Ms. Jonas is an executive with a distinguished career. She was Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) for the Department of Defense from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for financial management, and as a senior analyst with the Office of Management and Budget and the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. She is a trustee of the Aerospace Corporation and the National Defense Industrial Association. She is a board member of the National Military Family Association and EADS, North America (Airbus Group). From 2008 to 2014, she held executive positions in the aerospace and defense industry.
Ms. Jonas holds an M.A. in liberal studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in political science from Arizona State University.
Mr. David C. Campion
President/CEO
Mr. Campion leads Areté, as its President and CEO. Since becoming President and CEO, he has helped to unify the company behind a strategic plan that calls for innovation that rapidly transforms our ground-breaking S&T advances into prototypes and finished solutions. Over his short tenure, we have seen the company revenue grow as he worked to develop the staff and leadership across the company. Prior to this role, he served as Areté’s Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for executing a diverse program portfolio delivering integrated hardware and software remote sensing solutions to a broad base of Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.
Mr. Campion holds an M.S. in Optical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and has been with Areté since 1993.
Mr. Charles L. Beames
York Space Systems, Executive Chairman
Mr. Beames is currently the Executive Chairman of York Space Systems, a leader in commercial satellite design and manufacturing. Previously, he served as President, Vulcan Aerospace and Executive Director, Stratolaunch Systems. Prior to working at Vulcan Aerospace, he was a member of the Senior Executive Service, holding several executive positions within the Department of Defense. His last was as the Principal Director, Space & Intelligence Systems in the Pentagon, overseeing the execution of a $90B annual acquisition budget. Beames retired as a Colonel, USAF after 23 years on active duty that included deployments and duty assignments around the world.
Mr. Beames is an engineering graduate of both the US Air Force Academy and Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Beames also holds advanced degrees from the National War College and Georgetown University.
Lieutenant General Susan J. Helms, USAF (Ret)
Independent Consultant
Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1990, she became the first U.S. military woman in space. She completed five spaceflights – four on the space shuttle, plus a fifth flight aboard the International Space Station for a duration of almost 6 months. Susan has logged 211 days in space, and on March 11, 2001, accomplished a spacewalk of nearly nine hours, still a world record. Lt. Gen. Helms served as fighter jet weapons separation engineer and a flight test engineer. A Distinguished Graduate of the USAF Test Pilot School, Flight Test Engineer Course, she has flown in 30 different types of military aircraft. She served in numerous command and staff positions, before her eventual promotion to Lt. General. She serves on the Board of Directors for Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc (VORB), the Board of Trustees for the Aerospace Corporation, and the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
Lt. Gen. Helms received a BS in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Masters of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, Susan taught aeronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Mr. Jeffrey M. Smith
Vice President and General Manager, Saab
Mr. Smith has twenty-five years of experience working across numerous areas in product development. Mr. Smith led the business growth strategy, capture management, partnering initiatives, and product expansion at Bluefin Robotics. In 2010, Mr. Smith was tapped by the PMS403 (now PMS 406) to chair a broad industry team to conduct a study of the supporting technology areas for UMVs in support of a pending UUV Master Plan update. Over the past several years, Mr. Smith has also been selected as a subject matter expert to participate in numerous war games and study panels focused on the future of undersea warfare for Commander, Submarine Forces (COMSUBFOR) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
Mr. Smith holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and an MBA from the Lally School of Management at RPI.