Dr. Michael G. Smayda is founder and CEO at Fortastra Corporation. Previously, he was co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Hermeus Corporation, a venture-backed high-speed aircraft company, where he led internal product development as well as external business development, requirements generation, and congressional engagement. Prior to Hermeus, Michael spent 5 years at SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle working aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics for booster entry, descent and landing, design criteria, systems engineering, and hardware design for Falcon Heavy. Dr. Smayda has a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and a BS in the same from Cornell University. He lives in Hermosa Beach, CA.