Your mission, our legacy of reliability.

Chad Brinkley, founder and CEO of SEOPS, brings a long history of leadership and entrepreneurship, coupled with a relentless passion for space outcomes (how research and exploration improve our quality of life here on Earth) from a rich career spanning the commercial, civil, and military space sectors. Chad has experience managing missions ranging from the International Space Station to space exploration, as well as creating early stage companies and raising capital to establish initial strategy, operations and business development activities. He brings a wealth of expertise in the government acquisition process and has an impressive track record building strong Intellectual Property (IP) portfolios that permit the movement from an R&D state to commercial operations. His leadership has been pivotal in SEOPS’s ascent as a key provider of sophisticated launch services and satellite deployments.

Michael Johnson (“MJ”), CTO and Co-Founder of SEOPS, is responsible for designing creative solutions for the deployment of customer payloads. With more than 35 years experience as a senior executive and engineer in the space industry, MJ began his career with the Space Shuttle program. He then went on to start Nanoracks (now Voyager Space), a leading provider of access to space for customers around the world and the first to operate a commercial laboratory in Low Earth orbit. A renowned industry expert in solving the unique challenges of integrating complex payloads and spacecraft onto a wide variety of launch vehicles, including the ISS, heholds multiple patents and has been involved with more than 430 successful satellite deployments.

As the Chief Financial Officer at SEOPS, Kirk Hollingshead has more than 20+ years of finance and project management experience serving clients across the aerospace, biomedical, energy, and technology sectors ranging from startups to Global Fortune 500 companies. His expertise spans a wide range of financial and operational areas, including business strategy, risk assessment, design and operating effectiveness of controls, compliance and monitoring, corporate governance, third party due diligence, FCPA, bribery and corruption risk, and fraud in the audit. As a Certified Valuation Analyst, Kirk also has forensic expertise on a variety of issues related to crisis management, business interruption, construction delay, contractual disputes, patent infringement, royalties, shareholder disputes, accounting of stock options, and other financial and accounting issues.

Scott Schoneman applies his more than 30 years of diverse experience in missiles and launch vehicles, including conceptual development, proposal management and support, mission development, mission management, and launch support to his role as a Strategic Advisor to SEOPS. Specializing in launch vehicle-to-space vehicle interface and launch range coordination, including all associated documentation including ICDs, specifications, UDS, and Range Safety documents, Scott is a highly sought after expert for independent review and assessment at all phases of mission development, including proposal, design reviews, and pre-launch readiness.Most recently, Scott served as Spaceflight Inc.’s Senior Mission Advisor for multiple launch vehicles and spacecraft, as well as as Director of Systems Engineering for Orbital's Launch Systems Group.

Evan Hoyt is the Executive Vice President of Program Development at SEOPS. An accomplished former U.S. Army Apache pilot and officer with a distinguished military career, Evan’s experience spans multiple combat tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd and 101st Airborne and the 4th Infantry Divisions. In his military tenure, Evan held critical roles, notably for multi-star General Officers within CENTCOM, contributing significantly to global stability and diplomatic relations. His deep understanding of military needs and dynamics enriches SEOPS’s strategic initiatives, aligning cutting-edge aerospace solutions with defense requirements. He has a proven track record of effective organizational leadership, strategic thinking, and complex problem-solving, and is adept at operating in the gray space between industry capability and government needs. Evan also has a TS/SCI clearance.

Carl Campbell is an aerospace veteran with more than 45 years of experience spanning flight test, launch systems, and spacecraft integration. Beginning his career as an F-15/F-18 flight test telemetry technician, Carl advanced into spacecraft integration and mission management, with over 200 spacecraft successfully integrated and launched to orbit. His career includes key roles at Boeing on the Mid-Course Missile Defense Booster, at United Launch Alliance supporting Delta II, Delta IV, Atlas V, and early Vulcan design studies, at Rocket Lab on Electron, and at Virgin Orbit with LauncherOne. Among his most memorable missions are Delta IV’s Parker Solar Probe and Orion Capsule’s first flight, as well as Atlas V’s Mars InSight and OSIRIS-REx missions. With decades of hands-on expertise, Carl has made lasting contributions to some of the most ambitious and high-profile missions in modern aerospace.

Valerie Skarupa brings more than 30 years of combined experience in Industry and the U.S. Government to her role as a Strategic Advisor for SEOPS. Her expertise is focused on connecting Industry with the Department of Defense, Intelligence and Civil Space communities.Prior to this roleValerie was the Director of Government Business for Spaceflight, Inc. where she was responsible for executing strategies to maintain and grow their core capabilities in space launch and satellite integration and served as the US Government focal point for end-to-end launch services. She has also worked for the Department of Defense for 24 years, holding manypositions, including Special Assistant to the Director of the Operationally Responsive Space Office in charge of policy and strategy and serving as the lead for the Operational Responsive Space Task Force at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She also worked for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, and as a specialist for the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. She has extensive experience in program management, acquisition, strategic planning and communications, space policy, launch services and business development

Perry Ballard brings more than 40 years of expertise in payload integration and spacecraft development across every major U.S. launch system, from Delta to Falcon 9. His career spans human spaceflight with the Space Shuttle and ISS, as well as CubeSat launches across all current deployers. Perry has supported the Department of Defense Space Test Program for over three decades, including service as Acting Program Manager. He has advised senior leaders across the intelligence and defense community, including resource planning for the Defense Intelligence Agency and engineering guidance for the 90th Strategic Missile Wing on Minuteman III and Peacekeeper ICBMs. A trusted technical authority, Perry has consistently delivered solutions that advance national security space missions.