Former Pentagon official Chris Shank has joined Maxar as vice president of national security space and will manage sales, business development, account management and service delivery across the company’s national security customer base.
“For me, the mission is everything. Whether it’s defending our national security, enabling our exploration of the solar system or shaping our policies so that the U.S. government has access to new and cost-effective commercial business models, I have always strived to help people and our country,” Shank said on choosing Maxar.
Previously the director of the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, Shank led the development of innovative ways in countering threats across all domains and brought unexpected and game-changing capabilities to the joint force.
[addthis tool=addthis_relatedposts_inline_va7y]Shank has also held leadership positions at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA, and served as an officer in the Air Force for 11 years.
Shank holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame.
“My dedication to the mission remains true at Maxar, where our high-resolution imagery is regularly used for critical missions like disaster response, and our sophisticated space systems are enabling humanity to reach for the Moon and Mars,” Shank said. “Maxar’s purpose ‘for a better world’ resonates with me.”