Speakers

Dr. Steve Pluntze is the Executive Director of the Space Systems Command International Affairs (IA) Office. This office forms part of the Force Design and Architecture Integration functions, which build the overall Space Enterprise Architecture, and determines how allied partners are integrated within military space mission areas, such as navigation or weather, and is aligned with various cross mission endeavors such as cross mission data and cross mission ground. The office uses international, inter-agency, commercial, and academic sources to discover those with the means to either add directly to the capability of the U.S. Space Enterprise Architecture or to help improve the space capabilities of our friends and allies worldwide. The office also leverages the work of U.S. military installations and combat commands.

Dr. Pluntze retired from active Air Force duty as a Colonel in 2011.

After retirement, Dr. Pluntze worked as Senior Scientist, Parsons Corp, El Segundo, CA. He served as program manager for the Parsons contract in SMC/EN, the SMC Engineering Directorate, and was assigned to roles in business development and proposal management. He moved from Parsons to Tecolote early in 2016 and then to government service in May, 2016. At Tecolote, he worked for the Director of MILSATCOM in planning the strategic direction of the MILSATCOM Directorate.

Dr. Pluntze graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1982 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and eventually returned as Assistant Professor of Aeronautics, and adjunct Mathematics instructor. After graduation, he was assigned to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and flew B-52s and F-16s as a flight test engineer, mainly for the first installment of GPS in Air Force aircraft. He was on the launch team for two of the first GPS satellites.

After graduate school at MIT in Boston as a Draper Fellow, Dr. Pluntze was assigned to Foreign Technology Division (now NASIC) at Wright Patterson AFB, where he performed deployments as part of the first Gulf War. He was a program manager for intelligence work on the (then) Advanced Tactical Fighter, which became the F-22. Following some classified work in the space mission area, he returned to graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle for a doctorate in Aeronautics, specializing in computational fluid dynamics.

After serving at the USAF Academy as program manager of the aeronautics laboratory and the Department Head for Aeronautics, he was assigned to London as the Commander of Air Force Research Lab's (AFRL) overseas detachments. He again worked space issues, this time also in the international arena, in addition to the entire AFRL portfolio of Directed Energy, Human Factors, Materials, Chemistry, Biology, Electronics, Cyber, and Aeronautics. His last military assignment was as the Commander, and later Director of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), at then-SMC, where he launched the F-18 satellite, and was responsible for transitioning DoD weather from the National Polar Orbiting Satellite System.

His previous assignment was as Executive Director and Civilian Deputy Director, Remote Sensing Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, CA, overseeing the development, deployment, and sustainment of the nation’s space based missile warning infrared detection, targeting and tracking systems, and the development of the next round of weather architecture.

David A. Micha is the President of Intelsat Government Solutions reporting to the Intelsat CEO. In this role since February 2021, David (Dave) is responsible for the Annual Operating Plan and is involved in all aspects of the business including strategy, business development, customer relationships, M&A, engineering and operations. Intelsat is the largest supplier of Commercial SATCOM for the Department of Defense (DoD).

Dave has spent his entire career in the Aerospace and Defense industry including twenty-three years at L3Harris and prior to that thirteen years at Lockheed Martin. Prior to joining Intelsat, Dave was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the L3Harris Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) Segment ($5B Revenue, 15,000 employees) where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations and P&L responsibility for the segment. IMS served the DoD, Intelligence Community (IC) and international partners providing space, maritime and airborne systems and products as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems for domestic and international customers.

Prior to his COO role, Dave served as the Sector President for L3 Technologies Space Sector. This sector served the USG and international customers specifically the USAF, classified and commercial customers providing custom solutions for both space and ground based systems. Comprised of 7 different operating locations, $1.5B in revenue and 4,000 employees, the space sector provides advanced systems, RF, payloads and space products.

Dave also was Sector President for the Advanced Communications Sector ($1.7B Revenue, 4,000 employees) providing advanced communication systems, cyber & Type 1 Information Assurance, SIGINT & antenna products. As Sector President, Dave established global operations and footprint in Australia, Canada, Europe and MENA regions providing advanced communication solutions in those regions.

Dave also led the L3 Maritime Sector ($1.4B Revenue, 3,500 employees) which included 27 different operating locations and served the US Navy, USCG and International Navy Programs. The businesses in this sector provided both manned and unmanned naval systems, ASW, towed arrays, sensors, power systems, communication systems and undersea systems.

Prior to this, Dave was Director of Product Management for L3’s Data Storage and ISR business focused on airborne applications where he was responsible for product development, marketing, strategy and product line P&L.

While at Lockheed Martin, David worked in various functions including Program Management, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance.

Dave received his bachelor’s degree from S.U.N.Y. Fredonia in 1983 in Business Administration. He currently holds a TS/SCI Clearance. Dave is a member of Air Force Association, AUSA, NDIA, Navy League and Satellite Industry Group. Dave has previously served on the Board of Directors of Coopers Ferry Partnership, Rowan RCA Museum and the Rutgers School of Business Deans Leadership Council.

Raymond Lindenmayer currently works for Intelsat Government Solutions (IGS).  He executes goal-based campaigns to grow the $300M+/year government business and assist in winning individual pursuits related to the campaigns.  

Before his Intelsat role, Ray worked for 15 years at L3Harris in a similar strategic role in the $2B/year Communications Segment (CS).  He managed the CS Top 50 customers and executive engagements.  Ray also managed cross-segment synergy offering developments, focusing in on Airborne and Satellite communications markets.  

Prior to his business development assignment, he was the Growth Engineering Manager responsible for the execution of the division wide innovation process (I2) to identify new growth revenue opportunities into the corporate strategic growth plan (SGP). His group also identified, bid, and submitted research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) proposals that are aligned with L3Harris’ core technology roadmap, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other government labs programs. 

As part of his role as the Growth Engineering manager, Ray was the engineering manager for the RF-3590 Ruggedized Android Tablet and the RF-325N nanoSAVR ISR receiver.

Prior to his growth engineering position, he was the chief engineer responsible for full life cycle development of the Harris Falcon III Manpack AN/PRC-117G secure tactical radio product and the international equivalent 7800M radio. His team successfully launched the products in 2008.  L3Harris has sold over 50,000 117G radios,  yielding over $1.5B in new product revenue.  

Prior to joining Harris, Ray was a Chief Engineer at Xerox. Some of the highlights of his 16 year career include leading a large engineering organization responsible for full product life cycle development for the new family of high volume digital reprographics systems.  The products yielded over $3B in revenue from 1999-2005.  

Ray was born November 11, 1961, in Baldwinsville, New York. He entered the Air Force as a graduate of AF ROTC from Syracuse University in 1984. He has served in various communications and logistics positions during his 28 year military career.

 During his final 5 year tour at the Pentagon, he was responsible for programs, budgets, and transformation initiatives for the $4.5B Air Force Depot Purchased Equipment Maintenance (DPEM) program and the Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) program. He was also the division’s most experienced AFSO21 black belt, successfully executing seven events from 2007 - 2012.

Other Air Force duties included Chief of Automated Logistic Technology for USCENTCOM at MacDill Air Force Base. Lt. Colonel Lindenmayer was mobilized for 1 year in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was critical in the establishment of the forward headquarters for USCENTCOM in Qatar in November 2002.  

EDUCATION:

• MBA, University of Rochester, Simon School

• Master of Science, Computer Science, American University

• Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Syracuse University

• Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Syracuse University

ABOUT INTELSAT:
Intelsat has 50+ years of innovation delivering breakthrough satellite technology allowing us to push the boundaries of what’s possible today, so our customers can focus on tomorrow.  Powered by our fleet of 50+ satellites, covering 99% of the Earth’s populated regions—ensuring reliable, high-performance connectivity, Intelsat is the leading provider of satellite bandwidth in the world and the largest supplier of commercial bandwidth to the US DoD.