SAN FRANCISCO – Tony Frazier, who led Maxar Technologies’ Earth Intelligence business, takes the helm March 1 of space mapping firm LeoLabs.
Meanwhile, Dan Ceperley, who co-founded LeoLabs in 2016, will become chief operations officer for the 100-person company.
LeoLabs is at an inflection point in its growth trajectory, Frazier told SpaceNews.
In addition to participating in an Office of Space Commerce program that could lead to the incorporation of commercial data into its space traffic coordination system, LeoLabs is developing a software platform for tracking objects in space with U.S. defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. Through additional contracts, LeoLabs is working with U.S. allies and partners.
“Those are all areas where we see tremendous growth potential,” Frazier said. As a result, LeoLabs is focused on “balancing the innovative capability as the first operator able to monitor activity across low-Earth orbit at scale” with growing its existing contracts “into substantial programs of record.”
Back to Engineering
Ceperley, who earned a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, is looking forward to returning to a more technical role.
“I’m going to be leading the engineering side of the company: operating and delivering new technical capabilities that support the growth of the company,” Ceperley said.
Starting LeoLabs and leading the company since 2016 has been “a fabulous ride,” Ceperley said. “But as the company grew, the breadth of everything I had to do as CEO expanded. And so more of my time has been focused on go-to-market, which takes me away from engineering.”
Frazier’s Experience
Ceperley said it’s important for LeoLabs to bring in someone with Frazier’s experience.
“With Tony joining the team, we gain a huge additional amount of firepower in the C-suite that’s going to help us…
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