Joe Laurienti, Founder and CEO of Ursa Major, is an experienced engineer with a background in propulsion technology manufacturing and development. Joe graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California, where he spent time supporting research in fluid dynamics and as part of a group that designed, built, and flew hobby rockets. In his previous roles, Joe worked on numerous engines and spacecraft through development, manufacturing, and flight qualification, including Blue Origin’s BE-3 engine and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, Merlin engine, and Merlin D Vacuum engine. Joe founded Ursa Major in 2015 to seek a higher level of innovation in space launch by building a team focused wholly on viewing the technical aspects of propulsion through a market lens as opposed to a top-down vehicle fit.

Amir Blachman today serves as Axiom Space’s Chief Investment Officer, leading the company’s strategic partnerships and fundraising, which today surpasses $500 million.  Amir joined Axiom Space in 2016 as the company’s first employee and helped grow it to $2.2 billion in sales and 750 employees. He also played a key role in helping the company win the unique privilege of connecting its new commercial space station to the International Space Station.  Prior to Axiom, Amir served as Managing Director of the world’s leading early-stage space investment firm, responsible for funding companies that developed lunar landers, communication networks, Earth imaging satellites, antennae, and exploration technologies.  Amir is a seasoned aerospace executive and investor with 25 years’ experience in finance, operations management, sales, board management, compliance, corporate transactions and offerings.

Daniel Wallman is a partner at Balerion Space Ventures. Prior to joining Balerion, he was a founding principal at the Explorer 1 Fund.

Daniel was a member of the business development and strategy team at Blue Origin from 2017 to 2019. From 2011 to 2015, he worked for The Boeing Company as an engineer, where his work focused on space exploration and missile defense. 

Daniel received his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and bachelors and masters in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Shay Har-Noy (Shy) is the Chief Executive Officer of Edgybees, a cutting edge company making aerial video and satellite imagery more accurate through ML/AI.  Shay has extensive experience as an executive at leading satellite companies Spire and DigitalGlobe/Maxar. At DigitalGlobe/Maxar, he was responsible for their Platform business — their high growth effort to get DigitalGlobe’s 15 year digital library in the cloud and available for ML/AI. He also saw first hand the importance of accuracy in large scale automation through his experience at Uber leading the product group responsible for detecting and fixing map errors in real time. 

Dr. Har-Noy graduated summa cum laude from Rice University and received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering with research in image processing from UC-San Diego.