Space, tech and growth leadership moves across the market

Arcfield

Gregg Burgess has joined the systems engineering and integration company as president and general manager of Orion Space Systems, a subsidiary acquired in the fall of 2023.

The 25-year market veteran now leads a team of 100 scientists and engineers that focus on the design, development and deployment of space hardware.

Burgess most recently worked at General Atomics’ Electromagnetics subsidiary as vice president and general manager of its space systems division. He also has held senior leadership roles at Sierra Nevada Corp. and its Sierra Space spinout, plus Orbital Sciences Corp.

Burgess succeeds Chad Fish, who is transitioning to vice president and chief technology officer at Orion. Fish led Orion in the two years post-acquisition and was its chief operating officer in the six years pre-transaction.

BAE Systems Inc.

Brad Pelachyk will move up on Dec. 20 to the chief global supply chain officer position at the defense company’s U.S. subsidiary, which he first joined in the fall of 2023 as VP of supply chain.

Pelachyk will report to CEO Tom Arsenault and also have a matrixed reporting line to Brad Greve, chief financial officer for the U.K.-headquartered BAE Systems PLC parent. With this promotion, Pelachyk becomes Inc.’s lead procurement executive and also chair of its global supply chain council.

Prior to BAE, Pelachyk worked in leadership roles at Thales Group and FIAT Group.

GovCIO

Michael Ryan has moved up to president of the national security sector at this federal IT and digital services provider, which he first joined in 2022 as senior vice president of defense services.

Ryan was a senior vice president at Salient CRGT in the three-year period leading up to its acquisition by GovCIO in 2021. GovCIO went from not being ranked in the WT Top 100 at all to position No. 41 in 2024, before going down two spots to No. 43 for 2025.

His industry career also includes senior roles at General Dynamics IT, CSRA, SRA International and Science Applications International Corp.

Kentro

Mark Jordan has joined the technology and professional services provider, formerly known as IT Concepts, as vice president of business development and brings two decades of experience to the role.

He will lead capture strategy and execution efforts for federal financial regulatory agencies, while also overseeing work to expand Kentro’s reach across the broader financial services sector.

Jordan most recently worked as a managing partner at Gartner. His career also includes roles at FI Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton and International Resources Group.

Mobomo

Saju Varghese has joined the digital transformation and system integration services provider as chief strategy officer, a role he brings 29 years of experience to.

His new role covers Mobomo’s overall corporate direction, business development, opportunity identification and delivery.

Varghese most recently worked as a capture director at Nava and is also a former senior vice president at Halvik. His career also includes an SVP stint at ASSYST, also known as Advanced Software Systems Inc.

mPower

Dietrich Affeldt is now president and chief technology officer at this business transformation services provider, which he first joined in January 2024 as CTO and senior vice president of growth strategy.

MPower has doubled in size over the past 18 months, and he will now oversee the company’s market strategy, according to a LinkedIn post on his promotion.

Affeldt previously worked in senior roles at DLH and Grove Resource Solutions Inc., which DLH acquired in late 2022 for $178 million in cash.

Slingshot Aerospace

Adrian Thompson has joined the space data software provider as chief of artificial intelligence and data science, a role he brings 26 years of experience to.

Thompson will oversee the eight-year-old company’s strategy for developing AI offerings to be integrated into its data, analytics and modeling products that are used for space domain awareness missions.

His career prior to Slingshot includes senior technology and engineering leadership roles at TuSimple, Waymo, Uber ATG, L3 Technologies, GE Aviation and the United Technologies Research Center.

Terran Orbital

Cheryl Paquete has joined this subsidiary of Lockheed Martin as chief financial officer on a full-time basis after previously working in the role in a temporary capacity.

Her two-decade career in Lockheed’s space segment includes leadership roles for portfolios in deep space exploration, commercial satellites, weather and Earth science, and advanced development.

Paquete takes on the full-time CFO role at Terran as it looks to further scale its satellite manufacturing capabilities. Lockheed acquired Terran in 2024 after several years of being an investor in the company.

ThinkTek

Rafiq Jamaldinian has moved up to president at the technology and management consulting company, which he first joined in 2023 as chief strategy officer.

Jamaldinian has focused on further building out ThinkTek’s proposal and growth engine, along with its technical offerings. Now as president, he will shape enterprise-wide initiatives for ThinkTek as it pushes to expand its market research.

He worked at Booz Allen Hamilton for 26 years before joining ThinkTek.

Battelle

Craig Faller, a retired Navy admiral and former commander of U.S. Southern Command, and notable health care executive Adele Gulfo have joined the board of directors at this nonprofit science and technology organization.

Faller’s three-decade military service career also includes assignments as senior military assistant to the defense secretary and chief legislative officer for the Navy. He is also on the boards of HII, Sigma Defense and Viken Detection.

Gulfo’s three-decade career in health care includes tenures as CEO of Sumitomo Pharma America’s biopharma commercial unit and leader of Pfizer’s primary care business.

Battelle is the highest-ranked nonprofit on the 2025 WT Top 100 at Position No. 13.