RFIs and RFPs.

·         Working with the customer and leading the Orbital’s technical team to design a payload that will meet the RF requirements and maximize payload performance to close their business case.

·         Working with potential payload vendors to develop Orbital’s payload capabilities for future DoD and  UAV satellites.

·         Supporting Orbital’s customer support organization response to major in-orbit anomalies

05/2006 to 10/2008
SENIOR.   SATELLITE SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Intelsat Corporation, 3400 International Drive, NW Washington D.C.   20008

• Responsible for supporting Intelsat’s satellite operations.   Responsible for defining requirements, developing and implementing improvements to the existing ground systems or simulators.   Interface with ground system vendors and satellite manufacturers.  

• Responsibilities include daily monitoring and trending of satellite health and anomaly investigations.   Emergency on call duties for Orbital Science and Boeing satellites.  

• Recent duties include developing operational procedures for the Thales Spacebus3000 which was launched in May 2007.   Responsibilities included converting the Thales EXCEL command list procedures into fully automated scripts on an ISI ground system language.

01/2005 to 05/2006

SATELLITE SYSTEMS ENGINEER

PanAmSat Corporation (PanAmSat merged with Intelsat in 05/2006), 1600 Forbes Way, Long Beach, CA 90810

• Support the satellite and control systems procurement.   Responsibilities included reviewing and modifying ground system procurement requirements and contracts.   Experience with ISI’s Epoch ground control system and Raytheon’s Eclipse ground control system.

• Responsible for commanding and treading the satellite payload and communicating with the NOC

• Responsibilities included overseeing the acceptance testing of the satellite simulator and for troubleshooting and resolving the satellite simulator issues.  
  
  
• Managed key satellite operations, including attitude control procedures and string changes.   Satellite bus types included the Loral FS1300, Orbital Science Star-2, Boeing HS601 and HS702.

• Participating in real-time anomaly resolution for the satellite fleet including payload problems.   Responsible for leading any post anomaly discussions with the satellite manufacturer.

• Responsible for managing the implementation procedural changes and satellite configuration changes.  

• Responsible for daily monitoring and trending of satellite health.  

02/2001 to 02/2004
DEPUTY OPERATIONS MANAGER

JSAT Corporation, Yokohama Satellite Control Center, Yokohama, Japan.  

• Senior Systems Engineer supporting the satellite and control systems procurement, participating in preliminary and critical design reviews, overseeing acceptance testing, system validation of ground hardware and software, updating and validating ground databases and the tracking of problem reports.  

• Responsible for creating requirements for technical specifications, statements of work for new ground control systems and dynamic simulators.   Responsibilities include interfacing with the ground equipment vendors and satellite vendors.  

• Responsible for daily monitoring and trending of satellite health.   Participated operational events such as procedure scheduling, training, problem isolation, problem report reviews, frequency interference issues and vendor teleconferences.   Participate in the monthly management reporting and quarterly reporting to insurance companies.  

01/1999 to 08/2000

SENIOR SPACECRAFT PLANNING ANALYST

ICO Global Communications, Hammersmith, United Kingdom.  

• Primary responsibility was preparing six international remote earth stations and the main satellite control center for satellite operations for the ICO constellation (primarily a HS702 bus).   Responsibilities included creating and/or upgrading and validating satellite procedures and ground procedures.  
  
  

• Responsibilities also included troubleshooting control center problems, system validation of ground control hardware and software, updating and validating ground databases, and responsible for training the Satellite Controllers.  

08/1997 to 12/1998

SENIOR SPACECRAFT ANALYST

ICO Services Incorporated, El Segundo, California.

• A team member responsible for monitoring the integration and test of several ICO satellites (primarily a HS702 bus) in the BSS highbay.  

• Responsible for overseeing the factory and site accepting testing for the ICO satellite control centers, remote satellite access nodes and the dynamic satellite simulator.   Responsibilities also included defining missing requirement.

11/1994 to 07/1997

SENIOR PROJECT ENGINEER

Boeing Space Systems, El Segundo, California.

• Lead Engineer responsible for providing technical support for in-orbit testing and on-station operations for customers purchasing Hughes built three-axis stabilized satellites.   Responsibilities included all aspects of customer training and validation of contingency and nominal on-station procedures, operations, satellite data collection and analysis and problem reporting for the HS601 classic and HS601HP.

• A member of an engineering team to developed and tested alternative methods for operating anomalous three-axis stabilized satellites.  

08/1989 to 10/1994

PROJECT ENGINEER

Hughes Space and Communications Group, El Segundo, California.

• Primary responsibilities included the development of the satellite operational instructions and the associated ground control software for the HS-601 three-axis stabilized satellite.   Responsibilities included verifying the software programs meet all nominal and contingency requirements.   Responsibilities included performing the validation of the ground control operational software and procedural scripts against a dynamic satellite simulator.   Responsibilities included documenting, designing and developing scripts, and testing of ground control software library subroutines which include: commanding, command configuration, telemetry configurations, and on-board processor reprogramming routines.  

• Responsible for providing automated procedures and support for the HS-601 launch and transfer orbit which include: maneuvers, ranging, power management, deployment/checkout of reflectors and solar panels, momentum wheel assemblies, and solar arrays, sun and earth acquisition and in-orbit health test.  

03/1986 to 07/1989
TECHNICAL STAFF ENGINEER

Hughes Radar Systems Group, Culver City, California.  

• Responsible for the integration and operation and maintenance of a reconnaissance imaging system called the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar Systems II.   Troubleshoot problems to component level during a two-year field assignment in South Korea.

03/1984 to 03/1986
SATELLITE TEST ENGINEER

Hughes Space and Communications Group, El Segundo, California.

• System test member performing system level testing on HS-376 spin stabilized satellites.   Responsibilities included the functional verification of the satellite Telemetry, Command, Attitude Control, Power and Communications subsystems.   Testing covered all phases of spacecraft construction and environmental and deployment testing.   Testing also included anechoic communications payload testing and control, attitude and tracking performance.