What’s your role?

My present role is related to analysis of cloud and a variety of other current weather variables. This supports our Current Weather Conditions products as well as the initialization of our Numerical Weather Prediction models.

Describe your journey to Spire.

I have a long history working with Sandy MacDonald when we were both at NOAA, prior to when he became Weather Team Leader at Spire. He mentioned Spire to me because he believed there would be a good fit between my interests and the needs at Spire to pursue new directions in gridded analysis of clouds at that point in my career. He first floated the idea about joining in 2016 and it took me a couple of years to think about it before I decided to take him up on the offer in 2018.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

My present hobbies include sky watching, hiking, and displaying Mars rover imagery. I’m also a member of local astronomy clubs. Sometimes while outside, I’ll look for unusual sunset lighting effects in clouds or just the clear air and see how well this can match simulated sky imagery.

What’s something unique about you that most people don’t know?

I took three bicycle trips that covered most parts of the United States. One was 50 days, and another was six months. I would spend time in places along the way. The first one was from Chicago to Los Angeles with a friend, and it was well timed during severe storm season. It was the closest I had then been to an F5 tornado in Iowa.

What is a project that you have worked on that makes you particularly proud?

Providing high resolution 3-D analyses of clouds and related variables for both global and regional use. This includes the digitized fields themselves along with making physically and photo-realistic 3-D visualizations. The cloud analysis is a key component of many of Spire’s Current Weather Conditions products, and it helps provide a much-improved initial condition and forecast of small-scale storm features for our SOF-D model forecasts.

What interests you most about working in the space industry?

I’ve always been interested in space and astronomy and had a chance to work in the space industry early in my career as a Viking Mars mission Intern at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This complements my interest and career in weather and thus Spire offers the best of both worlds.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Unbounded – since our projects at Spire provide opportunities to implement capabilities that have never been done before.

What’s your role?

As a member of the Total Rewards team, I am responsible for all the things that we reward our employees with. We work on analyzing data trends in the markets our employees are in so we can position these rewards to be as competitive as possible in each market. This means everything from negotiating rates with our vendors so we can get more for our employees to determining salary bands. We also complete many of the compliance reporting requirements. Most days have a lot of spreadsheets!

Describe your journey to Spire.

I actually did not know about Spire before joining! I had been in the HR field for a few years and was looking to be a contract worker for a while. I was connected to Spire through a staffing agency for what was supposed to be a temporary position in the San Francisco office as an HR Advisor. At that time, we had about 150 people across three continents. I fell in love with the team, the fast pace of work, and what Spire was striving to do to improve the world — and here we are, nearly four years later. I love seeing how Spire has grown in that time and the many improvements that have been made to our people processes and team structure.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I bought a house this year so a lot of the time I have outside of work has been spent on renovations and upgrades like a fully gutted and remodeled bathroom, and installing French doors in the master bedroom. I like to do CrossFit and am super close to my deadlift goal weight of 300 lbs (my current deadlift is at 287 lbs). I also love animals and volunteer with local shelters as a cat foster. I take young kittens who need a place to stay and raise them until they are old enough for adoption. The last litter I fostered had six kittens, and I got them when they were just two days old with their little eyes still closed.

What’s something unique about you that most people don’t know?

I was born in Russia and immigrated to the US when I was seven years old, but I am not Russian in my heritage. I am Siberian Tatar, who are an indigenous nomadic peoples that spanned from Mongolia to Turkey and settled in Siberia. It is currently estimated that there are only 100,000 Siberian Tatars in the world.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

I really like the value of Collaborative. While a lot of my work does have individualized components, pretty much everything needs collaboration with others on the People team or with those on the Legal and Finance/Accounting teams. Getting to interact with a wide variety of people at Spire makes the day more fun and ensures the methods we take on are covering all considerations.

What is a project that you have worked on that makes you particularly proud?

Implementations are not something we always get to do but I really enjoy doing them. It’s fun to help make our systems talk to each other and determine how processes will work within those systems. Just recently we implemented a system called Motivosity that is designed to foster appreciation and recognition across Spire. Not only is it a place where you can show your appreciation for the people you work with, it also has a simplified version of a Myers-Briggs personality test on your profile that then will tell you how your work style melds with someone else in the company.

What’s your role?

My role as a systems engineer is to lead the mission design team. The main purpose of the mission design team is to forecast and help others forecast the future in order to make the best decisions with respect to our satellites and ground stations. That includes helping with the design of our constellation, developing the tools needed to forecast the future, etc. Ever wonder when a satellite will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere? How to design a constellation to accomplish a given mission? How much power is available on a given satellite? We can help you with that!

Describe your journey to Spire.

I grew up in a little village in the interior of Spain. To be honest, I wasn’t passionate about space when I was a child. I enjoyed math and physics, so I decided to move to Madrid to study aerospace engineering since it seemed like a good place to apply those skills to solve cool problems. And it was during university when I found my love for space, as I began to understand the challenges that mankind faced to put things up there.

After my time in Madrid, I moved to Toulouse to get a master’s degree and finish my studies. It was a great learning period — I learned French, some Italian and even to fly small planes! After a few internships in big, medium and small-sized companies I discovered that a startup environment was the best fit for me, so I moved to Glasgow to join Spire in 2019!

What keeps you busy outside of work?

Definitely sports! I was a decent cyclist when I was at high school, but I quit when I started university. Now I’m still cycling but on an amateur level, and I’ve practiced or am practicing a lot of other sports, including basketball, water polo, running, hiking, swimming, skiing, kayaking, and scuba diving.

Sports is a hobby that I share with my family and some friends, which helps me strengthen relationships. Sometimes I even mix tourism and sports by traveling to sporting events or going on a run while visiting a new city. It’s great to discover places that are not on the guides!

2022 was an intense year with respect to new challenges. I ran a trail race, my first marathon and my first Half Ironman (2 km swimming, 90 km cycling and 21 km running). Perhaps a full Ironman will be my next challenge…

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Reliable and relentless. These values are significantly related to the sports I practice. You need to be relentless to run a marathon and reliable when playing team sports. I apply the same philosophy in the work environment and in life in general in order to keep growing and improving.

What’s something unique about you that most people don’t know?

I have a hidden artistic side. I enjoy oil painting, watercolors, and even just sketching with a pencil. However, I don’t do it as often as I’d like to.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day?

I enjoy designing things and thinking about how to make things work, whether it is a code, a project, or a satellite constellation. It is a great challenge to simplify things and find the easiest way to solve a complex problem. I also enjoy applying math and physics to solve everyday problems. And one of the best parts is working with such talented people, who help me learn every single day!

What’s your role?

My role as a Recruiter is to find, interview and select the best engineers and professionals in the world. I am passionate about Full Life Cycle Recruiting, including ensuring that my new colleagues have all the support they need for a smooth start when joining Spire. In particular, I really like to organize social events and sport activities that allow them to bond with their new colleagues all across Spire. This led to me becoming one of the founding members of the Social Team whose goal is to organize various events to bring us all together.

Describe your journey to Spire.

When I was a little girl, I had a dream to become a Musical Theatre Actress. After doing that for a decade playing in shows from London to Vienna, I had a new dream to have a stable salary, so I auditioned to become a Recruiter. Before Spire, I worked for Korn Ferry. After working for such a big firm, I wanted to join a startup company where I could leverage my knowledge and make a bigger impact.

What’s something unique about you that most people don’t know? 

The most unique thing about me is that I was lucky enough to find the biggest fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite back in 2021. This piece is currently exhibited at the National History Museum London.

I relentlessly searched through lots of sheep fields in the South of England as part of an organized search, before spotting the shiny black space rock, which turned out to be a rare carbonaceous chondrite. This was one of the most special moments of my life. Apparently, there is a higher chance to win the lottery, and it was the first meteorite fall that has been found on UK soil for over 30 years! This made me a co-author on a science paper published last year, which is pretty cool for someone who started their career as an actress.

What is a project that you have worked on that makes you particularly proud?

Recently I had a small idea, which unexpectedly grew very big very quickly. As part of Spire’s 10th anniversary celebration, we kindly got the opportunity to upload a digital file to be sent to space on Spire’s satellites. For my digital file, I decided to get the children in my hometown of Hidas, Hungary involved to spark their interest in space and science. I collected drawings and space-themed paintings that the kids made. It started with just my family and soon more children wanted to be involved, so I ended up uploading more than 30 children’s drawings as part of my data allowance.

I did this to inspire the children in Hidas, which is a small rural village, and show them that they can become the next generation of space engineers, if they choose to. On the day the satellites launched to orbit, they all sat in front of their screens and watched along as their drawings were sent to space!

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Relentless and Reliable. I am honest, I keep my word and I always do everything I can to reach my goals. I like challenges. It’s not a secret that I want to be the best at what I do. I always strive to find the right fit, connect people, create opportunities for others, be reliable and go the extra mile without being asked.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I still like to keep in touch with my artistic roots through my hobbies: singing and dancing, and also sometimes appearing in Bollywood films as an extra.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day?

I like to bring people together, and therefore it feels like Spire is the right place for me. I love organizing events and seeing people being happy and bonding with each other across teams, as well as helping to create an atmosphere I always dreamed to work in. The Spire culture in Glasgow is exceptional, and I am very happy to be part of it. It is truly a fun place to work.

What’s your role?

I am a Customer Support Engineer for Spire Maritime. In this role, we work with new and existing clients through the deployment of DaaS and SaaS solutions. We troubleshoot data inconsistencies utilizing spatial data analysis, as well as develop and document knowledge solutions, instructions and training for Spire staff and customers. This is a great role because I get to wear many hats.

Describe your journey to Spire.

I began my career working for a small GIS and GPS consulting firm where my interests in geospatial technologies took off. In 2018, I joined exactEarth, branching into satellite data services. After Spire’s acquisition of exactEarth in 2021, I joined the Spire family!

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

“Collaborative – Winning is a team sport”. Playing competitive sports from a young age has taught me that teamwork is essential to success. Through my academic and professional experiences, I have learned that teamwork stretches far beyond the court, field or office. When you are part of a successful team, you feel valued for your input and your employee experience improves. You get to undertake purposeful work that has a meaningful impact. Not only do you feel appreciated, but work that has meaning boosts your engagement and passion.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

Outside of work, I can be found hiking, skiing, playing and coaching basketball, training my young dog Penny or enjoying the hunt for a new craft beer.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day?

Satellite AIS data has improved the wellbeing and safety of so many in the maritime industry. It has saved the lives of crew aboard vessels lost at sea, determined the culprit of oil spills, guarded environmentally protected water zones, provided dark vessel detection and facilitated the prosecution of illegal fishers. The geospatial industry is truly engaging, and it inspires me on the job each day.

What’s your role?

I am a Spacecraft Electronics Design Engineer (I love that I get to call myself that) in the Space Services Platform Engineering team. I work on the design and qualification of electronic circuit boards and systems. My work typically encompasses supporting integration of customer payloads into our satellites, but I’ve also recently been involved in developing the newest version of our core satellite systems.

My work on electronic design at Spire involves collaborating with stakeholders on a concept or block diagram that drives a schematic drawing; then I work closely with mechanical engineering colleagues to create a physical circuit board design. Our supply chain team arranges for the boards to be manufactured and assembled externally, and thereafter, I assist with testing and support our manufacturing team with anything they need to integrate the fully qualified designs into satellites.

Describe your journey to Spire.

Growing up in the north of Scotland, I was always blown away by how many stars you can see on a clear night. When I was young, I remember reading books and watching videos about rocket launches and the space race. After studying electronics engineering at the University of Glasgow, I worked for a product design company that developed data acquisition products. I first heard of Spire in 2015 when I applied for an electronics role. Sadly I didn’t get the job but I was thoroughly impressed with what was then a young company, and it certainly put Spire on my radar and instilled a desire to one day work in the space industry. Fast forward a few years, I was working for a local laser company. During the Covid lockdowns in 2020 I discovered YouTube channels such as Everyday Astronaut and Scott Manley, and I closely followed SpaceX’s Starship and Crew Demo/Crew Dragon launch efforts, rekindling my interest in space in general. I was approached in early 2021 about reapplying and have been tremendously excited to be part of Spire’s story since then.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Relentless – I strive to constantly improve and learn, whether that’s furthering my own engineering skills or those of others. My 3x great grandfather worked in the shipbuilding industry in Glasgow in the late 1800s and my grandfather was a civil engineer, so I think I inherited from them a passion for understanding how things work and how things go together as well as some skills in innovative design. I find taking things apart or watching teardown videos a great way to discover creative solutions to design challenges. In my last job I started mentoring those around me, and I recently took over running Spire’s EE Guild where those of us with an interest in electronics engineering get together to discuss process improvements for the tools we use as well as learning opportunities such as presenting interesting circuits, techniques or parts. I really enjoy helping to further the skills and knowledge of our already brilliant team, and I think it’s great that Spire allows us the time to do this.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day

I feel incredibly proud that the stuff I design goes to space, and I still can’t believe that this is what I get to do for a living! I love that the work I do contributes to Spire making a global impact, with our customers and partners using our data and our platform for incredibly innovative applications and ideas to make the world a better place. It’s also a real pleasure to work with such a passionate, dedicated and talented team of people.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

Aside from spending time with my young family, my friends and colleagues all know about my obsession with Lego. When I was young, my favorite set was probably the Technic Space Shuttle. I have had a few years off, but I rediscovered Lego after university, collecting all of the space sets, numerous Star Wars replicas and started designing some of my own models too. These include a skyline of Glasgow, which went a little bit viral, a model of my wedding venue with individually customized versions of all our guests given as favors, and when my friends and family have bought homes, gifted them mini versions of their houses or flats. More recently my colleagues will have seen my designs of various Spire satellites, which continue to be fun to work on and have helped me learn more about how our satellites are built. I’m looking forward to participating in more Spire Lego building sessions and seeing more Lego satellites dotted around our offices!

What’s your role?

As a systems engineer for Space Services missions, I’m responsible for the entire end-to-end engineering solution delivered by Spire to our customers and act as the technical point of contact throughout the different engineering phases. As a team lead, I manage the systems engineering team resources and provide coaching and support to the team.

Describe your journey to Spire.

During my time at university studying for an Aerospace Engineering degree, I both fell into a student organization (Sun Devil Satellite Laboratory) that focused on developing cubesat technology, and also struggled in my low-speed aerodynamics courses. These two factors helped cement my intent to work in the space industry!

I worked as an on-console spacecraft operator for EchoStar from 2013-2014. While I enjoyed the work, I was looking for an organization that better fit my values. I ended up not accepting a job offer to continue working there as an engineer because I wanted to be a part of something more interesting and where people were passionate about their work. This is how I found Spire (Nanosatisfi at the time) in 2014. I began working for Spire’s first spacecraft operations team.

Fast forward eight years – 150+ satellites launched into orbit, Series A/B/C and IPO, moving abroad (USA to the UK) and back, three major job-role transitions, a marriage, two Scottish-born children – and that brings us to today!

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

I truly believe in being Relentless. All great things are found and made greater by an unrelenting force driving us forward. In the most challenging of times, we have forged paths to ultimate success by grit, determination and adaptability – the subtext of a relentless pursuit. It is the one value that I find makes the largest difference when treading new ground – whether that be in new product development or when operating a first-of-its-kind satellite system.

What is a project that you have worked on that makes you particularly proud?

Developing Spire’s first vertically integrated Attitude Determination and Control system and managing its first series of evolutions was immensely rewarding. I am proud of our team for delivering the first version of hardware in a matter of months and for the manner in which we continued to improve upon the system’s capability through a relentless series of iterations over the following years. This is definitely a moment in my time at Spire that stands out among all others and was a turning point in my career and in my confidence as an engineer.

Tell us about something you’ve learned from your colleagues at Spire.

This is a fun question because it’s harder to think of things that I haven’t learned, or capability I haven’t developed thanks to the team of people around me. One example that stands out is when my colleagues Robert Deaton and Jeremiah Matthey taught me python and C programming. These are programming languages which were respectfully invaluable to me in the scaling of Spire’s satellite operations systems and the development of the second major iteration of Spire’s attitude control system.

What interests you most about space? Have you always wanted to work in the space industry?

Space has always fascinated me, but I never knew I was going to work in the industry until I entered university and began working on cubesat technology. The most interesting and thought provoking thing about space is what we don’t know, haven’t explored, or haven’t accomplished yet. It is an uncharted territory of knowledge and capability that mirrors the evolution of ocean transportation in human history, but with a much larger ocean – and much more to be learned.

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Every day I am thankful that I get to work with a group of amazing people on a mission that makes a true difference for Earth and the life my kids might have on this precious planet.

Peter Platzer
CEO

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Our purpose makes me part of a movement where I get to create breakthrough experiences in my work, for myself, and for others. I also get to work with brilliant people who make me smarter just by being around them and it is a privilege to be part of the company’s success story! Happy 10th anniversary Spire!

Tim Braswell
Chief People Officer

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As one of the first sales executives with Spire, starting 4 years ago only, I’ve been given a chance to make an impact, to drive growth and change, for the better of our company. This is the chance we are giving to our clients, at their level, for theirs. I am grateful for the challenge and embrace it daily; I wish you the same. My constant goal is to always do more, faster, and better.

George Facaeru
Director of Maritime Sales

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It was September 2018 and after 6 weeks in the company, I had to present at the AIS summit in Hamburg (Germany) preceded by the veterans of the S-AIS industry: Guy Thomas, George Best (Orbcomm), and David Martin (Exact Earth).
Spire and myself were introduced as “the new kid on the block” and we were nowhere close to the number of AIS data and number of clients these others had- we actually had 14 paying clients and were writing every new one on a whiteboard in the new Luxembourgish office. I felt humble at that conference but also felt the opportunity to make a difference. And we did! That AIS 2018 summit is recorded and can be seen here (https://seadevcon.com/ais-netais-networks-collaboration-or-competition/) – my talk at min30, right after David Martin – now my respected colleague here at Spire.

Simon Van Den Dries
VP of Business Development

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Happy 10th Anniversary, Spire! Having joined two years ago I saw you grow at exponential rates and couldn’t be prouder that I am part of this exciting journey. I have seen the number of customers and new team members grow to almost double their size since I joined and I am amazed by our successes daily. It’s an absolute pleasure to work with such a variety of intelligent, kind, and down-to-earth people both on the customer and employee side. I can’t wait to see where we are on the 20th! Long live Spire, and a special shout-out to Spire Maritime!

Olga Kadeshnikova
Customer Success Manager

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When I first joined Spire in Luxembourg 4 years ago, both the office and the Maritime team had only 12 people. Fast forward 4 years and we’re at 90 and 65 respectively. The growth has been nothing short of amazing. What I cherish the most is the global nature of all of our Spire colleagues. I remember posting the photo below after our very first Maritime offsite in Paris (December 2018). 12 people and 7 countries represented. Simply awesome!

John Lusk
SVP, GM

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After a career as a reporter, propelled by curiosity and truth, I am grateful to now be part of a mission that is propelled by a fervent wish to imagine a better future for our planet and the living creatures which inhabit it. I am also grateful that I get to be part of that movement alongside some of the smartest people in the world, who inspire me every day to work harder, be better, and live more fully.

Andy Jordan
Head of Brand

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“Time flies when you’re having fun”.
That’s definitely true. Since I joined in June 2021, time flew as fast as a Falcon rocket carrying Spire’s payload – which is much more than a satellite – but really represents the essence of what Spire people can achieve as a whole and how we all thrive together. I feel blessed to be able to grow and learn along amazingly smart and kind individuals whilst sharing the strong desire to make this world a better place.
Happy birthday, Spire!

Sebastien Morand
Sales Operations Manager

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Happy 10, Spire! It’s only been a few weeks since I joined, but I felt the energy from day 1. It feels really great to be here, work with an amazing team of experts and receive such a warm welcome. I’m excited to see the company grow further and contribute to the journey! Here’s to many more years of success!

Kanchan Desai
Sr. Marketing Manager – Space Services

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Building radar systems was something I always loved. It was always super exciting and a lot of fun. When Spire asked me to join them and build an aircraft tracking system in space, it sounded like sci-fi at that time. Fast forward five years, space-based aircraft data became an off-the-shelf product and it didn’t lose any of its excitement. Spire is truly the place where the future of the air traffic industry is made.

David Manda
Technical Product Manager – Aviation

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About 50 years ago in the waning days of the Apollo program, my parents took me on a tour of Kennedy Space Center. This visit propelled my interest in earth and space sciences. In my middle school science classes, I wrote biographical reports on Robert Goddard and the Wright Brothers. I built Estes rockets and rain gauges, and this ultimately led to my degree in Meteorology. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in the weather enterprise sector for most of my career. In April 2022, Spire invited me to join the Weather Team to continue learning and exploring my interests and passions. Interests shared with great co-workers around the globe! I guess you can say… From the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module, pictured) to the LEMUR, Happy Birthday Spire!

Dennis Stewart
Sales Manager, Weather

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Happy 10 Spire! Super proud to be part of an innovative company like Spire that’s working on something that actually matters, i.e. building a more sustainable world and contributing my bit to it. Given how weather impacts all aspects of our life, the best part of my time has been that there’s always something new to learn, something new to write about.. Although I’ve only been here a year, it’s been incredible working with such smart, insightful people and look forward to seeing what the next year (and more) bring!

Sharmain Zain
Content Marketing – Weather

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Having joined Spire in early 2020 due to alignment with the mission of leveraging space to solve the problems here on earth, what continues to impress me is the energy with which people relate to that mission. A great example has been, when speaking at various large conferences, how audiences become so engaged and excited about what we can do with from space. Whether it is in maritime, aviation, earth intelligence, weather, or starting an innovative conversation about “the possible” in space services, the high level of enthusiasm we generate with people worldwide and across so many cultures is incredibly inspirational.

Jeff Rex
VP, Business Development – Earth Intelligence

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I joined Spire three years back as one of the first people in the Weather team. With Spire turning 10, it’s been an incredible journey seeing the company evolve and become a publicly listed one on the NYSE and alongside, witness the growth of not only the company but also of the Weather team. Very proud of my team where we’re building everything from scratch and are always up for new challenges. I am fortunate to work with some of the brightest minds in the meteorological field and continually learn from them. Being part of a company like Spire that has innovation in its DNA and truly making a difference in the world has been truly rewarding. Happy 10, Spire!

Asma Toroman
Marketing Director – Weather

What’s your role?
As the Customer Success Manager for the maritime team, I act as the overall advocate for our customers. I take care of logging and following up on customer feature requests, escalation management, customer objective reviews, and identifying up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.

Describe your journey to Spire.

My journey at Spire started in August 2020. I joined to build out the customer success function in the maritime business unit, which included introducing new processes, restructuring the interaction we have with our clients and beginning to monitor customer satisfaction. The team has now doubled in size, and I’m hoping it will triple in size in the coming months!

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

As others have told me, I mostly embody the values Collaborative and Relentless. There is a colleague that shares this mindset, who is my counterpart in the Accounts and Renewals Team, Natalie Underwood, and together we are #Nolga. The idea is that one can be relentless in their approach and not compromise on achieving success, all while being collaborative and supporting their colleagues by being considerate and making sure everyone has been heard and included.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I am most passionate about learning foreign languages and getting to know new cultures. I am currently able to speak seven languages, although some are rustier than others. It has opened my eyes to the world, and being able to speak with people in their native language is an incredible feeling. I also love wellness activities such as yoga, spinning and meditation. Meditation changed my life nine years ago and taught me to deal with a lot of stress and anxiety. Admittedly, I don’t meditate as much as I should, but I am working on it.

Tell us about something you’ve learned from your colleagues at Spire.

I have learned that there is always a solution. By working together, we can figure out the answer to the toughest problem. The team I work with is highly intelligent, kind, flexible and extremely knowledgeable so coming together to solve problems is always an enlightening and fun experience.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day?

I think that the work we do at Spire Maritime truly has a global impact and knowing that I am contributing to monitoring global trade, preventing accidents at sea, vessel optimization, preventing illegal fishing, compliance at sea and overall digitizing the maritime industry is hugely inSpiring.

What’s your role? 

My role at Spire has certainly evolved over the past five years. I was hired as the first product marketer to help build the marketing engine and product roadmap for the maritime team, Spire’s first commercial business unit. As the company has grown, I’ve advised and counseled the marketing initiatives across all the teams as they grew – and due to my tenure some refer to me as the Swiss Army Knife (which I appreciate!) of Spire marketing. In late 2020, it was clear that with the federal team’s growth, they needed a full-time marketing director. I had been involved with supporting the federal team in different capacities since that team was one person, so It made sense to move to the team full time and support that growth potential.

Describe your journey to Spire.

In late 2017, I received a phone call from the Spire CFO at that time. He shared Spire’s aspirations and how they were at an inflection point and needed help with their product marketing. I had been working at Jive Software leading its innovation product marketing team, and after five years at Jive where I worked through an IPO and acquisition, I was looking for my next category creating firm! That call from Spire was a catalyst to dig into the new space industry, and I wanted to be part of it!

What Spire value do you relate to the most? 

Over the past five years, I have found times when I relate to all of Spire’s values. If I were to choose just one, it would be Unbounded. I enjoy presenting solutions and ideas to any challenge I am involved in. At its core, marketing is big on problem solving. I enjoy digging in on how things work and considering new ways we can bring our products to market and share our message.

What keeps you busy outside of work? 

Outside of spending time with my wife and three kids (ages 2 to 11), I have a passion for keeping old English cars – Land Rovers, Jaguars, Mini Coopers, you name it – on the road! I like to pretend I am on an episode of Top Gear. I also enjoy spending time outdoors (randomly, I am a certified Wilderness Paramedic) and have fond memories hiking for weeks in Alaska, Georgia, Montana, Idaho before having kids. Recently, we got to experience the beautiful scenery of the nearby Appalachian Mountains with my family.

The global nature of Spire requires flexibility and time management. How do you navigate working with colleagues around the globe? 

Over the past 10 years of my career, I have been located right in the middle of the European and Pacific Coast time zones. Being in this location, I’ve had my fair share of 3:00 am investor demos and 10:00 pm sales calls.

One thing I would like to emphasize is that if you end up having 3 am’s or 10 pm’s, you should give yourself permission to take some time off here and there. Having three kids, I understand the importance of home time and will choose to take them out for ice cream or to the park during breaks in the day as a little ‘reward’ for driving back to the office at 2 am.

What is a project that you have worked on that makes you particularly proud?

When I joined Spire, it was very clear that to support the sales cycles we needed to find a way to visualize our data for demos and use cases. I developed our relationship with Esri as a solution for this problem. I now continue to support and maintain Spire’s data in the GIS world by using Esri. Through this work, we are now considered Esri’s go-to resource for ship tracking, and most recently, weather forecasting. After more than four years, it has legit revenue attached to it!

What’s your role?

As Solutions Engineer and Meteorologist, I support pre-sales efforts across our global weather sales team, with a focus on supporting sales staff and prospective customers within the Americas and APAC sales territories. I specialize in translating the complicated nature of describing weather and forecasting to business and technical users to ensure their use of weather data from Spire is based on sound science and is technically viable to help them achieve their desired business outcomes.

Describe your journey to Spire.

I spent over three years working in the broadcast meteorology industry in customer support and implementation roles. I then had a three year stint in the Healthcare IT industry before being pulled back into my weather career by IBM and The Weather Company, where I worked for nearly five years as a sales engineer and meteorologist. I made the jump to Spire from IBM primarily because of the innovation I saw happening in weather forecasting here and the desire to join a company that matches my passion for creating innovations in the weather industry.

What interests you most about space? Have you always wanted to work in the space industry?

I think it’s so cool that Spire operates solutions in space that impact the entire Earth. I brag about it all the time to my close friends (most of whom are also meteorologists), and I hope to be able to travel to see one of our launches someday in person. I’ve always been curious about space, and specifically, the most recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope are absolutely mind blowing to me. Those first images had a profound impact on how I see my place in this universe and makes me want to understand even more about the “why” and the “how” questions about our origin.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Unbounded.

I have always been of the mindset through my career that the status quo should be continually challenged, and I love how directly relatable that way of thinking is to the core Spire value of being Unbounded. I truly believe that every process can be improved in some way, and that translates to weather forecasting as well as what Spire is trying to achieve. We have to think in an Unbounded way in order to push the science of weather forecasting to the next level.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

In my personal life, I enjoy running and fitness, storm chasing, digital and film photography, and spending quality time with my family. I work remotely from Wisconsin, and I love taking full advantage of all four seasons that the state has to offer.

The global nature of Spire requires flexibility and time management. How do you navigate working with colleagues around the globe?

I’ve learned to put up hard boundaries around my family time during the evenings and to be as flexible as possible around those boundaries. This means sometimes waking up at an awkward time in the morning to jump on a sales call or supporting a client’s need after the kiddos are asleep at night, while still allowing the personal time that I need to feel recharged and satisfied with my career. I also try my best to not check work email and Slack during my “off” time.

What’s your role?

As strategy lead with a focus on the aviation industry, I help the company find the right path into the future. I strategize business objectives with leadership, work closely with different teams across the company on technology evolution and product development, and identify the right mix of partners to work with, all with the goal of continuing to be a market leader and benchmark in the industry. Maneuvering one of the largest commercial satellite operators into the future is a challenging but enormously fun assignment.

Describe your journey to Spire.

I first heard of Spire while researching satellite-based aircraft tracking in 2016. At this time, there were not many companies in this field. My relationship with Spire began when I reached out to co-founder and CEO Peter Platzer via LinkedIn. Initially managing Spire as a partner of my former employer, I got the chance to get to know the company. In 2021 after a chat with a Spire colleague I realized that a career at the company would allow me to combine my enthusiasm and passion for space exploration with my professional experience. The thought of becoming part of a space technology company to support how space can help improve life on Earth was too exciting. The rest was paperwork!

What interests you most about space? Have you always wanted to work in the space industry?

I was always excited that space allows humans to pioneer and explore new territories and frontiers in an extraordinary way. For many decades space exploration has influenced technology evolution, which helped to create new solutions to solve problems on Earth. It was always a dream of mine to work for a company that is breaking through boundaries and explores new ways to harness the possibilities of space.

What inspires you most about the work you do every day?

What inspires me the most is the ability to demonstrate that space exploration can solve problems on Earth. I feel space exploration is at a turning point, similar to where the smartphone ecosystem was in the late 2000s. Being part of an industry going through a major revolution is a privilege — and fun. The democratization of space will have an impact on humanity as a whole, allowing us to improve the way we live and make it more sustainable.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Reliable: “We do what we say we will do.”

Early in my career, I was involved in the transformation process of a company, and we created new company values. One of them was “we do things properly or we don’t do them at all.” This value has stuck with me and become part of my business attitude. Someone could argue that this attitude can get in the way, but I have learned over the years that it always pays off to be reliable and have integrity.

What’s your role?

Launch Manager. I decide what launch providers the company works with to put Spire satellites on-orbit and when. I also build and maintain relationships with launch providers for this purpose.

Fun fact: Spire has launched 150+ satellites into orbit through 30+ launch campaigns with 10 different launch providers.

Describe your journey to Spire.

After working at a large aerospace government contractor for nearly five years as a Satellite Operations Engineer, I concluded the slow pace of work didn’t align well with my values. In 2014, a recruiter from Spire (the company was called Nanosatisfi at the time) contacted me about an open role as a Satellite Operations Engineer. Even as an aerospace engineer, the idea to commercialize cubesats was pretty foreign to me at the time, so I had to check it out. When I interviewed with Peter, our CEO, I mentioned that I would happily work as a Satellite Operations Engineer for a few years as long as the company was open to me becoming a Sales Engineer when the customer products became available – an arrangement that came to fruition and (from my perspective) worked out well!

In 2019, I got an itch to work as a Sales Engineer at a non-aerospace company. I gained valuable experience there, but after two years, I realized I just don’t see myself working outside of the aerospace industry. Fortunately, Spire had an opening for their Launch Manager role, and I rejoined the company in June 2021.

A lot has changed since 2014. Back then, Spire had 14 employees all in San Francisco, and we were developing an early version of our satellites. Now we have around 375 employees from over 40 countries, a constellation of 100+ satellites, and a wide variety of customers, products, and launch needs. The journey to get here has been a lot of fun.

What is a project you’ve worked on that you’re particularly proud of?

Back in 2014, our satellite contact schedule was published as events on a Google Calendar, but at some point, the integration broke! Without this, satellite operations had to manually look up when contacts were coming up, which is clearly far less than ideal.

The software engineers were neck deep in the development of the LEMUR-1, the first 3U satellite the company built, so, having some limited software experience at the time, I took it as an opportunity to learn Python and create an early “optimized” satellite contact schedule for satellite operations to use. I was able to finish it before the launch of the satellite and it did the job!

Picking up this skill also became essential later on when building out automation in satellite operations as well as improving some automated maritime data deliveries to customers.

What Spire value do you relate to the most?

Collaborative. I’m very attracted to activities and roles that involve contributions from others. The end result doesn’t always work out the way I expected it to, but if you’re lucky, it’s for the better.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I play alto saxophone in two local concert bands and a small jazz band with friends. I also practice martial arts (Shotokan), snowboard, and I love to cook. I’m addicted to shows like Parts Unknown (RIP Anthony Bourdain), Top Chef, and The Great British Bake Off.

What interests you most about space? Have you always wanted to work in the space industry?

As an aerospace engineer by degree, working in space was always part of the plan. I would like to see the industry make notable progress in establishing permanent manned settlements off of Earth in my lifetime, though I am unlikely to volunteer for such an endeavor myself.

This past week, Spire had a day of milestones – we successfully launched our 150th satellite into low-Earth orbit, deployed our first 6U satellite, and reached orbit with two separate launch partners on a single day to provide data for multiple Space Services customers. I’m very proud of the Spire team for these accomplishments and the relentless effort that has gotten us to this point. The recent launch events were a nice reminder for me to think back on how far we have come, remembering all of the years of work and iteration across those 150 satellites, starting in 2014. My day-to-day is so focused on the future of Spire – whether our next quarterly earnings or our strategy 5 years forward – that I sometimes forget to appreciate everything we have achieved. So I’d like to indulge a bit in early Spire memories.

In preparation for one of our very first launches, I can vividly recall our co-founder, Joel Spark, doing satellite integration in our “clean room,” which was basically a conference room with a table taken off the street corner garbage pile in San Francisco. Then the shipping company misplaced our satellites for two days en route to the launch site. When those early satellites finally made it to the launch pad and I watched the countdown and rocket lift-off, it was nerve racking and I felt helpless knowing the totality of funding we had at the time was on that rocket and depended on someone else’s technology. This was the one step in the whole process where Spire had no control of the outcome. It turned out alright, obviously, since Spire is still around today. That said, I have never watched another rocket launch. I have always told our team, “Let’s celebrate what we built – when the satellites make first contact with us, then we cheer.” I quickly learned that hearing from our satellite operations team over Slack that we had made contact doesn’t have the same emotional appeal as watching the rocket go up and feeling the tension and excitement together with a group of people who have worked with you towards the same goal.

 

At first, working from home was awesome. But after so many weeks away from the office, many home workers are now struggling to stay focused and productive. For some, working alone can put a strain on wellbeing and mental health. We have highlighted three tips to overcome the challenges and help teams get the most out of remote collaboration.

What is your role at Spire and how long have you been with the company?

I am the Satellite Lead AIT Technician in Glasgow and I have been with the company since 2016 so It will be 4 years in September.

What drew you to Spire originally?

I was very young when I started. I was 16 when I started in the apprenticeship program here at Spire. I had no idea what a satellite really was and when I was introduced with the opportunity of working within engineering, it was something that I had always seen myself doing.

How has Spire changed since?

It has changed massively. From starting in a clean room with 4/5 benches and satellites with 30 HDC cables in them, to now where we have 10 benches in our own cleanroom with over 14 satellites at a time of all different versions. Watching the company grow into all its different sectors and watch each of them get better all the time is pretty awesome to be a part of.

Technology is flexible, made possible by the speed of change within its ecosystem. This is well-known. However, with the world’s hyper-increased speed of change, this flexibility is being challenged. Particularly, how people talk to each other. Yes, these activities can be done differently through technology, but the execution requires a human touch. So, we flip the script and leverage our human abilities to achieve a more natural state of flexibility.

A Lighthouse In A Fog Of Uncertainty

The evidence has literally hit home: Changes we’re experiencing have upended normal life. People around the world and across generations are afraid, and companies are faced with unprecedented uncertainty. In these strange times, it’s only natural to clamor for a sense of control, certainty, and belonging—all feelings that seem a far cry from our current reality.

I believe our innate ability to adapt will shine through these tough times, guiding companies to connect with employees and customers on a deeper level than ever before. Industry experts predict that prospective customers, employees, and investors will be evaluating how organizations respond to these trying times. That’s why organizations must call on their core principles during periods of change.

When it comes to our principles, they must drive our organizational behavior and help our teams adapt quickly, effectively, and, most importantly, safely. Over the past few weeks, I have proudly witnessed how Spire Global uses its Values, much like a lighthouse, to navigate through uncertainty. Together, we are: