Mariangela Zappia is the Italian Ambassador to the United States of America. A career diplomat with over thirty-five years of experience, she is the first woman in her country to hold this position, as she was the first woman Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York and to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She has also been the first woman Diplomatic Advisor to the Italian Prime Minister and G7/G20 Sherpa. She is a regular speaker at international conferences on Italian Foreign policy and multilateral and global issues.

Ambassador Zappia is an active member of the International Gender Champions Network, aimed at promoting gender parity and women’s participation in decision-making. In 2019 she was awarded with the “Mela d’Oro” (Golden Apple) by the “Fondazione Marisa Bellisario”

Colonel Aniello Violetti started his career in 1994, enlisting as a pilot in the Air Force Academy where he got his master’s degree in Aeronautical Sciences. He received his Military Wings in 1999 and in 2001 he was assigned to the 155th Squadron (electronic warfare) where he was awarded the qualification of combat-ready pilot on the Tornado ECR aircraft. Between 2005 and 2017, as an experimental test pilot, he managed mainly experimental flight test activities relating to the Tornado and AMX ACOL aircraft, holding the positions of Head of the Attack Aircraft Section, Head of Operations Service, Head of Operations Office, and Commander of the 311st test squadron.

In 2017, Colonel Violetti held the position of Head of the "Innovation for Aerospace" Office of the Air Force General Office for Space, managing mainly Italian Air Force suborbital flight strategies. He subsequently held the position of Deputy Head of the Air Force General Office for Space, followed by his appointment as Head of Space and Aerospace Policies in the Office of the Prime Minister's Military Advisor. Since July 2021, Violetti has been working as the Space Attaché at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C.

As Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations, Karen Feldstein is responsible for supervision and management of NASA's interactions with Executive Branch offices and agencies, international relations for each of NASA’s Mission directorates, administration of export control and international technology transfer programs, and support of NASA advisory councils and committees. Her prior positions in NASA’s Office of International and Interagency Relations have included Deputy Associate Administrator, Director of the Science Division, Deputy Director of the Space Operations Division, and Executive Director of the NASA Advisory Council. Prior to joining NASA as a Presidential Management Intern, Karen served as a management consultant in Washington, D.C. Karen earned her M.A. in International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C. and her undergraduate degree at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Dr. Scott Pace is the Director of the Space Policy Institute and a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He is also a member of the faculty of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. His research interests include civil, commercial, and national security space policy, and the management of technical innovation. Dr. Pace rejoined the faculty of the Elliott School in January 2021 after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council from 2017-2020.

From 2005-2008, he served as the Associate Administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation at NASA. Prior to NASA, Dr. Pace was the Assistant Director for Space and Aeronautics in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). From 1993-2000, Dr. Pace worked for the RAND Corporation's Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI). From 1990 to 1993, Dr. Pace served as the Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Office of Space Commerce, in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1980; Master’s degrees in Aeronautics & Astronautics and Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982; and a Doctorate in Policy Analysis from the RAND Graduate School in 1989.

The Honorable Lori Garver was the Deputy Administrator of NASA and leader of the Agency’s transition team from 2008 - 2013. Garver has since served as the General Manager of the Air Line Pilots Association and CEO of Earthrise Alliance. Garver is currently an Operating Advisor at Bessemer Venture Partners and a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and Technology. She serves on the board and as an advisor to several commercial aerospace interests including Sierra Space, World View, K2 Space and Hydrosat.

Earlier in her career, Garver founded Capitol Space and the AstroMom project - which led her to Star City where she trained and received her medical certification for a commercial spaceflight on a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station. She has served as an appointed member of the NASA Advisory Council and the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Council, President of Women in Aerospace and the American Astronautical Society, and a member of the Board of Directors of Maxar Technologies.

In addition to being a co-founder and board member of the Brooke Owens Fellowship, Lori has received numerous awards including AIAA’s 2022 Public Service Award, Women in Aerospace’s 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award and three NASA Distinguished Service Medals. Her memoir, Escaping Gravity, My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age was released in 2022.

Dr. Christopher Mason is the WorldQuant Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and the Cornell Aerospace Medicine Biobank. He is also co-Founder and scientific director at Onegevity/Thorne, co-Founder and global director at Biotia, Founder of the MetaSUB Consortium, and author of The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds and The Age of Prediction.

Dr. Mason and his lab develop and deploy computational and experimental methodologies to identify the functional genetic elements of the human genome and metagenome. We perform research in three main areas: (1) clinical genetics, including molecular profiling of aggressive cancers, unusual diseases, and astronauts, (2) computational biology, including new biochemical and computational techniques in DNA/RNA sequencing and DNA/RNA base modifications, and (3) genome engineering for new cell, genome, and microbiome modifications. Overall, our lab aims to better understand of the functional elements of the human genome and metagenome, such that we can begin to repair or re-engineer these genetic networks for ameliorating disease and lay the foundation to enable long-term human survival.

Dr. Mason has won the NIH’s Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the International Space Station (ISS) R&D Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the WorldQuant Scholar Award, and served on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Decadal Survey for NASA. He was named as one of the “Brilliant Ten” Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called “The Genius of Genetics” by 92Y. He has written 2 books and >350 peer-reviewed papers, featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by U.S. District Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Coverage of his work has also appeared on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME, The LA Times, and across many media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, NASA, NatGeo). He is an inventor on five patents and five FDA-authorized diagnostic tests, has co-founded 10 biotechnology companies, serves as an advisor to 32 others, and has also co-founded 4 non-profits. He lives with his daughter and wife in Brooklyn, NY.

Kevin O’Connell is a recognized expert on space commerce, the global space economy, international intelligence and U.S. national security matters. For almost four decades, he has focused on space commercialization and technological competitiveness and how to advance them in global markets. He has also focused on how these innovations impact U.S. and allied national security.

His U.S. government assignments include the Department of Commerce (SES), The Department of Defense, The Department of State, The National Security Council, The Office of the Vice President, and The Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Within the private sector, Mr. O’Connell was a senior research analyst at RAND and was the first Director of RAND’s Intelligence Policy Center. In 2007, he founded Innovative Analytics and Training, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in assessing high-tech market areas including geospatial markets, cloud computing, and cyber analytics.

Mr. O’Connell’s most recent role was Director of the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. He was the principal architect of outreach to U.S. private space companies to facilitate innovation and encourage increased market growth and viability. He focused on the growing role of the private sector in space, encouraged new space partnerships, worked to ensure the competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space industry, and advanced American leadership in space safety and sustainability. Mr. O’Connell testified before Congress on space policy and regulatory issues, American space competitiveness, and the growth of space commerce. He was awarded the Vice President’s Dedicated Service Award for his support to the National Space Council.

Mr. O’Connell also expanded international outreach on space commerce issues with a wide range of U.S. allies and partners, especially to compare notes on regulation, encourage new partnerships and advance space safety and sustainability. His overseas space engagements included participation in the U.S.-Japan Comprehensive Space Dialogue, as part of a Space Delegation to Luxembourg, and including high-level discussions with the EU, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Commonwealth partners.

Mr. O’Connell is a recognized expert on the policy, security, and commercial aspects of satellite remote sensing technologies and markets. He served as the Executive Secretary of the Independent Commission on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in 2000 and later as an advisor to the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He was a long-standing member of NOAA’s federal advisory committee, ACCRES, including as Chair between 2012 and 2016.

Mr. O’Connell has been a regular author on space commerce issues. He contributed the foreword to "Space Policies for the New Space Age: Competing on the Final Economic Frontier,” by Bruce Cahan and Mir Sadat (NewSpace New Mexico, December 2020). He co-authored Commercial Observation Satellites: at the Leading Edge of Global Transparency (ASPRS/RAND, 2000). He taught graduate courses in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the RAND Graduate School for many years and has lectured at academic and research organizations around the world.

Caryn Schenewerk is a respected leader in navigating the complex regulatory and policy landscape in the spaceflight industry. As the President of CS Consulting LLC, she provides expert guidance to clients on regulatory and policy engagement with all levels and branches of government in addition to supporting economic development activities.

With over a decade of experience in the space industry, Caryn’s expertise is highly unique. Prior to forming CS Consulting, she served as the Vice President for Regulatory and Government Affairs at Relativity Space, where she helped the company to become a trailblazer in launching the world’s first 3D printed rocket.

Caryn spent nearly ten years at SpaceX, where she was responsible for supporting first of their kind commercial and civil space licensing, facility expansion, and economic development. She has an extensive track record of successfully interacting with U.S. government agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. Coast Guard in support of launch and recovery operations.

Caryn is also an adjunct professor of space law at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to her work in the space industry, she served as the Deputy Associate Director for Legislative Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. Caryn has also served as Counsel, Policy Director, and Deputy Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill. She started her career in international trade law.

Caryn obtained her bachelor’s degree from Austin College in Sherman, TX, where she serves on the Board of Trustees. She earned a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin and a Master’s in Laws (LLM) in International Criminal Justice and Armed Conflict Law from the University of Nottingham in England. Caryn is a member of the New York and D.C. Bars.

Michelle L.D. Hanlon is the Executive Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law a Professor of Practice within UM’s Air and Space Law program. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law, the world’s oldest law journal dedicated to the legal problems arising out of human activities in outer space. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Drone Law and Policy, the first legal journal focused on law and regulations governing the operation and use of uncrewed aircraft in both civilian and military capacities. Her research and advocacy centers upon the concept of “due regard” in space law and evolving the framework necessary to assure that human exploration of space is responsible, successful and sustainable. In this regard she has done considerable work and written and presented extensively on topics related to orbital debris remediation, space solar power, small satellite constellations, environmental considerations and the protection of human heritage in space.

Michelle is also Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that is the only organization in the world focused on obtaining international legal recognition for and protection of human cultural heritage in outer space. In this capacity, she was instrumental in the development of the One Small Step Act in the United States, the first national legislation to acknowledge the existence of human heritage in outer space. For All Moonkind has been recognized by the United Nations as a Permanent Observer to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and Michelle contributes regularly to the international discourse on space law through the Committee. Most recently, Michelle urged the United Nations to recognize and adopt temporary heritage protection zones around certain sites on the Moon as part of a legal framework for space resource utilization. Under Michelle’s leadership, more than 100 space law and heritage law experts from every inhabited continent contribute their valuable time and experience to advance For All Moonkind’s important mission

Mi/chelle is an advisor to The Hague Institute for Global Justice Off-World Approach project. She also serves on the Advisory Committees of a number of space-related start-up organizations.

Michelle received her B.A. in Political Science from Yale College and her J.D. magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center. She earned her LLM in Air and Space Law from McGill University where the focus of her research was commercial space and the intersection of commerce and public law. Prior to focusing on aviation and space law, Michelle was engaged in a private business law practice. Her legal career commenced with the restructuring of sovereign debt for a number of South and Latin American countries and evolved into the negotiation and implementation of cross-border technology mergers and acquisitions. Her subsequent solo practice advised entrepreneurs across four continents on all aspects of bringing their innovative ideas to market: from basic corporate formation to financings and buyouts. Michelle continues to provide advice and counsel in respect of all aspects of air, space and cyber law through the consulting firm of ABH Aerospace, LLC.

Deeply rooted in the sci-fi genre, Moore got his start in the entertainment business on the writing staff of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” During his tenure there, he wrote or co-wrote 27 episodes, including the two-hour series finale “All Good Things,” for which he won a Hugo Award in 1994. That same year, Moore was honored with an Emmy® Award nomination and was eventually promoted to Producer.

In 2003, Moore created the re-imagined series, “Battlestar Galactica,” and served as Showrunner/Executive Producer of the series, which ran for four seasons. “Battlestar Galactica” was honored with a prestigious Peabody® Award and twice as an official selection of the AFI (American Film Institute) top television programs for 2005 and 2006. In 2006, Moore was nominated for an Emmy® Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, and in 2008, he won an Emmy® for the “Battlestar Galactica” webisodes.

In 2010, Moore’s production company, Tall Ship Productions, signed an overall deal with Sony Television to develop and produce television series. Under the Tall Ship banner, Moore is currently producing the Golden Globes®-nominated series “Outlander” for Starz and “For All Mankind” for Apple TV+.

Moore is a native of Chowchilla, California and attended Cornell University, where he studied political science. He lives in California with his wife, Terry. He has three children – Robin, Roxy and Jonathan.

John Reed is United Launch Alliance’s Chief Technologist and Senior Technical Fellow for Guidance Navigation and Control. Mr. Reed is responsible for the Technical Fellows program at ULA and manages a portfolio of IRAD investments. He is currently focused on a wide variety of initiatives from Principal Investigator for launch vehicle reuse to enhanced navigation, whether in earth orbit or CisLunar operations, to creating a culture of innovation. He has been working a variety of roles on launch vehicles in Denver since 1986.

Reed is a long time member of the AAS and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA. He is the Technical Program Chair for ASCEND and serves as TC Liaison for the Rocky Mountain Section of AIAA. He received his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) and his master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Rob Hampton leads a team of highly experienced project managers responsible for the planning and execution of research and development payloads utilizing the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. He is an experienced Operations Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the space industry.

Frank DiBello, Space Florida President and CEO, was selected in May 2009 to lead Space Florida, which is the principal state agency for aerospace-related economic development, and the Space Authority for the State of Florida. In his position, he develops and executes programs designed to attract, retain and grow aerospace business across the state. Additionally, Mr. DiBello focuses on Florida aerospace workforce development and retention as well as international partnership development.

Mr. DiBello holds more than 50 years of direct aerospace, defense, and emerging space industry-related experience. Frank spent more than 20 years at KPMG, in various management positions where he was responsible for guiding the firm's aerospace industry consulting practice, heavily focused on support of major aerospace mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations. He founded KPMG’s Space Industry Practice -- focused on new space businesses, taking major satellite programs to Wall Street for financing, and led the effort to develop commercial uses of the International Space Station (ISS).

Olivia Gamez Holzhaus is the Founder and CEO for Rhodium Scientific, charged with advancing the company’s biotech commercialization strategies within the low Earth orbit economy. Olivia oversees science, engineering, and QA strategies at Rhodium Scientific to ensure discoveries made in microgravity translate into products utilized by regulated consumer, manufacturing, and life science industries. Ms. Holzhaus’ company is an official Commercial Services Provider to multiple national laboratories, including the International Space Station (ISS). She led the creation and implementation of Rhodium Scientific’s Quality, Industry-Compatible (QuIC) Space Process, a trade secret process ensuring industry-standard quality controls are incorporated into spaceflight missions allowing for reproducibility and standardization for biotech and biomanufacturing investigations.

Olivia Gamez Holzhaus has over 20 years in research and applied life science fields, has served in Scientist and Sr. Engineering positions with advanced research organizations and Fortune 500 companies, and holds an advanced Management of Technology degree specialized in delivering high-fidelity research and programmatic results at the speed of business. Currently, she on the Board of Advisors for the Global Entrepreneurship Network-Space (GEN-Space), the International Space Safety Foundation (ISSF), the College of Science and Engineering for Texas State University, Generación STEM Workforce Advisory Council at Texas State University, and ISS National Laboratory’s Biomanufacturing in Space Working Group. For fun, Olivia serves as Rear Commodore for Galveston Bay Cruising Association (GBCA), having competed in over 30 sailing regattas and is defending class champion for the 2021 GBCA Women’s Regatta.

Steven Wolfe is Beyond Earth Institute President and Co-Founder. He is also Deputy Executive Director for Global Spaceport Alliance and partner at CWSP International. He serves as the Space and Board of Editors for the Journal of Space Philosophy. Steve served in Washington as the executive director of the Congressional Space Caucus and drafted the Space Settlement Act of 1988. The bill was signed into law as part of the NASA Authorization bill. Steve is the author of The Obligation: A Journey to Discover Human Purpose on Earth and in the Cosmos.

Courtney Stadd is Founder/President, Capitol Alliance Solutions, LLC, a Washington, DC based management consulting firm whose clients include a wide range of pioneering commercial space actors. For nearly 40 years, Stadd’s career path has been a mix of senior government leadership and corporate executive jobs – primarily focused on encouraging the removal of policy and regulatory barriers to the emergence of a competitive American-led commercial space marketplace.

Courtney has held multiple senior positions at the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Transportation, the White House, and worked directly for three NASA Administrators, including as Chief of Staff/White House Liaison. As Senior Director of the White House National Space Council, he helped draft numerous Presidential directives encouraging a competitive commercial space industry, including commercial space guidelines which have governed executive agency use of commercial space products and services for over 30 years.

With almost two decades of experience in government, in both NASA missions and policy, Ezinne Uzo-Okoro leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s space and aeronautics portfolios. Her policy work includes Earth Observations, Orbital Debris, Microgravity research in Low Earth Orbit, Space Weather, In-space Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing, Aeronautics, and space science. Her NASA 17-year engineering career spanned contributions to Earth Observations, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, human exploration, and space communications missions. She earned an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and three masters degrees in Aerospace Systems, Space Robotics, and Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, MIT, and Harvard University respectively. She also earned a doctorate degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. She has received several NASA awards and the 2023 Commercial Space Federation Commercial Space Policy award. Her story is profiled in President George W. Bush’s book, Out of Many, One.

Kenneth Bowersox is the associate administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, overseeing the International Space Station (ISS), the Commercial LEO Development Program, Space Communications and Navigation, Launch Services Program , Human Spaceflight Capabilities, and operations of crewed Artemis missions. Before being appointed to that position, he had served as deputy associate administrator for the mission directorate.

Bowersox served as the Interim Chair of the NASA Advisory Council from June 2016 to January 2017. He is a retired U.S. Naval Aviator, with over 19 years of experience at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Selected to the astronaut corps in 1987, he has flown five times on NASA's Space Shuttle, serving as pilot, commander and mission specialist, and once on a Russian Soyuz, where he served as the flight engineer during descent. During his five orbital missions, Bowersox has logged over 211 days in space, including five and a half months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where he was the mission commander of the 6th expedition. He was also a crew member for the first two Hubble Space Telescope repair flights and two United States Microgravity Laboratory flights.

Subsequent to his mission aboard the ISS, Bowersox served as the director of the Johnson Space Center's Flight Crew Operations Directorate, retiring from NASA and the U.S. Navy in December, 2006. After retirement, he remained involved with the U.S. space exploration program as a member of the standing review boards for ISS, Space Shuttle, and the Constellation Program. From 2009-2011, Bowersox was the Vice President of Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance at SpaceX. Bowersox also worked as an independent technical consultant, advising clients on spacecraft design, proposal development, and providing independent assessment of technical programs. He joined the NASA Advisory Council in November 2013, and served as Chair of the Human Exploration and Operations Committee.

Mike Gold is the Chief Growth Officer at Redwire. In this role, Mr. Gold leads Redwire’s civil, commercial, and national security business development; marketing and communications; and government relations activities.

Prior to joining Redwire, Mr. Gold was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations, and Senior Advisor to the Administrator for International and Legal Affairs. At NASA, Mr. Gold led the development and implementation of the Artemis Accords, which establish norms of behavior to ensure a peaceful and prosperous future in space for all of humanity. Mr. Gold also successfully led the negotiations to develop and execute the binding agreements for the lunar Gateway, the development and implementation of the first lunar resource purchase by NASA, and updating planetary protection regulations. Due to this trailblazing policy work, Mr. Gold was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2021.

Before joining NASA, Mr. Gold was Vice President of Civil Space at Maxar Technologies and General Counsel for the company’s legacy Radiant Solutions business unit. Additionally, Mr. Gold spent thirteen years at Bigelow Aerospace, where he established the company’s Washington office, oversaw the launches of the Genesis 1 and 2 spacecraft, and was a recipient of a NASA Group Achievement award for the development and deployment of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module onto the International Space Station.

Mr. Gold is currently the Vice Chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and has previously served as Treasurer. Mr. Gold is also a member of the Committee on Space Research’s (COSPAR) Planetary Protection Panel, representing the Committee on Industry Relations. Additionally, in 2022, Mr. Gold was appointed by the NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate to serve on the Agency’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team which was subsequently given the NASA Silver Group Achievement Award for their collective efforts to advance the understanding of this phenomena. Moreover, Mr. Gold was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to Chair the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee from 2012 – 2019, and was appointed by the NASA Administrator to serve on the NASA Advisory Council and chair its Regulatory and Policy Committee in 2018.

Mr. Gold has authored numerous law review articles and editorials addressing commercial space issues. He has also testified on several occasions before the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate as an expert in commercial space as well as space law and policy.

Mr. Gold received a BA from Brandeis University and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he founded and led the Journal of Constitutional Law. Mr. Gold is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Ambassador Stuart Holliday is CEO of Meridian International Center, a leading nonpartisan institution advancing global security and prosperity through diplomacy. He served as U.S. Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations (2003-2005). His primary duties involved representing the U.S. on issues in the U.N. Security Council. Previously, Holliday was Coordinator (Assistant Secretary) of the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.

From 2000-2001, he was Special Assistant to the President and Associate Director of Presidential Personnel at the White House. From 1998-2000, he served as Assistant Policy Director to the Governor of Texas. Previously, Holliday served as Executive Director of the Dallas Council on World Affairs and Regional Director for North Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey at the International Republican Institute. He served on active and reserve duty as an Officer in the U.S. Navy (Intelligence) from 1988-1995 and is a recipient of the Joint Service Commendation Medal.

He obtained his B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University and his M.A. from the London School of Economics and Political Science and serves as a Trustee of the Center for the Study of Presidency and Congress, Blair House, and the Global Leadership Council of the U.N. Foundation.

Bob Brumley is the Senior Managing Director at Marble Arch Partners, LLC. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the Laser Light Companies. He was CEO of TerreStar Corporation (formerly Motient Corp.) from 2006 to 2008, and CEO of TerreStar Global and TerreStar Networks Inc., from 2005 to 2008. He led these firms into the emerging field of hybrid mobile satellite and terrestrial communications, raising over $1B in private investment. He is a former senior executive with Deutsche Telekom and Bell Atlantic International [now Verizon]. He was appointed by President Reagan as Chief Legal Officer of the Department of Commerce and Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and chaired the Reagan Administration policy working group that privatized commercial space transportation.

Bob holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo, California, and has completed graduate courses and management programs at Harvard University, Santa Clara University, the Wye River Institute, San Jose State University and the Defense Acquisition University.

James A. M. (Jim) Muncy is the President and founder of PoliSpace. Mr. Muncy started PoliSpace, an independent space policy consultancy, in early 2000 to help space entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs succeed at the nexus of space business, technology, and public affairs. Muncy spent over five years working in the U.S. Congress, including three yeas on the Professional Staff of the House Science Committee. Muncy spent over two years on Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s as lead space policy staff. He worked as a policy assistant in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Reagan. Muncy began his work in space policy in 1981 as a staff advisor to Rep. Newt Gingrich, where he helped found the Congressional Space Caucus. A long-time leader in the space advocacy community, Muncy co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation in 1988. He is a frequent speaker and writer on space policy issues. Mr. Muncy holds an MS in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar.

Rich has over 20 years experience in the space sector, including time in government (NASA), the non-profit sector, at aerospace start-ups, and as a consultant. Rich previously worked at the White House, leading the development of National Space Policy, was the program manager and selection official for the NASA SBIR/STTR program, and led the Analytics team at BryceTech.

As CEO and Chief Engineer of Lunar Helium-3 Mining, Dr. Chris Salvino leads the mission to extract lunar Helium-3 to return it to Earth, powering future fusion reactors and achieving the world’s first green energy source. With master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Flight Test Engineering from the National Test Pilot School, Chris brings hands-on expertise in aerospace systems and challenging environments.

His background in Aerospace Medicine, experience as an F-16 flight surgeon, and role as a trauma/critical care surgeon provide unique insights into the health impacts of space travel. Additionally, his Master’s in Space Studies equips him with essential knowledge of space business and policy. With advanced degrees in Planetary Geology and Mining Engineering, alongside ongoing Ph.D. research in lunar Helium-3 mining, Chris ensures LH3M’s operations are technologically feasible and focused on risk reduction.

Chris’s leadership guides LH3M’s multidisciplinary team as they employ systems engineering principles and agile management techniques. Their innovative approach ensures LH3M works with the lunar environment, not against it, to fuel the future of fusion power on Earth.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn’s leadership has played a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of companies entering the space market. With extensive experience in R&D and cutting-edge technology applications for the U.S. government and private sector, her methodologies guide organizations and companies that are transitioning from development ecosystems to market capitalization.

In her role as Vice President of Space Commerce and Entrepreneurship at Space Foundation, Kedis Ogborn leads Space Commerce Institute, an initiative aimed at providing valuable insights and actionable programming to empower countries, individuals, and companies to carve out their niche and thrive in the rapidly expanding space economy.

Kedis Ogborn is an often-published author and speaker on the market applications of innovation and has worked extensively as an authoritative voice within the emerging space economy – qualifying and quantifying the economic drivers and technology trends driving the industry forward and shaping its investment potential and growth. She is also a frequent panel reviewer and technology assessor for commercialization merit of government R&D proposals and mentor for entrepreneurs.