Leadership
Founded and led by a team of scientists, GeoOptics focuses on finding answers to some of the most important questions and challenges facing the globe.
Alex Saltman
Chief Executive Officer
Former Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, representing the fast-growing commercial space industry. During his tenure, he led policy development and business operations to build government support and create an effective regulatory regime. Also served as Legislative Director to Congressman Adam Schiff, advising on science and technology, space, energy, environment, and non-proliferation issues, serving key roles in helping expand the use of nuclear forensics to track nuclear material and in shepherding the 2010 NASA Authorization Act through to passage. Alex holds an AB from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford University, both in Physics.
Thomas Yunck
Company Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Long-time NASA technical manager and researcher; pioneered the use of GPS for civil and scientific applications; past chairman of the Foundation for Earth Science; inductee into the Space Foundation’s Space Technology Hall of Fame. In 1988, Tom wrote the first proposal for exploiting GPS signals to sound the Earth’s atmosphere for weather and climate applications. Since then he has been involved in every aspect of its development and validation. He holds the basic patent on the state space approach to Wide Area Differential GPS positioning, which has grown into a $100M/year industry and received a BSEE from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Yale University.
Russell H. Packer
Chief Financial Officer
Former CFO of Geometric Results Incorporated, a Ford Motor Co. business and technology services subsidiary. During his eight-year tenure, GRI revenue increased from $3 million per month to over $800 million per year. Russ previously spent five years as a financial executive with Coca-Cola, including work on the IPO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, and ten years in investment banking with Shoreline Partners and Delphos Group. He holds a BS in administration and an MBA from USC.
Board of Directors
Conrad C. Lautenbacher (Vice Admiral, USN ret.)
Executive Chairman
Retired as Vice Admiral from the U.S. Navy, where he was Commander of the U.S. third fleet. Admiral Lautenbacher also served as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations in charge of programs and budget. After leaving the Navy he served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and as the eighth Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2001-08. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics from Harvard University.
Thomas Yunck
Founder
Wesley K. Clark (General, USA ret.)
Chairman, Wesley Clark Associates
Founder and Chairman of Wesley Clark Associates; former Chairman of Rodman & Renshaw, 11th largest investment bank in U.S.; co-chairman of Growth Energy, a renewable energy advocacy group; NATO Supreme Commander Europe during the Bosnian conflict, 1997-2000; former special assistant to NATO Supreme Commander Europe, Alexander Haig; former U.S. presidential candidate; graduated 1st in his class from the United States Military Academy; won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, taking a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics; awarded the silver star for valor in Viet Nam, several knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Glenn S. Schafer
Deputy Chairman,
Janus Henderson Group
Currently Deputy Chairman of Janus Henderson Group, a publicly owned investment group with approximately $375 billion under management. Mr. Schafer is former Executive VP and CFO of E.F. Hutton and later joined Pacific Life Insurance Company as VP of corporate finance. He was named CFO of Pacific Life in 1987 and President in 1995 and was appointed Vice Chairman in 2005. During his last decade at Pacific Life, Mr. Schafer oversaw their securities, institutional products, annuities, real estate, and mutual funds divisions; broker dealer network; and treasury, finance and admin. He was responsible for managing over $50 billion in assets.
Advisors
Jack D. Dangermond
Founding GeoOptics Investor & Business Advisor; Founder/Owner of ESRI; originator and pioneer of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Prof. Daniel N. Baker
Prof. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder (CU); Director, CU Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, 1994-present; Lab Chief, Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, 1987-1994; Group Leader, Space Plasma Physics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1981-1987; Service on numerous NASA and National Research Council committees, including Chair of the Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey that planned research programs for 2013-2023.