Contributors

Russ Curry Editor

Russ’s first job after university in the UK was as a copywriter with a multi-national media group, based in Germany. He later specialised in marketing, becoming a Member of the British Chartered Institute of Marketing in 1989 and went on to hold a variety of senior management positions in the FMCG sector in Paris and Brussels, including that of Vice-President Europe for an LA-based entertainment company.

More recently he has been active as a European marketing consultant and a partner in a Paris-based video production company. He is also a regular contributor to two highly respected blogs in the new media sector.   russ@uasvision.com

Peter Van Blyenburgh

Peter has held various management positions with a number of industrial and service supplying corporations in the USA, Europe and the Middle East. He has been involved with unmanned systems since 1987 and has supplied advisory services in this field to corporate and/or governmental entities in Europe, the Middle & Far East and North America.

In 1997 he founded, the European Unmanned Vehicle Systems Association (EUROUVS), which changed its name to UVS International in January 2004; he is currently in his 7th two-year term as president of this internationally operating non-profit association.

He is the founder and Chief Executive of Blyenburgh & Co (B&C), which administers UVSI, organises its unmanned vehicle system-related conferences and is the publisher of the annual UAS Yearbook (UAS: The Global Perspective), which has become the international UAS publication of reference.

Oleg Vornik

Oleg Vornik, CEO & Managing Director, DroneShield, is an experienced senior executive with successful track record of rapid business scale up, including IPO and subsequent growth of the DroneShield teams in Australia and US, and presence in over 100 countries. Through that time, he fostered organic deep technology development, through to mass deployment of the solutions around the world in the homeland security, intelligence community and military segments.
Prior to DroneShield, Oleg’s career spanned across Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Brookfield and ABN AMRO.
Oleg has a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from Canterbury University and completed a Columbia University business program.

Ian Foster

Ian Foster is Head of Engineering, Animal Dynamics. He leads the research, design and validation teams responsible for delivering STORK STM, an uncrewed autonomous heavy-lift parafoil vehicle, that will protect human life in dangerous environments.

Dawn M.K. Zoldi

Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Retired) is a licensed attorney with 28 years of combined active-duty military and federal civil service to the Department of the Air Force. She is an internationally recognized expert on unmanned aircraft system law and policy and recipient of the Woman to Watch in UAS (Leadership) Award 2019, President and CEO of UAS Colorado and the CEO of P3 Tech Consulting LLC.

Denis Fedutinov
Denis graduated from the Moscow Stankin National Technological University in 2000, then worked for the National Scientific Research Institute for Aviation Systems. Since 2003, editor of the specialized media “Unmanned Aviation” on unmanned systems. Since 2007, director of the analytical company New Technologies Center. Co-author of several books on the development of modern technologies, and author of numerous articles in the Russian and international media.
James Rennie
Prior to starting Australian UAV (AUAV) James Rennie had a long career in natural resource management. In 2012 he identified a convergence of a previous hobby, radio controlled planes, and his passion for mapping data. Recognising this opportunity he established AUAV in early 2013, one of the first drone companies in Australia. With thousands of commercial flights completed, including in Antarctica, Armenia and throughout Australia, he manages the strategy and growth of the company.

Mark Rindler

Mark is a Retired Naval Aviator with Command Experience. He served 21 years in the force, including time as a Central Command Plans and Policy Officer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm in the CINC’s War Room. During his career, he has collected The Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service, Navy Meritorious Service, Navy Commendation Medal as well as several other medals and ribbons.

He is currently President of Chesapeake Synergy Inc. and is the operational Liaison for The Joint Atlantic & Chesapeake Ranges Cooperative (JACRC), an alliance of Department of Defense & NASA test and training ranges in Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island.

Ken Munson [17 October 1929 – 2 January 2015]

Kenneth (Ken) Munson had an illustrious background in aviation and aviation journalism. After 14 years at the UK Air Ministry, and precious experience as a staff and freelance writer, he joined ‘Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft’ in 1968, where he became Deputy Editor. He was sole author of over 30 aviation titles, including ‘World Unmanned Aircraft’ (1988), and has been co-author on several others, including ‘Robot Aircraft Today’ (1977) with John W. R. Taylor.
He was founder-Editor in 1994 of ‘Jane’s Unmanned Vehicles and Targets’ until March 2008, and was a regular contributor afterwards. He was an Associate Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and in June 2007 received the UVS International award for UAS Awareness Creation.

Mark Ballinger

Mark is Senior Principal Systems Engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems. Mark has been an unmanned aircraft pilot for 25 years and still refuses to be called the operator.He has 25 years programme and operations leadership experience combining operational expertise with the ability to provide hardware and software integration solutions for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). He also has project management of DoD tactical weapon systems upgrades, C4ISR, and RDT&E efforts.

Mark is UAS Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Raytheon Missile Systems, Unmanned Systems Directorate. He is Programme Manager, Systems Engineer and Chief UAS Pilot for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems projects within the directorate. He is responsible for training, testing, airspace and communications coordination. Currently assigned to the KillerBee UAS and the Cobra UAS programmes, he has obtained eight FAA UAS Airworthiness Certifications. Lead engineer for the Cobra UAS auto-land system integration. 

Paolo Marras

Paolo is Chief Technical Officer, Aermatica, Italy. In August 2000 Paolo joined a start-up company named Info Solution and became co-owner of the firm in 2003. Initially he was involved in projects in aerospace area as Software Engineer, and then became creator of an ASI-funded project (Italian Spatial Agency) related to an autonomous and intelligent mobile robot.From 2003 he was the Expertise Manager of the company, designing the competence management system and managing the Research and Development department throughout its sites in Italy, and participated in several European Research Projects. In 2007 he left Info Solution to co-found Aermatica SpA. Aermatica conceives, designs, manufactures and sells small flight-capable unmanned aircraft (light UAS)

Dag Henning Paulsen

Dag is VP Marketing at ProxDynamics in Norway. He has a broad operational background from Royal Norwegian Air Force and Scandinavian Airlines. He spent ten years as an F-16 Pilot, 13 years as a commercial pilot, and has held various management positions in the RNoAF and SAS.

Colonel Lawrence Spinetta, PhD, USAF

Colonel Spinetta (USAFA; MPP, Harvard University; MAAS, PhD, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies) currently leads the U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk fleet as the commander of the 69th Reconnaissance Group.  An F-15 pilot (65 combat sorties over Iraq and the former Yugoslavia) who has command experience with remotely piloted aircraft, he also served as a Checkmate strategist on the Air Staff, as a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the Joint Staff. Additionally, Colonel Spinetta is a certified public accountant, State of Florida; recipient of a Stephen R. Lorenz Fellowship; and a graduate of Squadron Officer School (distinguished graduate), Air Command and Staff College, Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and Air War College.

Joel D. Anderson

Mr. Anderson has more than 30 years experience in military, industry and academia.  He currently serves as Development Director for Kansas State University within the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP).  Prior to joining KSU, he served as a Technical Director and Senior Subject Matter Expert for ManTech International and as the Director for Mosaic ATM, Inc.’s Autonomous Systems Group. Between 1984-2010, he served in the United States Marine Corps where he rose in rank from Private to Colonel. Mr. Anderson has spent a career supporting efforts to address the complexities of the information management and decision making environments. jdanderson@ksu.edu

Stan Kostic

After obtaining international experiences in economics and marketing by working in the US, Canada, South America and Europe, Stan settled in Shenzhen, China where he spent years as a part of the development of the Chinese UVA market. He is currently positioned as the overseas deputy director at MicroMultiCopter Aero Technology (MMC). Here he uses his previously obtained skills from the UAV industry and international strategic marketing to position MMC at its deserved place; as the lead developer of the industrial UAVs. Additionally, he provides internal analyses of Chinese UAV industrial developments.

Joshua Turner, Anna Gomez, and Katy Ross 

Wiley Rein LLP partners Anna M. Gomez and Joshua S. Turner and associate Katy M. Ross are members of the firm’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Telecom, Media & Technology Practices in Washington, DC, and represent clients in numerous industries on UAS matters. Ms. Gomez, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce and long-time FCC staffer, counsels clients on U.S. and international regulations governing UAS before several federal agencies. Mr. Turner, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Communications Enforcement & Compliance Practice, counsels clients on compliance with evolving federal, state, and local regulation of UAS, with a particular focus on potential conflicts between different regulatory authorities. Ms. Ross provides advice on UAS legal, regulatory, and public policy issues including analysis of FCC, FAA, and state law considerations.

Christian Ramsey
Christian Ramsey is President of uAvionix.
Formerly, he was a Deputy Program Manager on the FAA’s Surveillance and Broadcast Services (i.e. ADS-B) program. He is a private pilot and licensed UAS pilot under Part 107.

David Yoel

Founder and CEO of American Aerospace. Dave is an applied physicist, entrepreneur, pilot and airspace expert with 35 years combined experience in space systems, industrial manufacturing, remote sensing and aviation. As a graduate student, he was Payload Manager for the first university student experiment to fly on the Space Shuttle (STS-4 in June, 1982). He then worked for Boeing where he led space industrialization efforts during the early Shuttle era. In the ’90’s he manufactured industrial-scale furnaces to melt & refine metals and alloys, semiconductor crystals and other advanced materials. David founded AATI in 2002 as a space systems consulting firm. In 2010, AATI began delivering long endurance UAS systems and providing flight services with both manned & unmanned aircraft. Yoel is the recipient of 3 patents on UAS and pipeline patrol and has authored numerous large area Certificates of Authorization. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow, Past-President of the Keystone Chapter of AUVSI and a member of the National Research Council’s NASA Aeronautics Research and Technology Roundtable.

Rob Frizzell

Rob Frizzell is CEO and co-founder of short-range radar supplier OmniPreSense. He has vast experience bringing new technologies to market including high speed serial communications, millimeter wave RF, and embedded processors. In these efforts he has worked with leading consumer OEMs such as Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung. Rob has also been involved with several standard bodies such as HDMI, WirelessHD, USI, and is participating in NASA’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) discussions.

Arin Kumar Ghosh 

Arin Kumar Ghosh recently completed his Masters Thesis at Johns Hopkins University on the commercialization of drones after earning his Bachelors in Political Science, Magna Cum Laude, at the University of Southern California. Arin is an independent analyst who is preparing for a PhD program in the Political Science/IR field with a leaning towards terrorism, drones, and defense matters.

Rafael Padilla
Rafael is an Industrial Engineer who started his professional career as maintenance engineer at top airline. He is also a retired Lieutenant Army Aviation Corps, belonging to Army Helicopter cops maintenance and service division.  He has a Masters in Marketing and then on Negotiation Process.
He was last employment as Regional Manager for Fortune 500 Value Added Distributor specialized in systems integration, unified communication and infrastructure.
He is Founder of the Colombia UAV association – active Vice-President and the Founder of a start-up provider of UAV services in Colombia.

Philip Johnston

Philip joined Trackwise in 1999 and acquired the company in 2000. Since then, Trackwise has enjoyed sustained growth and floated on the stock market in 2018. During his tenure, Philip developed and patented Improved Harness Technology™ (IHT), a means of manufacturing length-unlimited multilayer flexible printed circuit boards as a weight-saving replacement for conventional wiring harnesses in electrical interconnect subsystems. He is the named inventor on a number of UK and international patents and he has led several government-supported R&D consortiums including a European CleanSky programme.

Philip’s career started at British Aerospace where he did an apprenticeship during his Aeronautical Engineering degree course at Bristol University. He transferred into the BAE Space Department on graduation where his role included a key management position in the Prime Contractor team for Envisat, a large European satellite, managing multi-million ECU work packages involving different companies across Europe.

Philip also holds a law degree from the University of London and is a Chartered Engineer.

Dustin Price

Dustin Price is a licensed land surveyor and the Operations Manager at Landpoint. He leads the company’s technical approach to delivering professional surveying services by providing tailored solutions using UAV technology.

Joseph Dorando 

Joseph Dorando (USN Ret.) is a retired civilian IT Specialist of the El Monte Police Department. His duties included the assisting in the original construction and maintenance of the police dept. network and the city wide phone system, microwave system, and just about anything with a wire attached. Other duties included web designer for the PD and audio video service for the city hall meetings.

Previous to that, Joe worked as a PBX engineer for over twenty years including OCONUS service for military contractors. Involved in technology Mr. Dorando knew after the first drone reports started coming in from Afghanistan and Iraq that UAV’s were the future and law enforcement just got a new tool on their duty belt. Thinking of the many other aspects of unmanned aerial vehicles, it wasn’t long before Mr. Dorando knew there would be a huge civilian job market for commercial operators of UAV’s and that lead to the idea and importance of creating Wounded Eagle UAS to train wounded and disabled veterans to build, fly, operate, and repair UAV’s and become successful as career UAS operators.

Anthony Jamison

Anthony Jamison is the head of the Outreach Department of Drone Services Phoenix, Arizona’s premier aerial photography and videography company. When not working, he still pursues his passion for paying it forward by doing charity works and helping communities.