- Space executives are well-represented in the ranks of Wash100 Award winners
- They come from prestigious companies like Iridium, Lockheed Martin, Airbus U.S. Defense and Space and more
- Hear directly from these leading space experts like these at the 2026 Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 29!
The esteemed ranks of Wash100 Award winners—the highest achieving executives in government contracting—are filled with executives from the space industry. These professionals are directly influencing the technologies, strategies and investment priorities shaping the future of the space business for years to come.
Why Are Space Industry Wash100 Winners Impactful?
Founded by Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson in 2014, the Wash100 is the crowning achievement in a GovCon executives career. Wash100 awardees from the space industry are impactful because they steer capital-intensive, high-risk innovation, shape national security and geopolitical outcomes and enable entire downstream industries like broadband connectivity.
Dive into the achievements and backgrounds of these space executives and discover what made them Wash100 Award winners.
Learn the latest space business opportunities and requirements at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 29! Hear directly from top federal space officials like Dr. Stacie Williams, Space Force chief science officer and Shannon Pallone, Space Systems Command PEO for BMC2, during an expert panel discussion on space defense IT. Secure your seat today!
Who Are the Wash100 Award Winners from Space?
Matt Desch
Iridium
2015–2025
Desch in 2025 won his incredible 11th-consecutive Wash100 Award for his vision, leadership and impact in the space industry. Iridium in 2024 began development of Project Stardust, a narrowband internet-of-things non-terrestrial network service. Project Stardust will enable direct-to-device services like 5G NTN and emergency communications on mobile devices.
Iridium in 2024, under Desch’s leadership, also unveiled Iridium Certus 9704, a novel connectivity device that can support artificial intelligence IoT. The module allows users to access cloud computing and reduce processing at the edge.
Marie Demaree
Lockheed Martin
2023–2025
Demaree in 2025 earned an impressive third-straight Wash100 Award for her work propelling forward space technology development and innovation supporting military missions. She guided Lockheed Martin in its Pony Express 2 technology demonstrator effort that focused on leveraging space for the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative.
Pony Express 2 integrates four Lockheed Martin payloads on a pair of 12U Terran Orbital Renegade-class spacecraft. The payloads enable a tactical communications system, a Ka-band mesh and crosslink network and other high-end space capabilities such as precision relative ranging and time synchronization.
Are you a GovCon technology professional with a space portfolio? Then you cannot afford to miss the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 29—it’s curated just for you! Check out our illuminating panel discussions featuring the most influential federal officials and leading industry experts on the most essential space topics—Innovating for Advantage: Advancing Secure, Interoperable BMC3-IT for Space Defense and Non-Kinetic Considerations for Left of Launch Defeat. Don’t wait—buy your ticket now!
David Wajsgras
Everfox
2015–2020, 2023, 2025
Wajsgras brought home his eye-popping eighth-straight Wash100 Award in 2025 for his work at Intelsat expanding service to customers and guiding the company toward a broader presence in the space industry. Wajsgras in 2024 helped complete the landmark $3.1 billion deal that had SES acquire Intelsat to create a multi-orbit satellite operator.
The arrangement aspired to grow revenues in high-demand market segments and consolidate complementary ground, space and network innovation investment. The combined company has a fleet of 26 medium Earth orbit spacecraft and more than 100 geostationary Earth orbit satellites, offering improved coverage, bolstered network resilience, complementary spectrum rights and enhanced service.
Wajsgras also guided Intelsat in a $250 million acquisition of services from Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO constellation to expand Intelsat’s global capacity and coverage.
Kay Sears
Boeing
2016, 2023
Sears picked up her second Wash100 Award in 2023 for her work at Boeing accelerating important hardware development for government programs. She helped direct the company’s opening of a critical space facility, the Exploration Upper Stage Gray Box Assembly Area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
This building hosts all of the required tooling to create the powerful upper stage engine that will serve as the foundation for the Space Launch System Block 1B for Artemis IV. The EUS will provide 44 tons of thrust to send crew and cargo into deep space.
Rob Geckle
Airbus U.S. Space and Defense
2023
Geckle made his Wash100 Award debut in 2023 for cultivating Airbus U.S. Space and Defense’s influence in the national security sector and other government markets. Airbus U.S. Space and Defense was selected by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2021 to demonstrate synthetic aperture radar satellite imagery capabilities.
The award also included simulation and modeling work and the performance of on-orbit and end-to-end mission services for a two-year period. Geckle also guided Airbus U.S. Space and Defense in an effort to develop satellite laser communication devices in the U.S. to capitalize on growing demand for the capability.
Geckle identified an opportunity to “Americanize” the laser communication capability, which was built in Europe at the time, and offer it for U.S. military and national security use.
