AeroAstro Management Team:

CEO and President -- Dr. Rick Fleeter

Dr. Fleeter founded AeroAstro in 1988 and has been its CEO and a member of the Board of Directors since the company’s inception.

Dr. Fleeter has been one of the industry’s leading proponents of spacecraft miniaturization, has authored two books and several papers on the subject, and has lectured on the topic around the world. He also has been involved at AeroAstro and elsewhere in the development of several miniature satellites and subsystems including PACSAT, ALEXIS, HETE, TERRIERS, CRO, Microsat, and MOXE/EUVITA.

Prior to founding AeroAstro, Dr. Fleeter was a Senior Scientist at Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a Project Engineer at TRW where he received a commendation for his contribution to the successful rescue of the TDRS-1 communications satellite. Dr. Fleeter originated many of the concepts for AeroAstro’s current line of products and services.

As Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr. Fleeter teaches spacecraft and space systems design courses at Brown University.  He has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in thermodynamics as Adjunct Professor at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach.  Rick teaches microspace engineering and management courses for the US Air Force, NASA, the European, Italian and Malaysian space agencies, and commercial clients.

Dr. Fleeter is a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board, AIAA, Sigma Xi, AIP, APS, ARRL and AMSAT. He holds the PhD (Engineering) and AB (Engineering and Economics) degrees from Brown University and MSc (Aeronautics and Astronautics) from Stanford University, where he was a Northrop Corporation and Department Fellow. 

Executive Vice President and General Manager, Space -- Patricia Remias

Ms. Remias joined AeroAstro in 2001, initially serving as Program Manager for AeroAstro's STPSat-1 spacecraft program.  She was subsequently promoted to Vice President of Programs and now serves as Executive Vice President and General Manager of all AeroAstro's space activities.

In this role, Ms. Remias has full responsibility for activities in the Space Group, including ensuring outstanding performance on all AeroAstro's ongoing and planned space programs, coordinating pursuit of related business opportunities, and building engineering and corporate infrastructure.

Ms. Remias has spent her entire career in weapons system and satellite development. She has over 20 years of management experience in DoD, NASA, and commercial aerospace programs, working for entities like NAVAIR and Orbital Sciences Corporation prior to joining AeroAstro. Since 1989, she has focused primarily on small satellite system development, launch, and operation, including management of five small satellite development efforts.

Ms. Remias earned her BS in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Certificate in Engineering Management from The Catholic University of America. She has served on AIAA's National Capital Section Executive Council, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board for Virginia Tech's Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering.

Executive Vice President, Finance and Operations

General Manager, Communications and Signals -- David Goldstein

David J. Goldstein serves as AeroAstro’s Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations and as the General Manager of Communications and Signals.  As a member of the company’s upper management team, Mr. Goldstein leads AeroAstro’s commercial and government business activities in telemetry tracking and logistics data communications, communications and signal intelligence, and terrestrial sensor systems.  He also manages the Sensor Enabled Notification System (SENS) asset tracking and remote monitoring packet data business, currently serving over 50,000 end-point devices via satellite worldwide.

Mr. Goldstein worked for over 6 years at AeroAstro from 1996-2002 in a variety of technical and management roles, including Vice President for Business Development from 1999-2002.  In this role he worked with AeroAstro's senior management and board to lead a turnaround in the business that saw sales double annually and revenue grow by 1400%. During this period, along with Dr. Rick Fleeter, AeroAstro’s CEO, Mr. Goldstein led the initial concept development and launch of the SENS asset tracking business and wrote the business case for the system which resulted in investor funding and the first commercial asset tracking sales.

Mr. Goldstein most recently comes from the World Bank, where he developed their infrastructure-related carbon finance portfolio in India and supported the World Bank's financial sector strategy in Central Europe and Latin America. Mr. Goldstein has also held both technical and management positions at NASA Goddard and with several small start-ups which he co-founded during the 1990’s.

Mr. Goldstein has a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University with a focus on economics and finance. His Masters work included coursework at the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government. He has published extensively and holds several patents in the U.S. and Europe.

Executive Vice President, Business Development -- Craig Gravelle

Craig Gravelle, AeroAstro’s Vice President of Business Development, has over 25 years of space system development and advanced programs experience. As a member of AeroAstro’s upper management team, his primary responsibilities are to generate new business, form strategic partnerships, develop new customers and support AeroAstro’s continued growth strategy.

Before joining AeroAstro, Mr. Gravelle worked for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 global aerospace firms. Most recently he was founder and Chief Operating Officer of Signal Research Corporation (SRC), a Colorado-based provider of unique, high-value intelligence and space solutions.  At SRC he was responsible for strategic planning, business development and operations. He has also held key operations and business development positions with Lockheed Martin, Spectrum Astro and General Dynamics. His experience includes appointments as Director of Strategic Planning for Spectrum Astro and Vice President & General Manager of Space and Surveillance for General Dynamics Electronic Systems. His background has been almost entirely focused on space system design and related mission solutions.

Mr. Gravelle has a BSE in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. He also has done graduate work in Aerospace Engineering and Physics at the University of Michigan, University of Colorado, and the University of Southern California.