Servicing Diverse Customer Needs with Next-Gen EO and Geospatial Intelligence

After leading software research and development for over two decades, Jimi is the founder & CTO of Orbital Insight. Orbital Insight helps business and policy decision-makers understand economic and societal trends through geospatial analytics. His corporate focus is to develop artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision, creating a new source of market data for diverse industries.

Before a successful $1B Monsanto acquisition, Jimi was the SVP of Science and Engineering at the Climate Corporation. Prior to that, he was CTO and Software Architect at Moon Express whose goal was putting the first commercial robot on the moon. As the Engineering Director for Google Book Search, he was in charge of Google’s project to scan, index, and make searchable all the world’s books. As EVP of Engineering at Composite Software, he led product development around data visualization.

At Nasa Ames Research Center, Jimi led Autonomy and Robotics projects and authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications, resulting in five patents. Jimi earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and BA in Math and Computer Science from Rice University.

He has a long-term interest in photography which led him, most recently, to eastern Idaho to photograph the August total eclipse.

Frank Backes is the Chief Executive Officer at Capella Space. Previously, Mr. Backes served as Senior Vice President for Kratos Space Federal and Commercial Cyber and has spent 30+ years in the satellite launch, command, control, and communications industries. Mr. Backes is a technology pioneer in the systematic and continuous application of cyber security solutions for space systems. Mr. Backes is the former Chief Executive Officer for Braxton Technologies LLC and Braxton Science and Technology Group, LLC, leading manufacturers of launch, command and control software for intelligence, military and commercial applications based in Colorado Springs, CO. He is a space industry thought leader recognized for innovating solutions that expand organizational capability, product portfolios and market presence.

Mr. Backes is a noted industry speaker for innovative technologies and company brands delivering professional-level presentations with extensive tradeshow and large industry event experience. He was recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009 for achievements in the aerospace industry. Mr. Backes is the founder and president of the Space ISAC and serves on the board of directors for Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), and formerly, the advisory board for the University of Colorado Boulder Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department, and the chairman of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable. He received a BSEE in Semiconductor Physics from the University of California at San Diego along with minors in communications/marketing and computer hardware.

Alex is one of Loft’s co-founders and COO where we oversees the company’s day-to-day operations and helps direct Loft’s strategy around both growth and internal operations. He has been in the space industry his entire career, having worked previously at Spire in Business Development and Avascent as an aerospace-focused management consultant. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and hails from Baltimore, Maryland.

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 AI. Shay has extensive executive 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.

Alex is CEO of GeoOptics, a leading provider of satellite weather and Earth system data. He has held several roles at GeoOptics, including managing the deployment and operations of its satellite constellation. Before joining GeoOptics, Alex was the Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, leading policy development and business operations for the industry association of the fast-growing commercial space industry. He has also been Legislative Director to Congressman Adam Schiff, advising the Congressman on science and technology, space, energy, environment, and non-proliferation issues and playing 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.