Advisors
Technology Advisors
Nigel Jones
Electrical Engineering and Embedded Systems Expert
Nigel, the owner and principal of RMB Consulting located in the Eastern Maryland telecom corridor, has been engaged by Astrapi with responsibilities for product development. Nigel comes to the task with over 20 years of experience in electronic product design, embedded systems, system modeling and analysis. He has been a key expert witness in satellite cases resulting in judgments totaling over a billion dollars. Nigel was awarded First Class Honors with the degree of B.Sc. in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from Brunel University in London.
Stew Sando
Signal Processing Advisor
Stew is the Principal of Technology Venture Consulting where he provides business development, intellectual property licensing and strategic consulting services to high technology startup companies. Stew has experience in a wide range of technologies including DSP cores, RISC cores, broadband devices, RF and wireless devices and sensor devices. Recent activities include work in the areas of real-time, streaming, data compression and encryption for mobile wireless applications and electron-enhanced plasma etching of semiconductor device structures down to single digit nanometer dimensions with atomically smooth surfaces. Stew has held management positions with Intel and Hitachi Semiconductor. He holds a BS in Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Caltech and an MBA from Stanford.
Business Advisors
John H. Ablard
Government Contracts Advisor
Mr. Ablard is a government research acquisition consultant. In his thirty-three year federal government acquisition career, he has become a renowned expert in agreements with industry and consortium under the acquisition and non-acquisition special authorities and continues to lead development and utilization of these new techniques through his active participation in leading-edge projects. He is the former Deputy Director, Contracts Management Office for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Mr. Ablard has worked for each branch of the military services having achieved the Senior Executive Service and has been awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award and two DOD Exceptional Civilian Service Awards. He has a MS Human Resources Management degree from the University of Utah.
Mark Brady
Satellite Industry Advisor
Mr. Brady is Industry veteran of over 25 years. Clients and project implementation for companies has included: Airspan, ARSAT, AT&T, BT, Cablevision, Comsat International, Globosat, Lucent, Motorola, Oi, PDVSA, RuralWeb, SuperCanal, and Telesat, among others. While VP at Oak Communications-TV/Com-Hyundai, he helped transition the company from an Analog Cable –Satellite /PayTV hardware vendor strategy to focus on digital development for the first MPEG Modem products available in the market. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association while VP of consumer electronics company Uniden USA. Mr. Brady has earned Bachelors of Technology degree from University of North Florida.
Hanns-Christian L. Hanebeck
Technology Strategy Advisor
Chris has over 20 years of professional experience focused on management consulting, technology innovation and building innovative start-up organizations. He has successfully secured Series A and B venture funding, has built two companies from the ground up and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at GT Supply Chain Services. Over his career Chris has completed over 75 technology implementations on three continents and is a regular speaker at management and technology conferences. He holds an MBA from the University of Saarland in Germany and is a member of the faculty at the University of North Texas where he teaches supply chain strategy and enterprise resource planning.
Todd W. Russell
Defense Advisor
Mr. Russell is the founder and owner of a small, veteran-owned consulting business. He was a Project Officer supporting US Special Operations Command Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) office for research, test, evaluation, analysis and integrated concept development of emerging and developmental technologies for rapid fielding to tactical Special Operations Forces (SOF). Mr. Russell draws upon his extensive background in both Navy aviation operations and SOF communications capabilities and requirements. Mr. Russell served as Commander, U.S. Navy as a Navy Aviator (RIO) flying the F-4 and F-14 aircraft, Strike Operations Officer (AR), USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), and as Communications Officer, USSOCOM (J6, J3, SOF AT&L). He has extensive experience in Defense Industry requirements and acquisition processes, program management and future command, control and communications requirements. Mr. Russell has a BS in Biology/Biological Sciences from Baylor University and has earned a Six Sigma Certificate from Villanova University.
Paul Sergeant
Wireless Industry Advisor
Paul is a twenty year veteran of the wireless mobility market. He introduced a 4G/LTE Small Cell into the North American market for Airspan, and 4G/WiMAX solutions globally for Motorola and Navini/Cisco. Before that, he managed 2G and 3G market launches for Nortel and publicly launched Airvana in 2001 after closing a major OEM contract. Paul worked on developing wireless and IP communications standards with the IEEE, 3GPP2, IETF and the WiMAX Forum. Paul’s professional passions are connecting emerging technologies with customers and making complex technologies easy to understand and simple to communicate. He graduated in 1981 from The City University (London) with an honors degree in Aeronautical Engineering.