People Category: AIAA Defense Forum 2023

Dr. Andrew Nuss joined DARPA in November 2017 as a program manager in the Tactical Technology Office. His current focus areas include technology development and demonstration of advanced maritime technologies, with particular focus on seabed operations, platform survivability, rapid prototyping and novel maritime logistics capabilities.

Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Nuss served as a program manager with the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s (OSD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) where he led advanced development and prototype programs involving unmanned surface vessels, cross domain anti-ship missiles and counter-armor surface-to-surface fires. He also held positions with the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Commander’s Executive Fellows Program (CEFP), completing assignments with the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) staff and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Dr. Nuss holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the George Washington University, a Master of Science in Systems Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Systems Engineering from the George Washington University.

Sonny Sarkar spearheads strategic initiatives across Palantir’s Defense & Intelligence portfolio in addition to other key areas for global growth and partnerships development. Sonny has over 25 years of experience successfully leading numerous deliveries of complex and technical solutions across the U.S. Government, industry, and international partners.

At Palantir, Sonny continues this journey in helping large (institutional) enterprise organizations unify across verticals through digital transformation enabled by Palantir products to achieve and maintain mission and business superiority.

He is also a former military officer with significant acquisition and portfolio management
experience across rapid fielding to enduring programs. Sonny is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and the George Washington University.

Ms. Lisa Henke joined Maxar in 2016 and serves as the Senior Technical Director of Defense & Space Programs line of business in Maxar Public Sector Earth Intelligence. In this role she leads defining and refining the technology strategy for the line of business to ensure Maxar is uniquely positioned to support the current and future mission priorities for these customer segments.

Prior to this role, Ms. Henke was Deputy General Manager for Air & Space programs building strong and trusted relationships with leaders, team members, and customers to drive business outcomes through effective people and organization strategies. Ms. Henke has also held roles leading architecture development of Mobile Ground, and was Chief Architect of Open Technologies.

Prior to coming to Maxar, Ms. Henke was the Chief Architect for NRO/GED/ISPO leading end-to-end system development, ground development, cloud transformation, and agile transformation. Before the ISPO, Ms. Henke held senior systems engineering roles at Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. Ms. Henke began her career in the Air Force supporting Overhead Persistent Infrared, and Space Control Missions and Programs.

Ms. Henke is an Air Force Veteran, has a MBA with technology management emphasis, a Bachelors in Computer Information Systems, is Agile certified, and Architecture and Systems Engineering & MBSE certified through MIT.

Capt. Randy Cruz is a native of Pittsburg, California. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Engineering. After commissioning, Cruz completed flight training in Pensacola, Florida and chose to fly the E-2C Hawkeye, earning his wings of gold as a Naval Flight Officer in May 1999. He has a Master of Science degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

His operational assignments include a tour with Carrier Airborne Command and Control Squadron VAW-113 Black Eagles as a junior officer, VAW-112 Goldenhawks as a department head, and he has had the privilege of leading the VAW-117 Wallbangers as the executive and commanding officer.

A graduate of TOPGUN and the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS), he conducted developmental flight tests and managed numerous avionics and aircraft projects and programs, to include E-2C Foreign Military Sales for Taiwan and Egypt. He orchestrated the manpower, facilities and training efforts to bring the game-changing E-2D Advanced Hawkeye to Initial Operational Capability.

Shore and staff tours include duty as a project officer conducting development test flights at VX-20 in Patuxent River, a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) senior mission planner at NAVCENT, Kingdom of Bahrain, an advanced Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, and as the director for Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Tactical Training Group Pacific, Point Loma, California.

In 2018, Cruz was selected by the NASA Administrator to serve as his senior advisor. As the senior advisor, he advised NASA leadership on all matters to include aerospace and aeronautic operations, infrastructure, foreign and legislative affairs, communications, and risk management; allowing the safe return of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.

In 2021, he reported and served as executive assistant to the Chief of Naval Research and is now assigned as the Assistant Chief of Naval Research.

Cruz has accumulated over 2,900 hours in 20 different aircraft and over 400 carrier arrested landings. His personal decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Association, Leadership Award, five Meritorious Service Medals, three Strike/Flight Air Medals, four Navy Commendation Medals, two Naval Achievement Medals, and various unit and individual awards.

Updated: January 2023

Thomas E. Wiley is Senior Director, Advanced Integrated Mission Solutions, at Raytheon Missiles and Defense reporting to the Vice President of Engineering. He is responsible for leadership of an Engineering Directorate focused on Campaign and Mission Analysis, System Modeling, Operations Research, Integrated Kill Chain Analysis, CONOPS Visualization, System of Systems Architecture and Systems Engineering.

Mr. Wiley’s previous position was Engineering Fellow, performing the duties of System of Systems Technical Director and Ground Based Command and Control Technical Director for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems prior to Raytheon Company’s merger with United Technologies Corporation in 2020.  His responsibilities included technical strategy, roadmaps and providing technical leadership for new business captures for domestic and international programs.

Previous roles included Principal Investigator for the Ground Based Integrated Air and Missile Defense IRAD, Systems Architecture lead for the Patriot Program, System Architecture lead for the Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System Capture, and System Architect and Systems Engineering lead for the Combined Aggregate Program.

Prior to joining Raytheon in 2000, Mr. Wiley worked for Parametric Technology Corporation and for the University of New Hampshire Small Satellite Laboratory.

He is a Raytheon Certified Architect and has completed the Raytheon Chief Engineer / Technical Director Pipeline Program. He is a 2022 graduate of INSEAD Global Leadership Program, 2005 graduate of the Raytheon Engineering Leadership Development Program, and an instructor for the Air Defense module of the Raytheon Systems Engineering Technical Development Program.

Mr. Wiley received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Hampshire at Durham

Dennis Helmich is the Director of the Integrated Military Systems Program at Sandia National Laboratories. In this assignment, Dennis oversees the work of 400 engineers and technologists devoted to developing and demonstrating superior, cutting edge non-nuclear weapon systems and technologies that give our warfighters a competitive advantage and empower the United States to defend ourselves and our allies at home and abroad. These responsibilities encompass stakeholder and customer relationships with the Missile Defense Agency, Navy Strategic Systems Programs, Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and other government entities.

Dennis Helmich began his career at Sandia in 1989 in what is now the Engineering Sciences Center supporting environmental testing and thermal analysis for weapon systems and components. Dennis joined Weapon System Engineering in 1994 and has provided leadership for Air Force and Navy strategic systems from concept through engineering development and qualification, full scale production, and deployed stockpile support. Following his promotion to Senior Manager in 2012, Dennis served as a Deputy Director in the Stockpile Weapon and Product Realization Program Office. In 2013,
Dennis returned to Weapon System Engineering as one of two senior managers leading the B61-12 Life Extension Program.

In 2016, Dennis joined Integrated Military Systems where he was the Deputy Director of Strike Systems & Aerospace Technologies. Active programs in this portfolio include exploring the development of hypersonic boost-glide weapons, earth penetrator applications, hard target fuzing, operating in GPS- denied environments, in-flight two-way weapon communication/control, advanced thermal protection systems, missile system development, and flight testing to advance nuclear deterrence technologies. Dennis Helmich holds both a Masters and Bachelors of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Updated bio coming soon.

Dr Kevin Cohen is the Special Advisor to the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. In this role, he facilitates development, demonstration and integration of enabling capabilities to address key operational challenges.

From 1995 to 2021, Dr. Cohen worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, where he served as the Special Advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Assistant Head of the Air, Missile & Maritime Defense Technology and ISR & Tactical Systems Divisions, Leader of the Advanced Capabilities & Systems and Tactical Defense Systems Groups, Assistant Leader of the Surveillance Systems Group, and Technical Staff on the Kwajalein Field Site Team and Air Defense Systems Group. In additional to providing technical leadership and mentoring for a wide range of programs, he also organized and lectured at MIT for a Large and Complex System Development Course and Innovation Workshops at Independent Activities Periods.

Dr. Cohen holds a Doctorate of Philosophy and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University. He also completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.