The Business of Space: Outlook & Opportunities

Speakers for this event

• Dr. Azam Arastu

  Dr. Azam Arastu

  President of Apex Consultants

  Dr. Azam Arastu recently retired as a Senior Executive of The Boeing Company where he was a VP of one of the Boeing Space & Defense Systems divisions. Before that, he was Boeing’s chief engineer and program manager on several major space programs ofnational and international significance. He has over 35 years’ experience in Space & satellite systems, energy technologies and program management. His expertise is well recognized across the Aerospace industries in USA, Europe, Japan, Russia & Australia forwhich he received over 25 major awards from Boeing, NASA (including NASA’s highest award), Rockwell, AIAA, USAF, DARPA, Japanese space agency &European Space Agency. He is also Boeing Technical and AIAA Associate Fellow. Dr. Arastu had led several major, manned & un-manned, space programs related to human space exploration, interplanetary missions, satellite communications, earth observation, surveillance. Solar electric propulsion, space nuclear power, etc. He hand a pivotal role on International Space Station, Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, James Webb Telescope, future manned missions to Mars, major satellite constellations and numerous other satelliteprograms. He obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc. D.I.C & Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Control Theory from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK. He authored over 40 scientific and technical publications and co-authored two AIAA technical standards on spacecraft system design. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California (USC) as well as UCLA teaching graduate level classes on Satellite Systems design and Space Power systems.

  President of Apex Consultants

• Dr. Salman Hameed

  Dr. Salman Hameed

  Founder and CEO of Kainaat Studios

  Salman Hameed is the founder and CEO of the non-profit Kainaat Studios, that creates topical astronomy videos in Urdu for audiences in Pakistan (and broader South Asia). He is also Charles Taylor Chair and Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and is a member of the Five College Astronomy Department (FCAD), but his research is inter-disciplinary and it focuses on analyzing how science interacts with society. Science communication is still his primary focus: Salman has a YouTube Channel (Kainaat Astronomy) for Urdu videos and a weekly astronomy segment in English for a radio station in Western Massachusetts. Through Kainaat Studios, he also produces astronomy content in Urdu specially aimed at kids in Pakistan. His writings have appeared in Dawn Magazine, Express Tribune, Science Magazine, and the Guardian.

  Founder and CEO of Kainaat Studios

• MUHAMMAD SHAHZAD

  MUHAMMAD SHAHZAD

  Chief Financial Officer, Relativity Space

  Muhammad Shahzad currently serves as the CFO of Relativity Space, a vertically integrated technology platform that fuses 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous robotics to design, print, and fly entirely 3D-printed rockets with 100x fewer parts in less than 60 days. Under Muhammad’s leadership, Relativity raised approximately $1.2 billion in funding and scaled up to be the second most valuable private space company in the industry, backed by leading investors including Baillie Gifford, Blackrock, BOND, Coatue, Fidelity, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, Playground Global, Social Capital, Tiger Global, Tribe Capital, and Y Combinator. Muhammad brings more than 15 years of finance and capital markets experience, an extensive background in financial planning, operations, management, and strategy, as well as a deep knowledge of the technology industry. Prior to Relativity, he served as CFO of The Honest Company, where he partnered with the CEO and founder on strategy and day-to-day operations, led nearly $500 million of financing rounds across a broad spectrum of investors, and scaled the business profitably. Prior to The Honest Company, Muhammad was a Vice President in the Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he covered a broad array of clients, advised on over $30 billion in financing and M&A transactions, and served as West Coast business unit manager, including responsibility for West Coast investment banking recruiting. Muhammad started his career at Accenture and Deutsche Bank and previously founded and exited his own startup. Muhammad is involved in various nonprofit boards, including the National Board of Trustees at March of Dimes, and serves as Chair of the Board at Developments in Literacy, among others. He is currently the President of OPEN SoCal. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BSc in Economics cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

  Chief Financial Officer, Relativity Space

• NARJIS ALI

  NARJIS ALI

  President & CEO, Sure Secure Solutions

  Narjis Ali is a broadly skilled, innovative, experienced, successful, IT executive and PMI certified project manager with over thirty years of progressive experience in IT research and development, strategy consulting and negotiations, managing startups, cross-functional team building, optimizing business processes, and Change Management. Narjis is currently the President and CEO of Sure Secure Solutions, a company providing IT solutions, including Portfolio Management, Cloud Services, Cyber Security, Data Analytics and Content Management. She has led her company to provide exceptional services to multiple federal agencies including NASA, DoD, USDA, FEMA, SBA, CBP, USCIS and to commercial customers. She is a highly skilled manager and professional leader with deep experience in Management Consulting and Emerging Information Technologies. Narjis brings an extensive knowledge in all aspects of IT security with superior problem solving, team building, and cross-functional coordination skills. She is highly experienced in developing and managing IT security solutions in large government organizations with a wide variety of security products and emerging technologies used in the development and deployment of large- scale implementations. As an entrepreneur, Narjis Ali has always been very motivated, energetic, committed, focus driven and active in social and welfare activities too. She is extremely passionate about her work and has the unique ability to take ownership and make things happen. She is extremely people driven and deeply believes in “taking people that matter to places that matter”

  President & CEO, Sure Secure Solutions