Astrion hires former Sierra Space CEO Vice as new leader

Astrion has hired a new chief executive in Tom Vice, the former Sierra Space CEO and a four-decade veteran of the aerospace-and-defense sector.

Vice also will hold the title of executive chair and his appointment is effective immediately, Astrion said Thursday. Vice succeeds Dave Zolet, who has led the engineering and technical services provider since it launched in 2023.

Astrion is owned by the private equity firm Brightstar Capital Partners, which formed the company through the merger of ERC and Oasis Systems. Astrion has since embarked on an aggressive expansion push that included the purchase of Axient in the summer of 2024.

Only a few months before that transaction, Zolet told our WT 360 podcast that the company was pushing toward $1.5 billion in annual revenue and prioritizing the development of a culture he called the “Astrion Way.”

In a LinkedIn post on his departure, Zolet touted Astrion as a 6,000-employee company today with annual revenue north of $1 billion.

Vice will pick up that groundwork laid out as Astrion focuses on programs across defense, homeland security, critical infrastructure, space operations and allied missions. Astrion touts its core service lines as including systems engineering, threat analysis, modeling and simulation, testing and evaluation, and training.

“Astrion’s strength starts with its people — a talented team with deep mission understanding, strong customer relationships, and a proven record of execution,” Vice said in a release. “We are building on that foundation with focus, urgency, and resolve — strengthening what we do best today while expanding the operational capabilities, integrated solutions, and innovative technologies we bring to our customers.”

Vice led Sierra Space in a four-year tenure that included $1.7 billion in Series A and B capital rounds, as well as the capture of several national security and defense programs. He is also a former CEO of Aerion Corp., an aerospace company founded in 2003 that sought to build supersonic jets before it shut down in 2021.

Prior to Aerion, Vice spent three decades at Northrop Grumman including his last four years there as president of its aerospace systems segment. His tenure in that role included the capture of the Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber program in 2015.

Astrion also announced Thursday its hire of Eric Brown, formerly a vice president at Lockheed Martin, as president of space operations and allied missions. Conn Doherty, a former executive at RTX and Chaos Industries, also has joined Astrion as chief growth officer.