Ahsun Murad
Ahsun Murad is the President and CEO of Optimal Satcom, which he co-founded as a spin-off from Lockheed Martin and Comsat in 2002. Over the last 22 years since its founding, Optimal Satcom has grown to support a large segment of the satellite industry with industry-leading enterprise-level software products and systems for resource management, service planning, optimization, and business intelligence. Over 15 satellite operators, 20 of the largest satellite service providers, and major US Government DoD, allied governments, and civilian agencies use Optimal Satcom products and systems today.
As a world expert in satellite communications technology with over 30 years of experience, Mr. Murad advises satellite companies and governments on satellite system design, application of emerging technologies, and formulating policy decisions. Before founding Optimal Satcom, Mr. Murad held management positions at Lockheed Martin and COMSAT Laboratories. In these positions, he headed the development of products for transmission planning and satellite capacity management and was the lead system architect for a number of commercial SATCOM and MILSATCOM projects.
Before joining COMSAT Laboratories, Mr. Murad worked at the NASA Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks where he was involved in research and development related to hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile communications systems, and complex multi-satellite systems. Mr. Murad graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Rama Afullo
Founder & CEO of Satlyt, Rama Afullo is an ex SpaceX Starlink Product Manager, Cloud Architect and AI Startup Manager at Google,Telco Business Lead at Tesla, and holds two degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management from the University of Cape Town. Rama dropped out of a Masters in Space Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University to pursue his endeavors in space.
Alessandro Benetton
Alessandro Benetton is the Chief Technical Officer at AIKO and one of the driving forces behind the company’s bold vision for autonomous space missions. Selected in Forbes Italy’s 30 Under 30 for Science, Alessandro brings a deep passion for innovation and a strong technical backbone in space automation and mission analysis.
With a background in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Torino and early research experience at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, he has always been drawn to the frontier where science meets exploration. Since joining AIKO in 2019, he has helped shape its technology strategy and led pioneering work in autonomy and knowledge-based systems. His work has also been recognized with a national award for research on space sustainability.
Alan Campbell
Alan Campbell is a Principal Space Products Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). His focus is on empowering customers with innovative new Cloud-based scalable solutions for the Aerospace & Satellite segment. Alan specializes in Data Analytics / ML enabling key insights in Satellite Communications, Earth Observation, and IoT platforms.
Prior to joining AWS, Alan directed the Panasonic Avionics Satellite Engineering team, delivering premium QoE to Inflight passengers. He led a major Cloud & Data migration of 100+ applications resulting in cost savings and SLA improvements.
Alan’s experience ranges from a Fellowship award at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to authoring a book on Embedded Systems at Texas Instruments. He holds multiple Cloud certifications, satellite credentials and patents.