Space sector

Five Space Sector Leaders in Government Contracting

Space has been seeing a renewed focus from both the federal civilian and military sectors. The United States established the Space Force in late 2019, recognizing space not just as a place from which to support combat operations but as a warfighting domain in itself.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Artemis program is on track to land the first man since 1972 and the first woman on the lunar surface.

The Potomac Officers Club—a division of Executive Mosaic—features five space sector leaders in the government contracting sector.

Stacy Kubicek, General Manager of the Mission Solutions Business at Lockheed Martin Space

Stacy Kubicek is the vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Space’s Mission Solutions business. She is also a Potomac Officers Club member.

Kubicek leads a team that develops and delivers solutions for space-based programs. She also oversees efforts to deliver 5G, artificial intelligence, machine learning, joint all-domain operations and other advanced technologies and capabilities to the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.

The Lockheed executive is experienced in program management, software engineering, cyber, analytics and software development. She also has a history of leading strategic growth executives within intelligence and military markets.

Kubicek has been holding her current leadership position since January 2021. She has been with the company since 2011, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The industry veteran was a systems engineer senior staff at General Dynamics C4 Systems from 2008 to 2011. Before holding this position, she was a senior systems engineer at Lockheed Martin from 2003 to 2008.

Kubicek participated in the Potomac Officers Club’s 2021 SDA Forum, which took place on March 4, 2021. During the event, Kubicek moderated a panel discussion that focused on the initiatives, efficiencies and challenges the U.S. faced in maintaining space superiority.

The Lockheed executive holds a master’s degree in information technology from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Arizona.

Lockheed Martin offers aircraft, spacecraft and all-domain mission support services to clients in the defense, intelligence and federal civilian sectors. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and has offices within and outside the U.S.

Rob Howe, President and CEO at System High

Rob Howe, a Potomac Officers Club member, serves as the president, CEO and a board member at System High, a company that provides protection, engineering, security, counterintelligence and cyber solutions. In the said roles, he has full executive responsibility for the company’s strategy development and execution, corporate performance and growth objectives.

Prior to becoming the CEO and a board member, Howe was System High’s president and chief operating officer tasked with overseeing daily operations, ensuring customer satisfaction, establishing strategic partnerships with industry and academia and improving services, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The executive started his career at the company in April 2013 when he was hired as chief strategy officer. Before joining System High, Howe worked at Integrity Applications Inc. as strategic adviser responsible for developing tailored processes that identify and mitigate potential risks, shortfalls and vulnerabilities jeopardizing U.S. capabilities. He counseled the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter security director and executive leadership team regarding international security, secrecy tradecraft, lifecycle protection, and anti-terrorism and force protection.

Howe‘s experience also includes time spent as technical director of protection solutions at TASC, now known as Engility, and as senior executive director at ManTech Security and Mission Assurance.

Prior to working in the private sector, Howe served the U.S. Air Force for several years, including as the Air Force Element test support unit’s chief of security, responsible for protecting highly sensitive activities of multiple government agencies.

Robert Curbeam, Senior Vice President of Space Capture at Maxar Technologies

Robert Curbeam, a member of the Potomac Officers Club, serves as senior vice president of space capture at Maxar Technologies, a space systems maker headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.

Maxar offers products and services related to robotics, satellite access, precision mapping, geospatial intelligence and others, according to its website.

Prior to joining the company in 2021, Curbeam served as VP of strategy and business development at Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems’ space systems group, his LinkedIn profile says.

He was previously mission area director for civil space and international business at Raytheon Technologies. Before he joined Raytheon, he was president of ARES’ aerospace and defense division, according to his Challenger Center biography.

A former NASA astronaut, Curbeam is a veteran of three space flights and has logged over 901 hours in space. NASA said he retired from the public sector in November 2007.

He held a variety of leadership positions while at NASA, including director of safety, reliability and quality assurance for the Constellation program.

Curbeam served for 23 years in the U.S. Navy, where was lead project officer for the F-14 Air-to-Ground Weapons Separation Flight Test Program.

He earned an advanced degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering and a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Post Graduate School.

Thomas Eaton, President of Telesat Government Solutions

Thomas Eaton is the president of Telesat Government Solutions. He has been holding his current leadership role since October 2021.

Eaton leads Telesat’s efforts to provide secure and resilient end-to-end communications to government clients. He provides mission-critical services using Telesat’s Lightspeed low-Earth orbit satellite network and other space-based services.

The industry veteran was the vice president of international sales at Telesat Canada. In this position, he led a team that provided Lightspeed and geosynchronous orbit solutions to clients, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before joining Telesat, Eaton was the president of Harris CapRock Communications, a company later acquired by Speedcast. The other leadership roles that he has held include vice president of global sales and marketing at satellite services provider Intelsat and director of video product marketing at Sprint.

Eaton started his professional career in 1979 as a financial analyst at General Time Corp., a clock manufacturing company that stopped operations in 2001.

The Telesat executive holds a master’s degree in finance from Mercer University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Georgia.

Telesat offers data, telecommunications, mobility, first response and in-flight connectivity services to clients in the public and private sectors. It is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and has offices in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Richard Aves, Executive Vice President at Parsons

Richard Aves is the executive vice president at Parsons. He was appointed to the role in August 2020 after spending eight months as the company’s business development senior vice president for the space and geospatial solutions market. In his former role, Aves was able to capture contract opportunities worth more than $300 million.

Prior to Parsons, Aves worked at OGSystems from September 2014 to January 2020, during which he held multiple partner roles and served as chief growth officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.

As Parsons EVP, Aves also leads the company’s S&GS market consisting of over 1,000 staff providing government and commercial customers with satellite launch integration, space situational awareness, information security, space crypto engineering and cloud application development, among other technology solutions.

The executive moved to Parsons after the company acquired OGSystems, which serves defense and intelligence customers, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and Special Operations Command.

Before working at OGSystems, Aves spent over 12 years at Booz Allen Hamilton as a management consultant and program manager. In the said role, he provided strategic planning, technology integration and organizational design and change management expertise to senior executive clients across the U.S. Intelligence Community.

The executive served the government before entering the private sector. Aves was previously a P-3C naval flight officer at the U.S. Navy, performing anti-submarine warfare missions and supporting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions across Europe and the Caribbean. He also became a naval officer at the NRO.

Aves holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in enterprise management from George Mason University School of Business.

ABOUT POTOMAC OFFICERS CLUB

The Potomac Officers Club is owned and operated by Executive Mosaic. Since 2002, Executive Mosaic has been a leader in media and exclusive senior executive networking programs primarily targeted to the U.S. federal government contracting (GovCon) marketplace. In addition to connecting executives of consequence into a fabric of like minded communities, the company’s growing cross-media platform serves as a leading source of news about the people, policies, trends and events shaping the nation’s GovCon sector.