Company

Chris is a dynamic entrepreneur and technology enthusiast with a passion for building innovative teams and businesses that solve the hard challenges of ubiquitous connectivity. Recognized as one of HillVets' "100 of 2014," he is a distinguished veteran as a former enlisted infantryman and Force Recon Marine.

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In previous roles as a startup CEO, Chris tripled revenues within 24 months, leading the company to nearly $1bn in annual recurring revenues. At another startup, he crafted and executed the strategy that won a game-changing $400 million single-award contract, significantly altering the trajectory of the company.

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Beyond his entrepreneurial ventures, Chris is actively involved in academia. He served on the Board of Trustees at the American University of Afghanistan for 13 years, and he continues to teach graduate-level seminars at Georgetown University and George Washington University.

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Chris holds an MBA in Strategy & Management from the College of William & Mary and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. A true adventurer, Chris is also a multi-engine, instrument-rated private pilot, reflecting his love for the thrill of flight.

Highly accomplished, results-driven senior financial management executive with over 30 years as a Chief Financial Officer in finance and operations management within start-ups and global organizations in both software and hardware industry sectors.  Strong qualifications in creating and implementing internal controls and processes in addition to driving revenue growth and increasing operating profits.  Possess solid leadership, communication and interpersonal skills to establish rapport with all levels of staff and management, the Board of Directors, and both buy-side and sell-side institutional analysis and portfolio managers.

Brian Barritt is CTO at Aalyria where he supports the software infrastructure for orchestrating networks across land, sea, air, and space that they spun out from Google.  Prior to joining Aalyria, he established a new industry consortium for 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks and supported open source connectivity at Meta.  Brian was a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google where he worked for 7 years as the founding engineer and inventor of temporospatial software-defined networking (SDN) and the associated infrastructure that powered several terrestrial, high-attitude, and satellite networks.

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Brian has more than 15 years of experience in advanced wireless networks. Prior to his tenure at Google he led engineering programs at Cisco and space communications programs at NASA. 

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Brian earned an MBA in Management of Technology & Innovation and holds BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering.

Dr. Baris I. Erkmen has been active in the development of advanced optical communication and sensing systems for two decades. He is presently CTO at Aalyria Technologies, driving the development of lasercom technology to connect space and ground communication networks.

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Before joining Aalyria, Baris was the CEO of Hedron Space (2022-2023), developing an optical data-relay network for Earth-observation satellites. His past responsibilities include Engineering Director of Project Taara at X, the moonshot factory (2017-2022), where he developed a high-performance wireless optical communication product to expand terrestrial broadband networks. Prior to that he was the Lead for Project Loon’s Free-Space Optical Communications effort (2013-2016), where he and his team developed optical communications technology for a stratospheric platform. Baris has also been the Principal Investigator for NASA’s OPALS laser communication demonstration (2009-2013), which successfully demonstrated an optical downlink from the International Space Station to Earth. In 2022, Baris was elected Fellow of Optica for contributions to the advancement of wireless optical communication systems in performance, technology maturity, large-scale manufacturability, and cost.

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Baris’s interests encompass the application of both classical and quantum properties of light to enhance communication and sensing capabilities for terrestrial, airborne, and spaceborne systems.

Paul is a seasoned technology leader with a wealth of experience in shaping product vision and strategy across diverse domains. Paul's extensive career spans a variety of technical and engineering leadership roles, steering engineering teams towards creating cutting-edge products that surpass market expectations, Paul brings expertise in systems engineering, complex product architecture, product development and management, wired and wireless communications, cleantech, aerospace, grid integration of renewables, standards development, and software engineering. His impressive portfolio includes over 70 patents issued or pending, encompassing pivotal technologies in telecommunications, renewable energy, aerospace, home automation, internet of things, and consumer electronics.

Formerly a product manager at Meta, network engineer and M&A attorney, he has led various functions on Meta's M&A legal team. Michael is renowned for building valuable open-source ecosystems, including GraphQL, Magma, Diem, and ML Commons. In 2018, he designed the Joint Development Foundation, bringing in GraphQL as its first project. As a founding member of ML Commons, he served as its first treasurer, contributing to its growth to over 50 members. In 2018, he established the Magma Foundation, chairing its board and expanding its membership to over 20.

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Michael is dedicated to diversity initiatives, launching the Major League Hacking Fellowship program mic to support early-career developers and open-source maintainers. He also initiated the Black Developer Scholarship for individuals of Black or African diaspora. Additionally, Michael played a crucial role in founding the Presto Foundation, eBPF Foundation, Ent Foundation, Reactive Foundation, Urban Computing Foundation, and OpenChain.

Julie Easter is the Chief of Staff and Business Operations at Aalyria, where she leads the company's operational strategies and fosters cross-functional team collaboration.

Her career includes fifteen years spent working in the Intelligence Community, during which time she served multiple overseas tours throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East.  Prior to her work for the U.S. Government, Julie was an attorney in Boston, where she focused on outer space law and commercial litigation.  Drawing from her extensive experience in national security experience, Julie developed and taught a graduate-level course  on U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Prior to joining Aalyria, Julie served as Senior Vice President for Growth and Global Partnerships at a D.C.-based startup, where she led business development and built strategic partnerships.

Julie earned a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, where she focused on international law and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Suffolk Transnational Law Review.  She holds a B.A. degree in English from Mary Washington College and a Certificate in British Studies from Richmond College in the United Kingdom.  She resides in northern Virginia with her husband, three children, and a menagerie of animals.

Henry Robertson, SVP Engineering, is responsible for Aalyria’s infrastructure, security, and operations. He previously served as VP Engineering at fintech startup Ridgeline, guiding key engineering decisions to design, launch, and scale highly complex financial systems in a reliable way. At Bridgewater Associates, he led the world’s largest hedge fund’s Production Engineering, Cloud, Developer Productivity, and Observability teams. He is an ambidextrous leader with successful track records as both an individual contributor and technology executive.

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His technical depth is rooted in roles at Google and at Amazon Web Services, where he led multiple landmark customer projects - most notably Apple iCloud and the USG Intelligence Community's private Cloud region “C2S”. Over the course of a nearly 20 year career, he considers himself fortunate to have been able to impact the design, delivery, and operations of some of the world’s largest computer systems. As an industry expert, he authored the Google SRE Workbook chapter on designing large scale systems.

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Henry received a B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology from James Madison University and lives in the Northern Virginia area with his wife and two children.

Hamilton Jordan is an accomplished strategy and operations advisor known for delivering value across multiple industries including Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment, Technology, Manufacturing, Legal Services, Real Estate & Banking.

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Prior to joining Aalyria, Hamilton led dozens of international, cross functional teams over 5 years in strategy & operations consulting. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, he led the development & implementation of growth, go-to-market, and operational strategies for telecom, media, and technology companies. At Deloitte Consulting, Hamilton led client engagements and managed teams focusing on operations transformation, enterprise data management, and customer experience within various industries, including technology, telecommunications, media, financial services, and real estate.

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His earlier experience includes leading teams of software developers and engineers, managing global intellectual property translation projects and designing and releasing analytics tools to drive sales and product development.

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Hamilton holds a dual BSBA in Marketing and Operations & Information Management from Georgetown University with a minor in Japanese and an MBA from New York University with a dual focus on Technology & Operations Management.

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An advocate for diversity, education and professional development, Hamilton served as VP of Student Curriculum and Mentor for Minds Matter Philadelphia, non-profit college prep program, and continues to coach and advise prospective undergraduate and MBA students.

Ian Eishen is the Director of Global Public Sector at Aalyria Technologies, where he is responsible for managing and expanding Aalyria’s engagements with the U.S. and International Governments.

Prior to Aalyria, Ian served as a policy advisor to the Department of Defense, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, and the French Ministry of Armed Forces regarding artificial intelligence, and digital transformation as part of the Tri-Lateral Strategic Initiative. He also served on the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the DoD Artificial Intelligence Workforce Subcommittee, served as an advisor to the Defense Innovation Unit and In-Q-Tel, and was a Principal Investigator for an IARPA-led program focused on the cross-section of artificial intelligence and biotech.

Ian is a Presidential Leadership Scholar and serves on the Board of Directors for the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. He has launched multiple initiatives focused on upskilling veterans and combating suicidal ideation including a mindfulness smartphone app, a holistic wellness program for military families, and a graphic novel anthology titled “True War Stories” in which veterans learn to address their trauma through storytelling. He earned an M.A. in International Relations with an emphasis on European Economics at the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in Finance.