United Launch Alliance's new CEO and more leadership moves across the market

United Launch Alliance

Mark Peller, chief operating officer at the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture since December, has moved up to the chief executive post effective immediately.

Peller has been at ULA since its formation in 2006 and led the development of its Vulcan rocket from inception to certification and service for U.S. government launches.

Peller succeeds interim CEO John Elbon, who will retire at the end of 2026 after 45 years in the industry. Elbon stepped into the acting capacity following the December departure of then-CEO Tory Bruno for a senior role at Blue Origin.

Advanced IT Concepts

Janet McKinnerney has joined the technology and professional services provider as chief financial officer, a role to which she brings three decades of experience.

She most recently worked as group controller for Coherent Corp., where she provided financial leadership across multiple U.S. sites.

Her career also includes roles at Alight Solutions, Cobham Mission Systems, Sypris Electronics and Honeywell Aerospace.

AEVEX

Chelsey Thomas has joined the unmanned systems maker as vice president of government affairs, a role to which she brings 25 years of experience.

Thomas will lead AEVEX’s engagements with federal and local government entities and leaders.

She previously worked as vice president of government relations at Booz Allen Hamilton. Her career also includes service as a staff member at the House Intelligence Committee.

Amentum

Khalid Syed has joined the company as vice president of strategic national security initiatives after three decades at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Amentum has tasked Syed with leading its growth efforts in integrated air and missile defense, space systems, and C5ISR — command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Syed most recently worked as senior vice president and general manager of the national security technology sector at Booz Allen.

Applied Aerospace & Defense

Chris Rogers has moved over to president and chief strategy officer at the now-publicly traded space and defense component maker, which he first joined in December as chief growth officer.

Rogers’ expanded responsibilities include strategic and operational oversight across the company, growth-related functions and efforts to drive connectivity between the teams.

He spent two decades at Harris Williams prior to Applied, which completed its $650 million initial public offering in June.

BigBear.ai

Sean Gainey, a retired Army lieutenant general and former leader of the Pentagon’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, has joined the board of directors at this artificial intelligence technology integrator.

The 36-year Army veteran is the first person to have served as director of the Joint C-sUAS Office, which he led for four years to deliver the Defense Department’s first strategy for this tech domain.

In his final assignment before retiring, he served as commanding general of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense.

Cowboy Space

Chithra Perumal has joined the venture-backed orbital infrastructure company as chief financial officer, a role to which she brings two decades of experience.

Perumal heads to Cowboy Space following its $275 million Series B capital raise in the spring to support its strategy for delivering artificial intelligence compute in-orbit.

She most recently worked as vice president of finance at Varda Space Industries. Her career also includes separate divisional CFO stints at Amazon Web Services, the tech giant’s cloud computing subsidiary, and the Amazon Shipping business.

Cyabra

Keith Noble has joined this developer of software to detect fake profiles and follow disinformation waves as vice president of government sales, a role to which he brings two decades of government and industry experience.

Cyabra describes its software offering as one that provides narrative intelligence to government agencies looking to understand influence operations and other forms of online manipulation.

Noble’s career includes service at the CIA, where he stood up and directed intelligence enterprises out of the agency’s Open Source Center.

D&G Solutions

Bob Burnett has joined the logistics and supply chain management services provider as chief growth officer, a role to which he brings two decades of experience.

Burnett announced his new role in a LinkedIn post, writing that he will lead D&G’s business development team.

He most recently worked as CGO at OneZero Solutions, which he first joined as a senior vice president in 2022 after 15 years in BD leadership roles at VectorCSP.

ManTech

Christopher Copeland has moved up to chief innovation officer at the company he first joined in 2024 as chief digital officer.

“Mr. Copeland will oversee the development of next-generation technology solutions that solve our clients’ toughest challenges,” ManTech said in a LinkedIn post on the promotion.

His career prior to ManTech includes 25 years at Accenture’s U.S. federal subsidiary.

Mantis Space

Dale Parkes has joined this builder of orbital power infrastructure as chief technology officer, a role he takes up after 24 years at Boeing.

Mantis announced the hire in a LinkedIn post that describes its strategy as centered around building a power grid in space, which will be necessary to support orbital data centers.

Parkes career at Boeing includes separate stints as chief engineer for programs at the Missile Defense Agency and Air Force Research Laboratory. He spent two years at Hughes prior to Boeing.

Node.Digital

Tim Wisecarver has joined the automation tech integrator as senior vice president for growth, a role to which he brings nearly three decades of experience.

Node.Digital hires Wisecarver amid its push to expand and scale its artificial intelligence and automation solutions, the company said in a LinkedIn post.

Wisecarver most recently worked as a senior director at Leidos.

Red Cat Holdings

Mitch McDonald has moved up to divisional chief executive for the drone and robotic technology provider’s unmanned aerial systems segment, a role that includes the Teal Drones business.

Red Cat appointed McDonald to this role amid its efforts to scale production and meet demand for autonomous systems by U.S. and allied defense organizations.

McDonald first joined Red Cat in 2025 to lead the Teal Drones business. His career also includes roles at Dandy, Triumph Group and Hexcel Corp.

Turning Point Global Solutions

Rich Scigaj has joined the software engineering services provider as chief financial officer, a role to which he brings 25 years of experience.

TurningPoint announced the hire in a LinkedIn post that describes its growth strategy as covering the federal telecommunications, health IT and commercial markets.

Scigaj most recently worked as CFO at Easy Dynamic Corp. for three years. His career also includes roles at General Dynamics IT and Exelis.

Unissant

Zeshan Khan has joined the digital transformation provider as vice president of enterprise solutions, a role to which he brings 25 years of experience.

Unissant has tasked Khan with leading its enterprise architecture solutioning and technical capture function in the national security business unit. This includes growth strategies for Unissant’s portfolio with the Homeland Security and Defense departments, plus the intelligence community.

Khan most recently worked as director of strategy and technical solutions at Peraton. His career also includes roles at Perspecta, OGSystems and IBM.

CAE

Bruce Ross has joined the board of directors at this aerospace and defense company, a role to which he brings three decades of tech and business leadership experience.

Ross currently works as group head of artificial intelligence at Royal Bank of Canada, where he also is a member of the group executive panel.

He formerly led RBC’s technology and operations group. His career also includes senior roles at IBM, including as president of its Canada subsidiary.

Lunar Outpost

John Shaw, a retired Space Force lieutenant general and former deputy commander of Space Command, has joined the board of directors at this venture-backed company focused on space mobility and infrastructure.

In that role at SPACECOM, Shaw led a team of 12,000 personnel and oversaw an annual budget of roughly $525 million. Shaw was one of the first generals to transfer from the Air Force to Space Force in 2019, then took on the role at SPACECOM for three years until he retired in 2023.

Shaw is also on the board of directors at Stoke Space, also a venture-backed firm.