Catalyst Partners

Courtney A. Stadd, Management Advisor

Mr. Stadd has over 35 years experience in working at the intersection of the Federal government and private sector high-tech markets.

Mr. Stadd was founder and president of Capitol Alliance Solutions, LLC, a Washington, DC, area based management consulting services firm established in 1993 with a diverse range of public and private sector clients in aerospace (space and ground-based), satellite imagery and navigation, and other high technology initiatives. The firm assisted with shaping policy and legislative initiatives, as well as executing business development strategies for clients to capture greater market in both the federal and private sector markets. He sold the firm in 2011.

His senior federal senior positions include: Chief of Staff/White House Liaison, NASA (2001-03); the White House (1989-92) where he was Senior Director/Commercial Space and chaired an interagency group focused on the drafting of numerous Presidential policy space-related directives; US Department of Transportation (1986-88) — direct report to the Secretary as head of the regulatory and advocacy office for licensing commercial space launch vehicles and spaceports; U.S. Department of Commerce (1984-86) — advised the Office of the Secretary on matters relating to space technology commercialization and helped establish the Office of Space Commerce; NASA HQ (1992-93) – Deputy Associate Administrator for Advanced Concepts and special assistant to the Administrator.

In industry, he was Director, Washington Operations for Earth Watch (renamed DigitalGlobe) (1995-98) a path-finding satellite imaging venture; Senior V-P, External Affairs, TerreStar (2005-08) – a telecommunications ventures that raised $1 Billion for a satellite/terrestrial network. In the 1990s, he led efforts to successfully persuade the U.S. Government to create a federal data buy policy that evolved into a multi-hundred dollar procurement program for US satellite imagery products and services.

In both official and private capacities, he has been invited by various U.S. Congressional committees to testify on a range of high technology-related public policy matters.

Previous Board activities include: CapsforKids, a charity focused on assisting children suffering from cancer; Appointed by Governor of Alaska to the Board, Alaska Aerospace Development Corp.; Global Protocol, Inc., a Maryland-based a protocol engineering firm specializing in bandwidth efficient protocol solutions based on the Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS) – a NASA spin-off. (’04-‘07) company sold to outside investment group; Appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans to Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Aerospace (March 2004 – 2008); Appointed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush to the Board of Directors, Space Florida (2006-07); Chair (2005-2007), World Space Week, a UN sanctioned NGO dedicated to promoting the peaceful uses of space to next generation.

He is assistant executive producer, Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope, produced in collaboration with Tom Hanks’ Playtone, broadcast on PBS in 2013. The film is a result of a seven-year effort to memorialize the story of a promise, dating from WWII, fulfilled by the late Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon and crew of the Columbia Shuttle, and how this fulfillment demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit.

Mr. Stadd is the recipient of numerous awards and recognition by industry and government, including NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal for “his extraordinary vision, leadership, and dedication to … advancing technology into industry.”

He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (1977) followed by graduate course work in public administration at George Washington University.

Courtney Stadd
CONTACT COURTNEY STADD: (301) 919-5116

Element

Become a Member


Continue