Board of Directors
Ron Sable
Mr. Sable is President of Concord Solutions Ltd., a consulting practice supporting commercial, government, and nonprofit entities. Ron is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Paragon Space Development Corporation and Founding Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the University of Arizona Eller School Center for Leadership Ethics. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Merchants Information Solutions Inc., and President of the Long Realty Cares Foundation Charity. As a past Chairman of United Way for Southern Arizona, he led the transformation of that organization, to include a substantial increase in revenue and efficiency.
He served as a senior executive of The Aerospace Corporation, and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC), where he was the chief corporate liaison with Congress and led a national coalition which resulted in funding the first Space Station. He followed that with leadership of worldwide military aircraft business development for Douglas. Before joining MDC, Mr. Sable was Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Affairs. In that role he was the President’s liaison with the U.S. Congress on defense, foreign policy, intelligence, space and arms control issues, and led the US Senate confirmation of two FBI Directors, and the Secretary of Defense. He served as an Air Force pilot (Colonel), Senior Air Force One Advance Agent, Chief of Air Operations for the Secretary of the Air Force, and is an Outstanding Graduate of the Air War College.
A graduate of Iowa Wesleyan University (BS), with an MS in International Relations from Southern Illinois University and a Doctorate of Humane Letters (honorary) from Iowa Wesleyan, he is a graduate of the Harvard University Program in National & International Security, the Wharton School Executive Program in Finance, the UCLA Anderson School Program in Mergers and Acquisitions, the FBI Citizens Academy, and the Capitol University School of Banking. A recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Iowa Wesleyan, Mr. Sable received the George Washington Honor Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Meritorious Service Medal and the Air Medal (3 OLC.) as well as the United Way “Live United Award” and the Long Realty 2020/2021 Samuel H. Woods Award for outstanding community service.
Ron is a licensed commercial pilot, and is an elected member of the Tucson Airport Authority, the DM 50 and The Arizona Town Hall. He has successfully led senior government and commercial business delegations to more than 30 countries, and his views on subjects ranging from leadership and ethics, to Board of Director responsibilities and national security, have been reflected at the United Nations, in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Fast Company Magazine, Corporate Board Member Magazine, The Arizona Star, and on NPR. He and his wife Patsy live in Tucson AZ and are proud supporters of the University of Arizona.
Grant Anderson, P.E.
Mr. Anderson co-founded Paragon in 1993. From the time of inception of the company until fall 2014, he was the VP of Engineering and Chief Engineer of the company and was responsible for the design and implementation of not only many of Paragon’s technical achievements, but also its processes of engineering rigor in a stepped approach of requirements, design, build, test and delivery. This process has been cited by many customers as unique, disciplined and highly productive. Coming from a background of not only technical but financial and managerial training, he has held diverse positions at Paragon including Treasurer/Secretary, CFO, Sr. VP of Operations, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Manufacturing.
Recognized as a leader in the life support in extreme environments field, Mr. Anderson has led the systems and conceptual design of multiple spacecraft under contract to Lockheed Martin, NASA, Inspiration Mars Foundation and others. He holds multiple patents in a diverse range of disciplines including testing systems, isolation systems, radiator systems and overall systems design. He has led development and qualification of experimental flight hardware for five shuttle flights, two Mir missions, a Russian Progress, and the first commercial payload on ISS. Prior to starting Paragon, Mr. Anderson was the Chief Design Engineer for the International Space Station Solar Array Program–the largest solar arrays ever built–while employed at Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale, CA.
Mr. Anderson holds two degrees from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.) and Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering (M.S.) and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California. His diverse education/training included non-technical roles such as Controller for a Palo Alto, CA real estate firm during college where he implemented some of the first computers into the company’s financial systems to track and monitor property financial performance. Working at an aviation consultancy, he participated in the start-up of two airlines through route analysis, equipment analysis and strategy advice. One went on to be America West, now part of American Airlines. Mr. Anderson is also a graduate of the International Space University 1991 summer session with emphasis on space business and management.
Mr. Anderson’s passion for excellence drives him to support the next generation of engineers and leaders through participation in educational work outside of Paragon. A former Treasurer and member of the board of Trustees of the Tucson Waldorf School, he lead the financial growth of that entity from a small struggling school to a robust, diverse and thriving school today. Mr. Anderson also oversees a non-profit tuition scholarship organization which provides approximately $250,000 of scholarships to deserving children throughout southern Arizona. He is also on the Industry Advisory Board for the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona
In his spare time, Mr. Anderson is an avid bicyclist and is known to ride solo for hundreds of miles to clear his mind.
Mr. Anderson lives in Tucson with his wife of almost 30 years, Ines, and their three children.
Kenneth Dorushka
Mr. Dorushka is currently a self-employed Executive Consultant providing corporate assistance with Intellectual Property, Marketing, Business Development as well as business divestiture consultation.
Mr. Dorushka’s experience includes leadership of diverse organizations of up to 3000 people, including Sales, Engineering, R&D, M&A, Legal and Operations. He was responsible for several business spin offs from AT&T and Lucent Technologies, both domestic and international.
In addition, Mr. Dorushka was instrumental in establishing several joint ventures with NV Philips in the Netherlands and Germany, Gold Star in South Korea (board member) and with Governmental partners in Spain and Taiwan (board member). His most current corporate responsibility was Sales Vice President for Agere Systems.
Mr. Dorushka has engineering degrees from The University of Illinois and IIT, as well as a business degree from Stanford and is an active member on several community boards.
Ines Anderson
Ms. Anderson’s marketing program, brand management, and public relation skills are most recently recognized in her work with the K-12 education market in Tucson, AZ. Previously she served as a public relations manager for FileMaker, Inc., an Apple subsidiary, that delivers innovative software to support creation of custom business solutions for iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac and the web.
Ms. Anderson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Stanford University and has more than 10 years of high technology marketing experience in corporate and agency settings.
Joe Rothenberg
Mr. Rothenberg has over 58 years of space systems experience including the last 21 years in the commercial “new” space industry, 18 years at NASA, and 19 years in the government aerospace business. While at NASA, he held Human and Scientific Space Flight Institutional and Program leadership positions. Post NASA, he held several executive positions and was a consultant in the commercial “new” space industry as well as on the Board of several nonprofit and privately held corporations.
Mr. Rothenberg retired from Google in 2016 as Engineering Director of Skybox Imaging/Terra Bella Satellite Development and Operations. He is currently an Independent Consultant and a member of the Board of Directors for 7 Benefit LTD, a nonprofit Veterans support organization. From 2002 – 2009, he held the position of President, and was a member of the Board of Directors, at Universal Space Network and played a key role in the growth and eventual sale of the Company to the Swedish Space Corporation.
Mr. Rothenberg retired from NASA in 2021 as the Associate Administrator for Space Flight. Prior to him serving as Associate Administrator for Space Flight, he was the Director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 1983 and held senior Management positions, including directing the development and execution of the first HST on-orbit servicing mission which corrected the telescope’s flawed optics. Prior to joining NASA, he started his career in1964 with Grumman Aerospace and held a variety of space project engineering and management positions. He also served in the US Navy from 1958-1962.
He earned a MS degree in Engineering Management and a BS degree in Engineering Science, from CW Post College of the Long Island University, an AAS degree from the State University of New York Agricultural and Technical Institute at Farmingdale, and was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Stevens Institute of Technology and CW Post College. He received numerous NASA awards, including Distinguished Service and Outstanding Leadership Medals, and Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Distinguished and Meritorious Executive Awards. He received the National Aviation Association’s Collier Trophy, the AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award, the National Space Club’s Nelson P. Jackson Award, was inducted into the Smithsonian’s Aviation Week and Space Technology Hall of Fame. Mr. Rothenberg is a lifetime “Associate Member” of the National Academy of Science – National Research Council.
Stephanie Bednarek
Ms. Bednarek is currently the Vice President of Commercial Sales at SpaceX, where she is responsible for SpaceX’s commercial space launch and crew spaceflight sales, including all domestic and international commercial new business and foreign government business for Falcon 9, Dragon, Falcon Heavy and Starship. Bednarek’s role involves ensuring that the commercial sales team is well coordinated internally to meet broader company objectives. Ms. Bednarek’s career includes a wide spectrum of duties and roles at SpaceX, including Senior Director of Commercial Launch Sales (Global), Director of Commercial Sales (Americas), Account Manager (Americas), and U.S. Government Affairs Manager.
Prior to SpaceX, Ms. Bednarek held positions at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, the Space Studies Board at the National Research Council (NRC), and Aerospace Industries Association. Ms. Bednarek has an M.A., International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a Minor in Astronomy from The University of Virginia. Ms. Bednarek is also a graduate of the International Space University (ISU) summer session program.
Julie Van Kleeck
Julie Van Kleeck is currently an Aerospace consultant having retired in 2019 from a 38 year career at Aerojet Rocketdyne. She retired as the vice president of the Space and Launch Propulsion Business Unit and previously held several senior executive management and technical positions.
Julie joined the company in 1981 as a junior engineer having recently graduated from the University of California with Degrees in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and was the only female in her Aeronautical engineering graduating class. She pioneered several combustion models and processes for exotic propellants that are still used at the company today. She was the Chief Systems Engineer on a number of first-generation missile defense systems such as the Advanced Liquid Axial Stage (ALAS) and Brilliant Pebbles. She was recognized at Aerojet, GenCorp, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) office for her contributions to first-generation missile defense systems.
Later, in the company’s Space business area, she played pivotal strategy, capture, and program management roles prior to moving into executive management to advance the state of the art of propulsion technology while maintaining focus on Mission Success. Some of her key accomplishments included: Managing the Atlas V Solid Rocket Motor program that developed and qualified the Solid Rockets that powered the Pluto New Horizons Mission; Leading the Electric Propulsion Development Organization Responsible for developing Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Electric propulsion that revolutionized Satellite propulsion, Delivery of the nation’s next generation Human Space Propulsion systems such as the Orion and RS25 for SLS.
After retiring she started an Aerospace consulting company and assists a number of clients.
For her most recent client, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA, she has functioned as the ASCEND Executive producer and the Space Domain executive for the last 3 years. She regularly assembled academic experts and senior government and industry officials to candidly discuss key topics and collaboratively work on actions to move the industry forward.
In addition to working with American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Julie has been providing marketing and industry advice to financial institutions investing in the space business and advises on mergers and acquisitions.
Throughout her career she worked with DOD, NASA and commercial customers on efforts to advance launch and in-space propulsion and materials and manufacturing technologies. She is widely known in the aerospace community and has held leadership roles in numerous industry organizations, including the AIAA, Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (CDSE), Powerhouse Science Center and the SLS/Orion industry coalition. She has also been a champion throughout her career for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Women in Aerospace (WIA), being a leader, both internally through Women in Network (WIN) and externally, through numerous industry groups such as WIA, California Assembly task force on STEM as well as working with local junior high and high schools. She is an AIAA Fellow.
In her spare time, Julie is an avid hiker, skier, gardener and traveler. She is also a voracious reader and loves spending time with family especially her children and grandchildren.