Sierra Space's new CEO and more leadership moves across the market

Sierra Space

Dan Jablonsky, the former Ursa Major CEO who stepped down this month, will start a new chief executive assignment on March 2 at Sierra Nevada Corp.’s space spinoff.

He will lead the next phase of Sierra Space’s pivot toward defense work after originally being founded to focus on civil and commercial space, including its Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Jablonsky is also known for his three-year tenure as CEO of Maxar Technologies, which was acquired by Advent International in 2023. Earlier this month, he joined the board of directors at BWXT Technologies.

AeroVironment

Kevin McDonnell is retiring on July 31 after six years as chief financial officer at the defense technology company, where his tenure culminated in the acquisition and integration of BlueHalo.

AeroVironment did make a handful of transactions with McDonnell as CFO, but the addition of BlueHalo doubled the acquirer’s size almost overnight and broadened the tech portfolio.

McDonnell’s career prior to AeroVironment includes a stint as CFO at JAMS and three decades in leadership roles across the tech, automotive and health industries.

Besxar

Diem Salmon has joined the computer chipmaker as chief revenue officer, a role she brings nearly two decades of defense sector experience to.

Salmon will work with Founder and CEO Ashley Pilipiszyn to build a sales profile and multi-year strategy across the government market, defense industrial base and other commercial verticals. Besxar is contracted to support 12 SpaceX missions.

She most recently worked as a vice president at Andurl, which she joined as an early employee. She is also a former budget director for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Buchanan & Edwards

The technology and digital modernization provider has made one hire and promoted another to its vice president ranks.

Chris Reichert has joined BE as vice president of strategic operations, a role that involves oversight over program performance. He most recently was CEO of Hexagon’s U.S. federal subsidiary.

Angelina Michetti moved up to VP of strategic growth, a role that involves opportunity engagement and capture strategies. The two-decade industry veteran first joined BE in the summer of 2022.

C5MI

Garth Sanginiti has moved up to chief growth officer at the IT and supply chain software solutions provider, which he joined earlier this month as a business development managing director.

C5MI has tasked the 34-year market veteran to oversee its push for market expansion and key partnership function.

Sanginiti most recently worked in the CGO role at Anew Solutions. His career also includes a stop at Deloitte.

eSimplicity

Carl Tegeder has joined the integrator of commercial and open source technology as vice president of solution strategy, a role he brings three decades of federal and commercial sector experience to.

ESimplicity describes itself as a company that blends digital strategy, design and engineering work in an effort to streamline the development and delivery lifecycle.

Tegeder most recently worked as vice president of technology and business development at Innosoft. His career also includes chief technology officer stints at Arch Systems and Reli Group.

FTI Defense

Matt Salter has joined the artificial intelligence technology integrator as chief growth officer after 17 years at Noblis, including the past three-and-a-half as CGO.

Formerly known as Frontier Technology Inc., FTI Defense describes itself as a specialist in AI-powered software and other tech-enabled services for military purposes. The company also focuses on modeling and defensive cyber software.

Salter’s career at Noblis also includes leadership roles for its business development functions, plus the federal civilian and transportation systems units.

GRVTY

Peter “Pete” Ranks, a 27-year CIA veteran and a former assistant director for cyber intelligence there, has joined the national security technology integrator as chief strategy officer.

Ranks will work with other members of GRVTY’s C-level leadership team to advance its strategy, initiatives and expansion efforts. GRVTY unveiled itself to the market back in the spring of 2025 following its formation by Arlington Capital Partners.

His career in government also includes service as deputy chief information officer at the Defense Department. He started his career in the CIA as a network engineer.

Mitre Corp.

Christopher Land has joined the nonprofit research-and-development organization as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary to its board of trustees.

The two-decade law veteran’s responsibilities at Mitre include enterprise-wide legal, regulatory, compliance and organizational risk management issues.

Land most recently served as general counsel at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Prior to that, he was general counsel and vice president for legal affairs at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Publicis Sapient

The U.S. public sector arm of this technology and professional services provider, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, has added a pair of new leaders to its ranks.

Dr. Bhanu Rekepalli has joined as head of life sciences, a role that involves the portfolio of work with the Health and Human Services Department and other health agencies. He is a two-decade public sector veteran who most recently worked as chief growth officer at BRMi.

Sophia Donaldson is the second major hire and she will work as executive director for enterprise strategy. The 25-year public sector veteran most recently served as chief information officer for the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco products center.

Prasad Bhalerao, a vice president at Publicis Sapient, announced both hires in a pair of LinkedIn posts.

R4 Technologies

Trey Whitworth, a retired Navy vice admiral and former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, has joined the enterprise artificial technology company as president of national security within the R4 Federal business unit.

R4 touts its key focus area as in cross-enterprise AI, which refers to how organizations apply these technologies across different business functions and external partners to unify data. This practice also seeks to automate workforce and aid in decision-making.

R4 was created in 2013 by the founders of Priceline.

Virtualitics

Dave Rey, president of global public sector sales at Salesforce, has joined the board of directors at a company focused on artificial intelligence readiness applications in the national security and critical infrastructure verticals.

Virtualitics describes its heritage and business plan as building off a decade of Caltech research in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Rey joined Salesforce in 2013 after 17 years at Oracle, including a stint as group vice president in charge of the public sector infrastructure business. He also ran the federal software business at Oracle.