Keynote Speakers
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Langdon Morris
World Renowned Futurist, Speaker, Author, Consultant Executive Advisor, and Educator
AI and the Future of Systems Engineering
Monday July 28 - 08:00 EDT
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Jon Reijneveld
Co-Founder and Chief Engineer at The Exploration Company (TEC)
System Engineering a European New Space Start-Up
Tuesday July 29 - 08:00 EDT
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Robert Thirsk
Astronaut (retired) - Canadian Space Agency, Advisor
Preparation for Spaceflight
Wednesday July 30 - 08:00 EDT
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William (Willy) Donaldson
Associate Professor of Management at Christopher Newport University, Director of the CNU Luter Business Institute, and Director of the Biotechnology and Management Program
Let’s Talk about SYSTEMS engineering... and get others to Listen
Thursday July 31 - 14:30 EDT
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Langdon Morris is an award-winning innovator, futurist, and world-renowned strategy consultant. He is Senior Partner at InnovationLabs, where he leads the firm's global consulting practice with a wonderful variety of clients in business, government, and the non-profit sector. His original and ground-breaking work is being applied by corporations and universities on every continent.
Recent clients include Accor, Airbus, Bayer, France Telecom/Orange, ING, Ingersoll-Rand, Kaiser Pemanente, Leidos, L'Oreal, National Board of Medical Examiners, Stanford Health Care, Total Energies, UNICEF, US Navy, US Coast Guard, and many others.
He is also a founding partner of FutureLab Consulting, a strategy and technology firm that develops advanced AI solutions for global enterprises. He is Co-Chair of the Innovation Council at RedTeam Engineering, and in 2017-2018 he served as Innovation Coordinator at SUNY's Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
Langdon has also written many highly acclaimed books. His most recent titles are The AI Nation and The AI Future, key works that examine the future of AI and its critically important strategic implications. His breakthrough white paper, “Business Model Warfare” is a landmark reference in the innovation field, and is now a renowned book. His book Fourth Generation R&D, coauthored with William L. Miller, is considered a classic in the field of R&D management, and other recent books include Hello, Future! The World in 2025, and Net Zero City.
He is formerly Senior Practice Scholar at the Ackoff Center of the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught MBA courses in innovation and strategy at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, and has lectured at universities on 4 continents. He earned his Master’s Degree in Urban Studies at the London School of Economics.
You can learn all about his work, publications, and keynote speeches at www.LangdonMorris.com.
Jon Reijneveld is the Co-Founder and Chief Engineer at The Exploration Company (TEC), where he leads the engineering team in designing, developing, and operating innovative space capsules. With a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Jon has specialized in space systems engineering.
Jon's career began at Airbus in Munich, where he worked on the European Data Relay System, managing the software for the control of the space and ground segment. He later joined the Orion Service Module (SM) team at Airbus Bremen as Deputy Chief Engineer, playing a crucial role in the qualification of the first module and leading the launch preparation campaign for Artemis I at Cape Canaveral.
Driven by a passion for advancing the space ecosystem in Europe, Jon cofounded TEC. Under his leadership, the engineering team at TEC implements practical systems engineering practices to rapidly produce innovative designs. TEC successfully launched its first capsule in July 2024 and is preparing for the launch of its second capsule in the summer of 2025. Jon and his team are currently working on their third capsule, Nyx Earth, with a planned demonstration flight to the ISS in 2028.
Dr. Robert Thirsk received degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Medicine and Business Administration from the University of Calgary, MIT and McGill University. Bob has flown on two spaceflights: a mission aboard the shuttle Columbia and an expedition aboard the International Space Station.
Although he is now retired from active duty, he continues to promote a role for Canada in the delivery of remote health care to astronauts who will someday venture to deep space on missions of discovery. Bob advocates for a national economy based upon exploration, innovation and lifelong learning.
Dr. William (Willy) Donaldson is an Associate Professor of Management at Christopher Newport University. Dr. Donaldson is the Director of the CNU Luter Business Institute and Director of the Biotechnology and Management Program. Willy has over 35 years of experience as a board member and CEO has been President of 8 companies, and helped start dozens of others. He has over 30 years of experience in higher education. Willy is the Founder and President of Strategic Venture Planning, a management consulting firm that assists boards, investors, families, and senior management teams to maximize results.
Dr. Donaldson’s research interest areas include Enterprise Management Systems, Corporate Universities and their impact on performance, Family business issues, dynamics, and transitions, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Systems Thinking, and Corporate Governance and Board Performance.
Willy is the author of Simple_Complexity: A Management Book for the Rest of Us: A Guide to Systems Thinking, and Estimated Time of Departure: How I Talked My Parents to Death: A Love Story. He is the guest editor for a two-part Symposium for the Journal of Leadership Studies on leadership and systems thinking.