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Meet the Team!



Leadership team



T.A. Pawlak III



Founder / Chief Executive Officer



Born in Buffalo, NY, Mr. Pawlak had studied at the University at Buffalo (Business Ops Mgt) and graduated from Medaille University (dept. of business management). ​



rafael spears



Co Founder



A charismatic business professional with an entrepreneurial assertiveness who brings over 26 years of profitably managing technology companies and developing high performance cross functional teams. ​



Andy weir



CoFounder / Director Launch Vehicles



Andrew was born and raised in Austin, Texas. In 2014, he received his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.



alexander taleb



Chief Spacecraft Engineer



Alexander is an Aerospace Engineering graduate of Georgia Tech (2014) who brings a wealth of rocket and spacecraft design experience from many different companies.​



lt. gen. brian t kelly



Advisory Board Member



The Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, HQ at U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon, Arlington, VA. Serving as the senior Air Force officer responsible for plans and policies covering all life cycles of military/civilian personnel management.



Michael j. listner



Advisory Board Member



Attorney and Advisor. Subject matter expert in space law, space policy, lawfare/hybrid warfare strategy and outer space security. Author and Publisher of The Précis.​



Dr. Steven J Harvey, Ph.d.



Advisory Board Member



Dr. Emad AMin, Ph.D.



SR. CFD Engineer



Dr. Sunil Badwe, Ph.D.



Chief Metallurgist



William schoenfeld



Chief Flight Systems Engineer



dr. vishal acharya, Ph.d.



Principal Propulsion Engineer



Carolyn Alvarez



Materials Engineer



kenneth carnemolla



GN&C Engineer



Cody Larochelle



Project Engineer



dr. hua ye, ph.d.



Director Structures/Thermals



Dr. James Chen



Chief Analytics Engineer



Peter Uth



Principal G&NC Engineer



noah rhys



EVP of Propulsion



Greg Knutson



Advisory Board Member



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Systems Engineer



APPLY



Ground Systems Engineer



apply



Advisory Board



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Test Engineer



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Dir. Gov Business Relations



apply



Launch Compliance



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Avionics Engineer



T.A. Pawlak III



founder / chief executive officer / chairman of the board of directors



Mr. Pawlak was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Lesath International Inc in 2021, where he will guide the company mission, business growth and overall success of the program objectives. Born in Buffalo, NY, Mr. Pawlak had studied at the University at Buffalo (Business Operations Management) and graduated from Medaille University (department of business management).

Commanding over 25 years of successful business management, sales and creativity and using his entrepreneurial spirit, leadership qualities, he will bring the companies vision into focus. He will lead Lesath International in developing the next generation of rocket architecture and reusable space launch vehicles that will enable the democratization of space launch forever while on connecting humanity and space.

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Rafael Spears



co-founder / Chief operations officer



A charismatic business professional with an entrepreneurial assertiveness who brings over 26 years of experience profitably managing technology companies by building and developing high performance cross functional technical teams. With extensive experience in electromechanical Aerospace product development (e.g. propulsion & RF devices), demonstrated ability in transitioning product development to scaled production and the discipline to create vertically integrated supply chain infrastructures. Rafael’s leadership in international business development and program management has generated double digit margins on commercial contracts as well as creating strategic DoD and Civil customer relationships leading to multi-year procurement agreements. A senior executive in an engineer's body with demonstrated ability to deliver mission critical results.


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VACANT



Chief technology officer



We are looking for a talented CTO to join out team!


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Andrew "Andy" Weir



co-founder / director of launch vehicle Production



Mr. Weir joined our team in 2021, contributing his knowledge and expertise to our team.

Andrew was born and raised in Austin, Texas. In 2014, he received his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

In 2016-2021, he served as propulsion engineer at Firefly Aerospace specifically developing and manufacturing the turbo machinery plan for the Lightning and Reaver engines projects.


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Alexander Taleb



chief spacecraft engineer



Alexander is an Aerospace Engineering graduate of Georgia Tech (2014) who brings a wealth of rocket and spacecraft design experience from many different vehicles, having previously worked at Firefly, Generation Orbit, and with the Blue Origin propulsion team. He has designed engine components, entire stages, performed systems work, and led contract winning teams. With these skills in hand, he looks forward to building a rocket from nosecone to nozzle.


He has an unmatched passion for rockets and spaceflight, and a deep knowledge of spacecraft design from early suborbital research rockets to today’s reusable heavy lifters, and everything in-between. Alexander’s mission is to see Lesath build an industry leading launch vehicle, and open up space to a new generation of explorers and adventurers.


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Dr. Steven Harvey Ph.D.



advisory board chair



Dr. Steven Harvey is the CEO of Integrity Partners for Behavioral Health and the past Executive Director of the WNY Higher Education Consortium which focused on increasing graduation outcomes for students. Steve is the founder and CEO of the Center for Educational and Career Advancement, Inc. and My Campus Max, LLC (www.mycollegemax.com and www.mcmforcoaches.com) and recently launched the National Center for Student Leadership (www.ncslsuccess.org).


In 2008, Dr. Harvey was named to Business First’s 40 Under 40, in 2007 he received the Buffalo State College’s Outstanding Teacher Award, and he is a member of the Leadership Buffalo Class of 2007. Steve has raised over $28,000,000 for area nonprofits and has published several research articles, trade articles, and books. Dr. Harvey holds a Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education, Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration, and B.S. in Business Administration and has taught in higher education for over 28 years.


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Dr. Emad Amin, Ph.D., M.Sc., P.E.



principal Computational fluid dynamics Engineer



Dr. Amin has more than 27 years of experience performing complex thermal analysis projects. He has served as a senior Thermal fluid application consultant for NASA KSC as well as Capgemini North America since 2018. In his previous role as a technical advisor in the CFD group at Research and Technology Organization, Cummins, Inc. where he was responsible for establishing analysis methods and practice for Natural Gas Spark Ignition Engines thermal cooling. Before joining Cummins he was a senior combustion simulation engineer at Achates Power LLC and Navistar International Truck and Engine Co. developing low emission diesel engines and homogeneous charge compression engines.


Dr. Amin was a faculty member of Mechanical Engineering at West Virginia University (WVU) and WVU Institute of Technology developing combustion analysis labs and experimental methods. He wrote several publications and scholarly papers in technical conferences and archived journals. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in fuels and energy engineering with a specialization in turbulent combustion and emissions from the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. He also served as a postdoctoral research fellow at South-Bank University in London, UK from 1995 to 1997. He is an active member of ASME, AIAA, and SAE. Dr. Amin holds a professional engineering license in the state of West Virginia.


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Dr. Hua Ye, Ph.D.



director of Structural & Thermal ENgineering



Dr. Hua Ye has over 22 years of experience on CAE, computational mechanics, spacecraft thermal design and analysis, FEA (Static, non-linear, dynamics and CFD simulations) and design optimization. After he completed his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering in 1995, He served as a 2 year postdoctoral research fellow at Cornell University.


Dr. Hua worked at NASA AMES, Maxar, Aerojet, GE, United Technologies, SF Motors He received NASA award on LADEE spacecraft mission (2014), Overseas Research Scholarship, ORS award (1991), Danish Research Academy Fellowship, Demark (1995), who is who in science and Engineering, publishes 31 papers in the first-class journals/international conferences. He is a reviewer of plastics Engineering, reviewer of Journal of Mechanical Design, ASME.


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Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly (retired) USAF



advisory board member



Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. General Kelly serves as the senior Air Force officer responsible for comprehensive plans and policies covering all life cycles of military and civilian personnel management, which includes military and civilian end strength management, education and training, compensation, resource allocation, and the worldwide U.S. Air Force services program. General Kelly entered the Air Force in 1989 as a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s ROTC program. He has held several command and staff positions at the base, major command, Air Staff, and Joint Staff levels. His command tours include a Mission Support Squadron, Mission Support Group, Combat Support Wing and the Air Force Personnel Center. Prior to his current assignment, General Kelly served as the Commander of the AFPC at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.


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Dr. Vishal Acharya Ph.D



sr. propulsion Engineer



Bio coming soon.


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Dr. Sunil Badwe, Ph.D., PMT



Chief Metallurgist & Additive Manufacturing



A graduate from College of Engineering Pune, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stanford School of Business, University at Nevada, and holds Six Sigma Green Belt Executive with diverse experience in Metallurgy and Materials Science. Additive Manufacturing, Alloy Development, Powder Metallurgy, Investment Casting. High Entropy Alloys (HEA) Aluminum alloys, Titanium Alloys, Stainless Steels, Ni and Co base Superalloys, Copper base alloys, Permanent magnetic ferrous alloys. Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing.


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VACANT



Chief Propulsion Engineer



We are looking to hire an experienced Chief Propulsion Engineer in liquid rocketry.


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VACANT



Subsystems Engineer



We are recruiting a systems engineer.


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Kenneth Carnemolla



Guidance, Navigation and controls Engineer



Kenneth graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with an Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering (2020). Working in various roles spanning from project engineer to systems and GNC he has gained aptitude and working knowledge of AFB/SFB range safety documents such as EWR 127-1, and AFSPCMAN 91-710.


Special projects ranging from material tests for companies including SpaceX Starlink, Payload processing of NRO programs L-82, L-87, L-85, & NASA’s DART, Mission manager of payload processing segment of NASA DART, and Development of GN&C from to be used from launch to re-entry and future moon programs.


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Carolyn Craig



Materials Engineer



Carolyn Craig graduated from Colorado State University in 2022 with her Masters of Science in Materials Science and Engineering. Her research experience is in cryogenics working with liquid helium and liquid nitrogen. The majority of her experience is regarding the mechanical behavior of materials such as stress-strain and fracture of polymers, metals, and composites. As well as experience in orbital mechanics and rocket design, mainly in calculation and simulation of orbits.


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William Schoenfeld



chief systems engineer



William is experience in mechanical engineering. Focus on experimental systems research and development of: 3 Years Mechanical Engineer In Training, rotational assignments 11 Years Experimental systems operations, maintenance, data reduction, and reporting 6 Years Spacecraft mission operations and console flight operations 1 Year Interplanetary flight operations: Earth to Venus trajectory and Venus on-orbit operations 2 Years Interplanetary spacecraft design engineering 28 Years Space launch and rocket vehicle systems engineering BS Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, May 1969 MS (studies) Applied Mathematical Physics, U of MD 1978 MS (studies) Mechanical-Aerospace Engineering U of CO, 1979 and 1983-1989 Computational Fluid Dynamics, Wichita State University, Dept of Aerospace Engineering, 2002-2003 Vibrations and shock, New Mexico State University at Holloman AFB HSTT, 2003 Computational Aeroelasticity, Idaho University On-line, 2015 Aeronautics and Astronautics, Old Dominion University On-line 2014, 2021 Numerous short courses a AIAA Symposia Published over 20 relevant papers many were presented at AIAA and similar symposia.


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Coming Soon!



advisory board - in-house counsel



Bio coming soon!


Subject matter expert in space law and space policies.


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Cody LaRochelle



project engineer



Bio coming soon!


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