Bridging the Valley of Death

Matthew leads Dcode’s Tech Programs portfolio - accelerating top commercial technologies into critical government missions through partnership with a network of over 100+ tech companies. Prior to Dcode, Matthew was a founding member and Head of BD & Strategic Initiatives at IBM Space (IBM’s commercial space innovation arm). He has also led GTM teams for Enterprise AI Product teams, and spent 8 years leading digital innovation efforts across a variety of Federal Agencies, including NASA, US Air Force, US Army, and more. Matthew holds a BS in International Business & Accounting from Georgetown University and currently resides in NYC.

Dan leads Squadra’s National Security practice, sourcing and evaluating companies for investment and supporting post-investment work on federal go-to-market strategy.

Dan served as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director at NSIN. He previously was a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, conducting capability development and campaign assessment studies for the Department of Defense, helping to inform the Department’s modernization and planning efforts.

Prior to these efforts, Dan was an artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps, worked as military legislative assistant to the Oversight and Investigations Chair on the House Armed Services Committee, and served as special assistant to an Under Secretary of Defense. Dan is a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Entrepreneurship Program, and an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

He received a BA in English Literature from the US Naval Academy, a MA in Political Science from Columbia University, and a MA in Comparative Politics from University of California, Davis. 

Lee Ritholtz is CEO and Co-Founder of Primordial Labs, an autonomy software company focused on delivering next generation human-machine interfaces. Prior to founding Primordial Labs, Lee was a technical executive at Lockheed Martin, where he most recently served as Engineering Director and Chief AI Architect for the Applied AI organization at the Lockheed Mzartin AI Center. Before that, he spent the better part of a decade developing special mission uncrewed aircraft and associated payloads at the Skunk Works. Lee has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Matt Harrison is the Director of Government Operations at Pixxel Space Technologies, a commercial Space company dedicated to the manufacture, launch and operation of a constellation of Hyperspectral Earth-Imaging satellites.  In this role, Matt is responsible for the business operations and success program execution supporting Pixxel's US Government Defense and Intelligence Community clients.   Prior to his time with Pixxel, he served in a variety of roles including Business Development, Operations, and Program Management for companies serving the DOD and IC with commercial product sales, software engineering, AI, and data science services. Matt also proudly served 9 years as a Geospatial Analyst with the Marine Corps prior to beginning his career in private industry.