2021 VFS Webinar Schedule

Dana Jensen joined Gemini in 2019 from the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Industrial Policy where he led the DoD's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) Non-Notified Transactions Unit. Previously, Dana worked on Political-Military affairs with the Department of State and as an equity derivatives trader with Blackrock and BNP Paribas. Dana holds master’s degrees in Archaeology from Stanford University and Geography from the University of Florida.

Rafferty Jackson built her diverse career through leadership roles at major market disruptors, repeatedly creating executive leadership roles requiring oversight, accountability, strategic planning and execution as well as collaboration across all company functions. Now she focuses on using her unique and valuable business insights to fill leaders and founders with courage, new tools and a strategy forward for them to transform company purpose into company culture, creating better businesses through better jobs, products and services.

Kirsten Bartok Touw has been an active early-stage investor in new and emerging advanced air mobility, or AAM, technologies through AirFinance’s Venture Capital arm. She has sourced, diligenced and executed early stage investments in AI, machine learning, computer vision, autonomy, data analytics, drones, VTOL aircraft, electrification and battery technology. She is also an advisor to many AAM startups and a frequent speaker at the intersection of AAM and finance. She was named to Corporate Jet Investor’s “Power List” in 2015 as one of the industry’s top 10 innovators and is currently the only woman on the list.

Mark Ratliff is an aerospace engineer who has been supporting US Army Aviation for the past 11 years as a member of the Systems Readiness Directorate (SRD). During his time he has served in multiple capacities at SRD including structural engineer on OH-58, systems engineer supporting both the US Army Fleet and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) partner AH-64 aircraft, and currently as the rapid response integration manager supporting the Prototype Integration Facility as an Airworthiness advisor on all platforms. He has also spent time at the Multi-national Aviation Special Projects Office (MASPO) as the technical lead for the AH-6i aircraft..

Robert Scott is an aerospace engineer with over 10 years of research experience in aircraft design and cost assessment at the conceptual development stage for various government programs involving advanced rotorcraft and VTOL aircraft configurations. He holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech.

Michael Vegh is an aerospace engineer specializing in the application of battery models to aircraft design, with experience performing government assessments of unconventional configurations and concepts, including both fixed wing and rotary wing designs. He holds a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford.

Cliff Johnson is a research engineer, program manager, and technical expert for the Aviation Research Division at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ. He leads several research and development activities that seek to improve aviation safety, primarily focused on rotorcraft, unmanned aircraft, and vertical lift (i.e. eVOTL). Mr. Johnson is qualified on the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft systems platform and has supported several unmanned aircraft and rotorcraft simulations and live flight tests as a test director, pilot, and flight test engineer. These activities have included working with entities such as the FAA, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Defense, and various industry partners. He joined the FAA after earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Rowan University. He is a private pilot (fixed-wing) who is also pursuing instrument, commercial, and helicopter add-on ratings. In his spare time, Cliff enjoys outdoor activities (hunting, fishing, etc.), playing guitar, attending motorsports races (NASCAR, Indycar, Formula 1), and other sporting events; as he is a diehard Philadelphia sports fan (Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers).

Carlo Tiana has focused his career on the development of vision systems spanning the electromagnetic spectrum in the interest of aviation safety and operational improvements of airborne platforms. In his early days at NASA, he put his Physics background to use in the design of windowless supersonic cockpits where windows were to be replaced by sensors. He wildly underestimated how challenging this problem would be, and how much of his life it would consume. When it became apparent that no one sensor could solve all aspects of low-visibility operations, he developed some of the early successful imaging sensor fusion techniques, which are now part of our multispectral EVS camera product line. He relishes expanding the reach of our vision products to users around the globe.

Trish Ververs, PH.D., is an Engineering Fellow in the Advanced Electronics and Services in Honeywell’s Advanced Technology Division. Trish joined Honeywell in 1998 and has led programs in the areas of High Speed Research, Flight Critical Systems Research, Aviation Safety Program’s System Wide Accident Prevention, Advanced Primary Flight Displays, Improving Information Intake Under Stress/Augmented Cognition, Neurotechnology for Information Analysts, Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems, Combined Vision Systems, and Advanced Features for Commercial Helicopters. Her interests include avionics display design, alerting and notification, cognitive state assessment, and human factors evaluation. Dr. Ververs served as the technical lead for the Honeywell Combined Vision Systems program designing and evaluating a Next Generation avionics display that integrates real-time infrared imagery with Honeywell’s innovative synthetic vision technology for advanced cockpits. She’s currently the Human Factors technical lead of Honeywell’s NextGen Avionics flight deck. Dr. Ververs regularly serves on RTCA Special Committees addressing human factors and pilot interface issues for avionics. She holds multiple patents on alerting and notification, display design, and the human-machine interface and is a six-time recipient of Honeywell Aerospace’s Technical Award. Dr. Ververs was the award recipient of Avionics Magazine’s Women in Technology Emerging Leader.

Ms. Susan Althoff Gorton has been with NASA for 22 years and has been the NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project lead for the past 15 years. The project mission is to develop and validate tools, technologies and concepts to overcome key barriers for vertical lift vehicles. Ms. Gorton is responsible for the work in this area that is conducted at NASA Ames, Armstrong, Glenn and Langley. Prior to joining NASA, she was a researcher in the Army's Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, now known as the Technology Development Directorate, for 15 years. Ms. Gorton is an Honorary Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society and Associate Fellow of the AIAA.

As Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Starburst, Van Espahbodi is championing today’s aerospace renaissance, uniting early-stage technology innovators with private investment to modernize infrastructure in mobility, communications and intelligence. Van launched Starburst in the US in 2015, operating globally today with offices in Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi, and Montreal. His team works alongside 500+ technology startups developing new aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, drones, sensors, autonomy, robotics and much more. An entrepreneurial futurist, Van has over 16 years of experience in aerospace, identifying future trends, shaping product strategy and investment trade policies. Having worked in Government and Corporate strategy positions in both defense and commercial aviation markets, Van started his career as a congressional aide before joining Raytheon and later UK NATS, the British air navigation service provider. Following graduate studies at George Mason University, Van participated in executive programs at Thunderbird School of Management in AZ and Cranfield School of Management in the UK. He currently serves as a member of the Economic Development Advisory Council for the City of El Segundo and the Advisory Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum.

Mr. Michael Dyment is the Managing Partner of NEXA Advisors, an aerospace investment banking and corporate finance advisory firm. A highly experienced transportation, aerospace and defense industry consultant and trusted financial advisor to top management, he has decades of industrial and transportation research, corporate finance and infrastructure investment familiarity. Aerospace clients have included Airbus, Thales, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and NASA to name a few. NEXA Advisors has undertaken Urban Air Mobility business intelligence and finance programs for eVTOL vehicle and service providers and directly for NASA. In support of its institutional investment clients, NEXA recently completed a ground-breaking business intelligence study, Urban Air Mobility—Economics and Global Markets, which provides market intelligence, supply chain analysis and 20-year economic forecasts for 75 of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. In response to the overwhelming success of the study, NEXA also established UAM Geomatics, LLC, providing global geo-coded big data analytics to accelerate city-by-city UAM development and investment.

Prior to NEXA, Mr. Dyment was Senior Managing Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers, responsible for key aerospace and defense industry clients. He served in the business consulting unit of Arthur Andersen LLP, where he was the global managing partner of its Aviation Industry Practice. He holds a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.Sc.Eng. in Geomatics Engineering from the University of New Brunswick.

Douglas S. Adams is the Dragonfly Flight System Engineer, an AIAA Associate Fellow, and a member of APL’s Principal Professional Staff. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University, and has more than 20 years of experience developing spacecraft. Prior to his tenure at APL, he worked at JPL on the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity, was the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Mechanical Systems Engineer for the Phoenix Mars Scout lander, and was the Parachute Cognizant Engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Curiosity rover. At APL he supported the CORSAIR (COmet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return) and RAVEN (RAdar at VENus) proposals, was the Mechanical, Thermal, and Propulsion System Engineer for the Europa Clipper mission, worked on the Europa Lander conceptual design team, and has led the development of the Dragonfly flight system over the last five years.

David is a Research/Flight Test Engineer for the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service, supporting standards development, certification, and international validations across all aircraft product lines. He is deeply involved in a variety of flight research projects designed to support regulatory policy development for new and novel aircraft technologies, and is leading up the initial NASA Advanced Air Mobility flight test planning efforts. An aerospace engineer, experimental airplane builder, and instrument-rated pilot, David started his career in 1990 at Edwards AFB where he worked as an Air Force civilian performance and flying qualities engineer and test conductor for the X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability demonstrator at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center (now Armstrong). At the completion of the X-31 program, David transferred to NASA after a short stint as a B-2 Flight Test Engineer. As a NASA Operations Engineer, David worked all phases of Research projects as a Flight Test Engineer, Test Conductor and Flight Crew member on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft and the DC-8 Airborne Laboratory. In 2003, with David’s two children approaching school age, he escaped the Mojave desert and relocated to the Pacific Northwest where he worked as a Certification Flight Test Engineer for the FAA’s Seattle Aircraft Certification Office. In Seattle, he supported many domestic and international fixed-wing and special-class aircraft certification projects, and was a primary contributor to the FAA’s “Lessons Learned from Aircraft Accidents” online library. Always intrigued by new and novel technology, David transferred to Kansas City in October of 2016 in order to be actively involved in facilitating the emergence of Small Aircraft technologies. Now in the 3rd trimester of his civil service career, David is happily out of his comfort zone, climbing a steep learning curve on the technical nuances of electric-powered, vertical flight. He enthusiastically supports the emergence of an urban, on-demand, air taxi market that maintains an operational safety record which will serve to sustain this new mode of commuter transportation.

Prior to founding Jump Aero, Carl led the flying car company Terrafugia from founding through acquisition by the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. He served Terrafugia as CEO, CTO, and as a board director for 13 years. He is the current Chairman of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association committee on Simplified Vehicle Operations. He is the inventor or co-inventor on multiple issued patents and patents pending, and he has won numerous awards through his career including Aviation Week and Space Technology’s 40 under 40 award and the Lemelson-MIT student prize. Carl received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT.

Ms. Cummings is the co-founder and President of VyrtX, a creative LaaS (Logistics as a Service) solution focused at improving transportation within the organ transplant industry. Alice is well versed in perishable logistics and is a repeated business development performer. Early in her career, Alice crafted an extensive financial services acumen in the real estate and private investment space and has spent years networking with family offices, private investors, and serial entrepreneurs to raise capital for various early adopter investments and projects. Ms. Cumming’s early career started with Wells Fargo and managing mortgages and private investments in New York City, but after a down economy, Alice changed paths and worked over a decade, to climb the ladder in manufacturing and perishables distribution. After building and managing a national sales territory of $10 billion+ and coordinating distribution networks of 1,000+, Alice is highly regarded as an expert on logistics within the CPG and food distribution industries. Alice has worked for, and with, giant organizations such as PepsiCo, Sysco Foods, UNFI, and many of the Blackstone owned organizations. Alice spent most of her career in the Northeast markets, managing many large and niche distributors across the United States. She’s now located in the Greater Washington DC area. Alice is a licensed EMT and works as a volunteer with her local rescue squad outside of work. She is also an avid runner, triathlete and girls

Danielle McLean has a background in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Danielle started as a stress engineer at Spirit Aerosystems where she went on to fulfill various engineering roles including starting Spirit’s Urban Air Mobility Advanced Product Development Team. Danielle left Spirit to start Happy Takeoff, a hydrogen fuel cell eVTOL powerplant company, in 2019. Danielle is passionate about diversity in the workplace and believes it starts on the cap table.

Nathan’s 15 years of aerospace and business experience allow him to successfully oversee and manage corporate strategic, developmental, and innovation efforts. Prior to EP Systems, he served as program manager for Honeywell’s 787 Flight Control Electronics Power System, which included lithium-ion battery systems. He then became product manager for Honeywell’s electric power systems portfolio, which consisted of generation, distribution, and conversion products. His experience led him International Rectifier, where he served as director of strategy and business development, leading mergers and acquisitions for high-reliability applications. He later became the director of business management for the high-reliability business unit, where he managed a $200 million portfolio.

Randy’s 35 years of engineering experience in the aerospace industry has proven invaluable to Electric Power Systems and its success in the aerospace industry. He began his career at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) working on the C-17 program in avionics test. After several years he transitioned to an engineering manager role at Maxsys Tech where he worked on the International Space Station program, as well as commercial and military satellite programs. Randy founded Phillips Aerospace in 1998, which continues to support the military and commercial satellite and aviation industry.

In his three years at EP Systems, Michael has been instrumental in over twenty clean-sheet battery and electric propulsion system design solutions for aviation applications, seven of which have progressed to flight. Applications for these designs includes hybrid and all electric applications for fixed wing, eVTOL, and cargo vehicles. Prior to his current role at EP Systems, Mike was the Hybrid Propulsion Lead at Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks. He has over 25 scholarly publications and 20 patents in the areas of aircraft electric propulsion and advanced propulsion systems. Mike actively promotes the aerospace industry’s transition to new propulsion technology solutions through his involvement in SAE’s Electric Aircraft Steering Group and AIAA’s Aircraft Electric Propulsion and Power Working Group.

Max Frischman is the Director of Sales at Eagle Point Funding. Through his role, Max helps disruptive tech companies that want to fundraise without losing equity by using federal R&D grants. He helps companies tap into a $30+ Billion annual funding source available for private businesses to fuel commercial products. Max's expertise is with deep-tech and companies developing dual-use tech in industries outside of the life-sciences. In addition to managing the sales department at Eagle Point Funding, Max has built a few start-ups of his own and advises/consults for many others!

Phoenicia Miracle, M.Ed., President of Miracle Strategies, LLC, has helped raise more than $65M from individuals, foundations, and corporations. Experienced in major gift solicitation, endowment funding, private foundation asks, capital campaign support, and special event sponsorships, Phoenicia works with each client to design a strategic funding plan specific to their needs. Her core strategies are straightforward: Focus first on impact, outcomes, and product market. Next, research, identify, and prioritize prospective investors based on capacity, propensity, and relevant relationships. Finally, connect, engage, and communicate results to increase investment over time. Phoenicia’s excitement around funding opportunities in the Evtol market began while providing research to her husband, a university engineering professor, who is developing a capstone program focused on future infrastructure needs.