Accomplished Business and Tech Leaders to Inform Company's Strategic Plans
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) ("Momentus" or the "Company"), a U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer transportation and other in-space infrastructure services, today announced the creation of its Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) that will partner with Company leadership to guide programmatic, technical, and operational strategies.
The SAG supports the Company's mission to provide the backbone infrastructure services to help people, industries, and companies use space in new ways. This inaugural group comprises five leaders and technology experts who have created, implemented, managed, and led various business and technology programs for world-class companies and educational institutions.
"Our Strategic Advisory Group collectively brings more than 150 years of proven expertise in technology, business operations, market strategy, and program planning and execution," said Momentus Chief Executive Officer John Rood. "This group of exceptional leaders and technical experts will provide independent and unique perspectives, challenge our thinking, and apply hard-learned insights from their long and distinguished careers in aerospace to help Momentus achieve our vision of being a leader in the emerging new space economy."
Momentus SAG members include:
Charles Chase is Co-Founder, Director, and Chief Technology Officer at UnLAB – a nonprofit that develops advanced technologies and products. Before this role, Chase was the founder and leader of Revolutionary Technology Programs, the organization at the technological front end of Skunk Works. In that position, he led the conception, development, and market transition of transformative aerospace technologies. Notably, Chase is an expert in plasma systems and led the development of aerodynamic materials, fluid dynamic control systems, novel control effectors, and cutting-edge vehicle designs. This technology is at the heart of the Microwave Electrothermal Thruster using water as a propellant that Momentus is developing.
Mathew "Mat" Joyce provides major programs, acquisition, and strategic planning consulting services. In this role, he has led extensive independent review teams for the United Kingdom's MoD and several of Lockheed Martin's leading edge Missile System Programs. Prior to his consulting role, Joyce retired from Lockheed Martin after more than 33 years of service at the Lockheed Martin Space System Company, culminating in the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Strategic and Missile Defense Systems line of business, where he oversaw programs generating over $2B in annual revenue with over 4,000 employees. Major programs included the U.S. and UK Fleet Ballistic Missile System, Theater High Altitude Area Defense, U.S. Air Force Re-entry Systems, Missile Defense Agency Targets and Countermeasures, and High Energy Laser programs.
Rick Reginato has more than 35 years of aerospace and defense experience. Throughout his career, Reginato held numerous leadership positions responsible for managing and executing technically demanding programs for diverse customers, including the U.S. Navy, Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Army, Intelligence Community, and a variety of Fortune 100 commercial companies. His positions included serving as Chief Engineer on Intelligence Community space programs and Deputy for Engineering at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. He also had roles as Project Director and head of advanced development for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense and Multiple Kill Vehicle missile defense programs.
John Verboncoeur is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University, where he oversees research activities and strategy. He has also run several technology startup companies. Verboncoeur has authored/coauthored over 450 journal articles and conference papers with over 5200 citations and has taught 13 international workshops and mini-courses on plasma simulation. He is currently an Associate Editor for Physics of Plasmas and VP-elect Technical Activities of IEEE, the largest technical professional organization with over 430,000 members in over 160 countries, $500M in revenues including over 2,000 conferences per year and over 230 publications with over 15M downloads per month.
Nick Zello is Principal at Big Van Consulting, where he advises on product development and organization building with a focus on innovation and profitability through efficient and scalable processes. He has expertise in product development and manufacturing that spans the automotive, aerospace, internet/I.T., and construction industries. Zello previously worked at Maxar Technologies where he served as Vice President of Smallsat Operations and Delivery, Vice President of Production Control and Supply Chain, and Executive Director of New Product Development at their Space Infrastructure division. Maxar is the leading provider of geostationary commercial satellites and Earth observation technologies, with experience building and integrating some of the world’s most powerful and complex satellites and spacecraft systems. Zello also was General Manager at MDA US Systems LLC, a developer and supplier of commercial and civil robotics, and held leadership roles at General Motors.
About Momentus
Momentus is a U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer in-space infrastructure services, including in-space transportation, hosted payloads and in-orbit services. Momentus believes it can make new ways of operating in space possible with its planned in-space transfer and service vehicles that will be powered by an innovative water plasma-based propulsion system that is under development. The Company anticipates flying its first Vigoride vehicle to Low Earth Orbit on a third-party launch provider no earlier than June 2022, subject to receipt of appropriate government licenses, approvals and availability of slots on its launch provider's manifest, for which there is no assurance such licenses, approvals and availability will be received, if at all.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements which may constitute “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Momentus or its management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, and are not guarantees of future performance. The words “may,” “will,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “future,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “aim,” “strive,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions.
Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of Momentus’ control. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties included under the “Risk Factors” in the Proxy Statement/Prospectus filed by the Company on July 23, 2021, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.momentus.space. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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