Management
Gerald Knoblach
Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Knoblach has served as Chairman and CEO since Space Data's incorporation in 1997. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Knoblach was a program manager at CrossLink, Inc., a wireless communications equipment company. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Knoblach was a business development and program manager for Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB), where he led the effort to develop the first hand-held, personal communicator for use with the Orbcomm© satellite network. Mr. Knoblach earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1992, an M.S.E.E. from the University of Minnesota in 1990, and a B.S.M.E. from M.I.T. in 1985. He is a licensed professional engineer and has been awarded two patents.
Eric Frische
Co-founder, Vice President of Technology and Chief Technical Officer
From 1989 to 1998, Mr. Frische was owner and president of Applied Solutions, an engineering prototyping company, where he led all engineering, production and marketing activities. During his tenure, Mr. Frische developed a wide variety of prototypes for client companies in such areas as telecommunications, consumer electronics and medical devices. Prior to Applied Solutions, Mr. Frische was a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Frische has also been employed as a toy designer for Mattel, Inc. (NYSE:MAT), and an engineer at the M.I.T. Robotics Laboratory. Mr. Frische earned a B.S.E.E. from M.I.T. in 1985. He is a licensed patent agent and has been awarded three patents. Mr. Frische holds a technician-class amateur radio license.
Jim Wiesenberg
Chief Strategy Officer
Jim Wiesenberg is responsible for forging strategic alliances with wireless broadband service providers and manufacturers, as well as serving as a liaison to the investment community. He has been a successful operator and developer of domestic radio frequency spectrum ranging from 2-40 GHz. Since 1990, he has co-founded five wireless transmission companies and completed sales, including major market licenses at 2.5 GHz, to Clearwire and a Sprint subsidiary, as well as 39 GHz rights for a quarter of the country to a concern now part of FiberTower. In addition, he has provided advisory services in connection with broadband wireless strategy, FCC auctions and license transactions independently and on behalf of Cantor Fitzgerald Telecom. Previously he was director of corporate development for Microband; vice president of marketing for The PlayCable Company; manager of market development for Showtime; and acting general manager of Viacom Cable in Cleveland. Mr. Wiesenberg has a bachelor's degree from New York University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
George Purvis
Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Purvis has over 30 years experience in government space flight systems, project management and business operations. As a Space Shuttle flight controller at the NASA Johnson Space Center he participated in over 20 Space Shuttle and payload test flights for NASA and the DoD. His project management and government contract experience includes program manager leadership at Orbital Sciences Corporation, where he led the development and operation of launch vehicles, ground stations and recoverable payloads. In addition to government business unit management, Mr. Purvis' experience includes project management and business development consulting in the Web application and real estate industries. His education includes an M.S. in biological sciences from the University of Houston with a focus on spaceflight greenhouse control systems, as well as a B.S. in physics from the University of Alabama with a concentration in astrophysics.
George Ritchie
Chief Financial Officer
George Ritchie joined Space Data in March 2008. Prior to joining Space Data, Mr. Ritchie served as Vice President of Financial Operations and Planning for H&R Block. Mr. Ritchie has also served as CFO for the Flagstaff Unified School district, ABB Catalyst Power, and was Director of Finance at Honeywell International. From 1991 to 1994, Mr. Ritchie worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Germany. Mr. Ritchie earned an MBA from UCLA.s Anderson School of Management in 1991 and a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Wichita State University. Before receiving his MBA, Mr. Ritchie was a structural design engineer for the McDonnell Douglas C-17 aircraft.
Bruce Barkley
Vice President, Commercial Operations
Bruce Barkley is an original member of Space Data's Operations team where he has held a variety of positions in balloon operations and testing. In his current position as Vice President of Commercial Operations, Mr. Barkley oversees all aspects of Space Data's commercial data network, including launch and ground station operations, flight control, payload and balloon manufacturing and corporate IT. Prior to joining Space Data, he served as the lead test supervisor for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Launch System Group, where he was responsible for ensuring that all avionics equipment were properly tested before installation into launch vehicles. During his tenure at Orbital Sciences, Mr. Barkley was involved in the design and installation of several satellite tracking systems. Before his 12 years at Orbital Sciences, he was in the U.S. Air Force where he specialized in balloon-borne upper air meteorological systems.
John Carlin
Vice President, Sales
From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Carlin was President and CEO of Telemisphere, LLC, a virtual network provider focused on telemetry and location markets. From 2002 to 2003, he was vice president of business development for Wireless Innovations, a distributor of wireless data and location products. Earlier in his career, Mr. Carlin held a wide variety of sales and marketing positions in the paging industry at MobileComm (a BellSouth company) and Arch Wireless. As vice president and general manager, he successfully improved performance in multiple markets. As director of training and Sales Operations, Mr. Carlin managed the team responsible for training and compensating over 1400 sales personnel and implemented Arch's first national telesales organization. As director of telemetry, he initiated Arch's entry into the telemetry market. Mr. Carlin earned a B.B.A. in marketing management from the University of Cincinnati.
Jerry Quenneville
Vice President, Business Development
As Vice President of Business Development, Jerry Quenneville is responsible for identifying new customer opportunities, securing new business, steering new areas of technology development, and maximizing the business impact of partnering relationships in Space Data's Government Division. Before joining Space Data in 2001, Mr. Quenneville spent over 20 years in the U.S. Air Force in various engineering, research and technical program management capacities in support of the U.S. intelligence community, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. His responsibilities included the engineering, development and deployment of intelligence systems; high-reliability space and terrestrial communications systems; modeling and simulation systems; and special-purpose digital and software-based applications. Mr. Quenneville earned a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an M.S. from the California Institute of Technology, both in electrical engineering.
Andy Germer
Managing Director, International Business Development
Mr. Germer has over 25 years experience as a senior sales management and business development executive with an extensive international background. Prior to joining Space Data, Mr. Germer had a successful career with Motorola in developing and managing many emerging markets within the government and commercial sectors in the Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Canada and Asia. His leadership positions included Vice President of Motorola's Space & Electronics Group, Director of Distribution for Middle East and Africa based in the UK and Director of Strategic Markets, based in Dubai. Mr. Germer's teams have won multi million dollar contracts for government and military customers. Mr. Germer led Motorola's efforts in re-entering the Libyan marketplace after the normalization of relations between the US and Libya. Mr. Germer is a mentor with the Arizona State University Technopolis program and was nominated and accepted as member of the US Department of Commerce Arizona District Export Council. He is also a board member of the Arizona International Business Circle. He has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Illinois.