Emerging Trends in Satellite Manufacturing

Noel Rimalovski is a Managing Director at GH Partners, an independent New York-based investment banking firm. Mr. Rimalovski leads the firm’s representation of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, debt financings, and strategic advisory services to domestic and international clients. At GH, Mr. Rimalovski specializes in the telecom, media, technology, space and defense sectors.

Prior to joining GH, Mr. Rimalovski was with Macquarie Capital, Wasserstein Perella, and Lazard Frères.

Mr. Rimalovski graduated from Tufts College and received an MBA from Columbia Business School.

John Borrego is a veteran of manufacturing operations and production, and is a subject matter expert in the manufacturing of propellant tanks used for in-space applications. In his current role as vice president of operations at Machina Labs, he oversees production, quality assurance, and manufacturing engineering. Prior to joining Machina Labs, John was head of operations at Industrial Electronic Engineers (IEE), a manufacturer of enhanced displays to the military. Additional aerospace experience includes Operations Manager at Northrop Grumman (Previously ATK Space Components) that built propulsion tanks for in-space applications, and as a Flight Systems manager and Propulsion Manufacturing Engineer at SpaceX developing the second stage nozzle extension used on the Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle.

Andrew C. Ivers has been President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2023. He joined CPI in November 2019 as Chief Operating Officer, and was appointed President in December 2020. Previously, he had been the Principal Consultant of Andrew Ivers & Associates, LLC since September 2018. Mr. Ivers held several senior leadership positions at L3 Technologies, Inc. between 2001 and 2018, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and President of the Communications Systems Segment. Mr. Ivers’ earlier positions at L3 Technologies included President of the Broadband Communications Sector and its Communication Systems-West division between 2014 and 2018 and Executive Vice President of the Microwave Group between 2010 and 2014. Before joining L3 Technologies, Mr. Ivers held prior management and engineering positions at the Harris Corporation and Raytheon. Mr. Ivers holds B.S. degrees in both electrical engineering and mathematics from the University of California, Irvine, and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester.

Karolis Senvaitis is the Director of Engineering Operations at KNA, where he leads a team responsible for supply chain, production, quality control, and mission control. His daily responsibilities include solving operational challenges, ensuring timely product delivery, and maintaining continuous improvement. Karolis also focuses on planning satellite constellations and developing expansion strategies to meet industry demands and optimize costs for clients.

Al Tadros is the Chief Technology Officer of Redwire. In this role, he is focused on making strategic investments that support Redwire’s customers, advancing technology development and commercialization, and maintaining a nimble and collaborative technical culture. With three decades of experience in space systems engineering and as an aerospace executive, Al is a thought leader in AI-enabled autonomy, machine vision, rendezvous and proximity operations, and robotics. He has a proven track record in maturing satellite and space systems programs for exploration, national security, and commercial missions.

Previously, Al was Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Space Infrastructure at Redwire. In this role, he oversaw the company’s long-term growth strategy and business development activities, and was responsible for advancing development, increasing adoption, and building momentum for Redwire’s mission-enabling capabilities.

Prior to Redwire, he served as Vice President of Space Infrastructure and Civil Space at Maxar Technologies, where he led significant innovation in next-generation spacecraft design and space infrastructure, integrating robotics and in-space satellite manufacturing, servicing, and assembly capabilities. Over the course of his career at Maxar, Al contributed to 13 missions and launch campaigns, many of which deployed cutting-edge communications and remote sensing systems. Al has worked with both commercial enterprises and government agencies to develop space systems for communications, satellite servicing, remote sensing, and exploration.
Al leads Redwire’s involvement in Stanford University’s Center for AEroSpace Autonomy Research (CAESAR), which is working to advance autonomous reasoning capabilities in space with artificial intelligence and machine vision. As an authority in robotics, Al also holds patents in the field of attitude control systems and was responsible for early telerobotics research for the International Space Station.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Chris Winslett is the General Manager of Blue Canyon Technologies, part of the Space, Imaging and Microelectronics leadership under the Advanced Products & Solutions Strategic Business Unit of Raytheon, an RTX business.

With close to 25 years of industry experience, Chris joined Blue Canyon from Lockheed Martin where he most recently was the Program Director for SDA Transport Layer Programs. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Programs for OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus. In this position, he was responsible not only for completing the design and development of the OneWeb constellation, but also for standing up a factory that was able to produce 10 satellites a week and for developing a strategy to leverage that production to build a wider customer base. 

Before joining OneWeb, Chris worked with Boeing for 17 years, holding a variety of positions across the company including leading the Platform and Payload Products for the Satellite Vehicles Business Unit.

Chris earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.