Archives: Speakers

Humna Khan has worked in the Aerospace & Defense industry for two decades, serving in the space sector for payload development, vehicle engineering and launch activities, with a focus on failure analysis. Her previous role was in the U.S. Civilian Air Force Services leading the qualification of flight-critical hardware for rockets delivering NRO missions, guiding the DoD and DCMA. Prior to this, Humna was the Program Manager for the NASA Process Control Program for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. She also served as the youngest Associate Professor at the School of Engineering at Cal State LA.

Humna holds five degrees in Engineering and Business disciplines. She holds post-grad in Strategic Business Development and is a Six Sigma Black Belt for Lean Production. On her free time, she is on the NASA CubeQuest Team, where she developed a minisat capable of achieving lunar orbit that launched aboard the Artemis I mission.

Currently Humna is the CEO+Founder of ASTRO Mechanical Testing Laboratory – working closely with industry leaders to determine characteristic of 3D printed metal alloys and composites. She is also the COO of MIMO Technik – an AM company that builds production flight hardware for OEMs and new space companies. Humna aims to push the boundaries of the AM sector – from industry specifications, post-processing development, material characterization, and the consolidation of complex geometries. Ask her about her speciality, hyper-fast qualification and certification.

Co-Founder of ASTRO America, Neal develops and oversees implementation of the long term strategic vision of the organization, in concert with other members of the Board of Directors, which he chairs. He draws on 20 years of experience in the national security and manufacturing fields, including roles as Director of Manufacturing at the U.S. Department of Defense, advisor to two U.S. Secretaries of Commerce and three U.S. Senators.

At the Pentagon, he led Manufacturing Technology and Defense Production programs, and was awarded the Exceptional Civilian Service medal, and Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence. His medal citation credited him for launching key Defense initiatives, such as the Manufacturing USA pilot institute and Defense Production Act Committee. A renowned manufacturing expert, he has testified to Congress and supported standards bodies (video, video). He also served as a guest researcher at the Army Research Lab. In the corporate world, he has held various R&D leadership roles, including Vice President at 3D Systems, and senior technical leader at General Electric.

Today, Neal also serves on the Board of Directors of the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing institute.

Alex Kingsbury is a well-known technical expert and social commentator on all things 3D Printing. Alex has worked in additive manufacturing in technology leadership roles for over ten years, having previously served as a Research Leader of Additive Manufacturing at CSIRO, and as an Additive Manufacturing Industry Fellow at RMIT University.

For the last seven years Alex has maintained Additive Economics, a private consultancy, to provide expert, strategic advice to investment firms, company boards, and government agencies on the commercialisation of and investment in advanced manufacturing technologies. A regular in the media, Alex co-hosts a live-streamed additive manufacturing news show and co-hosts a podcast on finance in additive manufacturing. Alex is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Bachelor of Engineering from RMIT University.

Matthias leads strategy and business development initiatives at AMPOWER, offering advisory services to AM companies seeking to optimize their global market positioning and go-to-market strategies. As an engineer with hands on AM expertise, Matthias possesses a deep understanding of customer needs and market dynamics. He has executed numerous successful strategy projects with top-tier AM OEMs, leveraging his extensive c-level network within the industry.

For the last 17 years, Danny has been advising business owners, shareholders, corporate board and investors in matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, corporate development, financial analysis and valuation for NewCap Partners. Danny has mergers and acquisitions experience across a broad base of industry sectors including: composite materials, aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, specialty retail, consumer products and logistics. Attached is a list of representative transactions in which Danny has led or been an active partner on during his time at NewCap Partners. Danny serves on the board of NewCap Partners and as their chief compliance officer.

Before joining NewCap Partners, Danny spent 4 years with the Phoenix Group LLP, a boutique business advisory firm providing both M&A and bankruptcy advisory services for small and middle market companies in the western United States. He began providing strategic analysis on transactions but after 3 years led all the Mergers and Acquisition activities for the Phoenix Group LLP. Danny was involved in a variety of transactions from asset sales, stock sales, bankruptcy 363 sales and assignments for the benefit of creditors transactions.

Prior to the Phoenix Group, Danny spent some time providing consulting and project management services to global communications companies. As an international senior project manager, he directed multi-national teams that designed, installed, tested, documented, and marketed high-speed internet facilities and services in Wellington, New Zealand and Santiago, Chile for Chello Broadband, an international internet service provider.
Danny started his career as an active duty military officer in the United States Air Force. Initially, he started out as an acquisitions program manager in Sunnyvale, CA providing the Air Force, NASA and classified Special Projects with mission critical systems upgrades to multiple satellite mission control centers performing space operations of the highest national priority. He was transferred to El Segundo, CA to facilitate the strategic planning efforts of the Space and Missile Systems Center which had an annual budget of $5.5 billion with 1,535 military, 989 civilian and 900 contract workers worldwide managing more than $56 billion in space systems contracts. Danny helped to develop a first of its kind acquisition roadmap outlining the current and future programs managed by the National Reconnaissance Office and the Department of Defense. Ultimately this roadmap was used to brief congress on the status of classified joint programs. Danny separated from the Air Force with an honorable discharge in 2000 after being promoted to the rank of Captain.

Danny graduated with leadership honors from the United States Air Force Academy receiving a Bachelor of Science in Management in 1994. He currently serves as the board of NewCap Partners Inc., the advisory board for NOVAdev LLC, a company de-carbonizing airfreight with hydrogen aviation, and ACMI Capital – Chemicals LLC, a company contracting with the US government and commercial chemical companies to onshore critical chemicals for the Department of Defense, and is a board observer for Mobophiles Inc., a company focused on cyber security of mobile devices. In addition, Danny is a frequent speaker in the advanced manufacturing industry and is the co-host of the Printing Money podcast on financing and M&A trends in 3D printing.

Troy serves as a Senior Research Analyst with expertise in high-growth technology stocks. He has over two decades of equity research experience following sectors such as 3D printing, unmanned aircraft, robotics, optical components, networking equipment, and RFID. Before joining Lake Street, Troy was a Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler for 15 years. He also worked at ThinkEquity Partners and RBC Capital Markets. Prior to his career in equity research, he worked as a Futures and Options Administrator at Cargill and spent six years in the Navy. Troy earned a BA degree from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management. He is a CFA charterholder.

Christian Hartenberger is the Head of Industrial Technology and Aerospace/Defense investment banking with BNP Paribas in New York. He specializes in M&A, equity and debt capital markets transactions and private placements across the Additive/Advanced Manufacturing, Security, Aerospace and Defense sectors.

Christian has been advising clients in the Additive Manufacturing space since the early days of investment banking activity in the sector, including some of the early IPOs in the space.

Prior to BNP Paribas, Christian held a similar position with Credit Suisse First Boston in New York for fifteen years, where he built and led that firm’s Additive Manufacturing practice.

Frank Carsten Herzog is founder and managing partner of HZG Group, to which he brings his know-how, industry expertise, network, and passion for technology from more than 25 years of industry experience. The Group’s aim is to support start-up teams on the way bringing their innovations successfully to a broad market.

In 2000, Frank Carsten Herzog and his wife Kerstin Herzog founded Concept Laser based on their own research work and developed it into a technology and innovation leader in the field of metal 3D printing. The subsequent majority shareholding by global corporation General Electric secured the company’s technological leadership and accelerated its access to global markets.

Frank Carsten Herzog is involved on a voluntary basis as the main initiator of the “Forschungs- & Anwendungszentrums für digitale Zukunftstechnologien” (FADZ) in Lichtenfels/Oberfranken. He is also involved in the Fraunhofer ILT Board of Trustees and is a member of the “Additive Manufacturing” expert committee of the Bavarian State Government’s “Masterplan Bayern Digital II”. Frank Carsten Herzog has patented more than 120 inventions over the last 20 years. This has resulted in more than 450 individual patent applications or respective patents, the large majority of which is currently still active and used in products.

For his achievements as an inventor and entrepreneur, Frank Carsten Herzog has received a number of awards, including “European CEO of the Year Additive Manufacturing” and the Inclusion in the circle of the best at “Deutscher Zukunftspreis” of the German Federal President.

Greg Paulsen leads the Applications Engineering Team at Xometry, working directly with customers on unique projects and sharing the capabilities of Xometry’s digital manufacturing platform. He’s an expert in all things manufacturing, from 3D printing to CNC machining, to injection molding and beyond. His passion lies in helping Xometry customers design for manufacturing and get the most out of their projects.