Mike has been CEO of Apollo Fusion, Inc. and a Vice President at Google. Project Leader of GoogleX’s Project Loon (balloon powered Internet). Founder and CEO of five start-ups which were all successfully acquired: Apollo Fusion ($145M), Ruba, Xfire ($110M), Direct Hit ($500M), and Stylus Innovation ($13M). Apollo Fusion designs and builds electric propulsion thrusters for satellites and was acquired by Astra for $145 million. Apollo Fusion supplied EP systems to Northrop Grumman, Airbus US, York, Planet Labs, Lockheed, and many other satellite companies.
Mark led the Attitude Control, Flight Dynamics, and Vehicle Integration teams on both Starlink and Kuiper. Created both the constellation design and the spacecraft GNC architecture. Also responsible for spacecraft Integration and Test. Mark assured successful spacecraft manufacture and survival on orbit: both designs worked from the first launch.
Mike is a thought leader across multiple space domains with extensive leadership experience in Government (NRL and NASA HQs) and Industry (Ball Aerospace, Boeing, SSL/MDA, Raytheon Technologies, and LeoStella). He has created and won > $15B in Commercial and USG markets with a career capture success rate of >70%. At NASA, Mike led the creation of JWST, Spitzer, and SOFIA. Mike earned a BSE in Aerospace & Mechanical Sciences/ Engineering Physics at Princeton University and an MS in Electrophysics at The George Washington University.
