Dr. Andrew Aldrin serves as the Director of the Aldrin Space Institute (ASI) and is an Associate Professor at Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to FIT, Dr. Aldrin was President of Moon Express, responsible for day to day operations for the company. Prior to coming to Moon Express, Dr. Aldrin was Director of Business Development and Advanced Programs at United Launch Alliance, where he oversaw development of corporate strategies, business capture, senior customer relations and advanced program development for civil space markets. Before ULA, Dr. Aldrin headed Business Development and Advanced Programs for Boeing’s NASA Systems, and Launch Services business units. He has also served as a Resident Consultant at the RAND Corporation and Professional Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Dr. Aldrin holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from UCLA, an MBA from TRIUM, a MA in Science Technology and Public Policy from The George Washington University, and a MA in International Relations from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is an Adjunct Faculty member at the International Space University and has been Adjunct Faculty at the University of Houston and California State University at Long Beach. He has served as Vice Chairman of the SharesSpace Foundation since its inception in 1998. Dr. Aldrin is the son of the famous space pioneer Buzz Aldrin, who was one of the first humans to walk on the Moon.
Dr. Peter Eckart is founder and managing director of ASCE Partners Inc., a strategic and operational advisory company. Peter is a former university-professor-turned-top-management-consultant turned-senior-executive. He has been reporting into or advising CxO-level management for the past 15+ years and is passionate about creating impact. Peter started his career as assistant professor in space engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. There he led the lunar micro-orbiter project LunarSat. At the time he was also a lecturer at the International Space University. He then joined McKinsey & Co. Inc. for over 5 years and was a member of firm’s Global High-Tech and Global Innovation Practices. Before moving to the United States, Peter was based in the Middle East (Dubai) for several years. Peter is currently also an Advisory Board Member at the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute. He has published two major handbooks on space engineering: The Lunar Base Handbook (McGraw-Hill, 1999/2006) and Spaceflight Life Support & Biospherics (Kluwer/Springer, 1996).