Leadership
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.
Cid Escobedo
The Director of Programs manages the Program Management Office at Paragon Space Development Corporation and is responsible for profitable business growth, contract execution, customer satisfaction, quality, cost, and delivery performance, program management training and development, phase gate reviews, and technology and system enhancements which support customer requirements.
Cid Escobedo possesses over thirty years in Program Management in the Aerospace & Defense, Healthcare / Life Sciences, Commercial, Automotive, Aftermarket Services and Optoelectronics sectors and has been employed by large and mid-sized EMS providers such as Xerox, OSI Systems, Celestica, Plexus, and Creation Technologies.
Cid is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and possesses two Bachelor’s of Science Degrees in Electronics Engineering and Instructional Systems Technology. Cid served in the United States Air Force for twelve years as an Airborne Electronics Master Technician.
Nina Grigsby
As Paragon’s Chief Financial Officer, Nina Grigsby brings over 30 years of experience to her management of the firm’s day-to-day financial transactions, strategic growth planning, reporting and analysis, auditing, contract compliance, and budgeting. From information technology and human resources administration to nonprofit strategic planning and private equity investment portfolio management, Nina has done it all for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
Over the course of her career, Nina has worked with companies to diversify their customer bases to increase revenue potential and introduced stronger accounting policies and procedures to better account for financial capacity and sustainability, inventory items, manufacturing processes, and product management and logistics. She continues to drive efforts to position Paragon for profitability, partnering with senior leadership to develop strategic plans for finance, budgeting, administration, and marketing.
Norman Hahn
As Chief Engineer at Paragon Space Development Corporation, Mr. Hahn provides technical leadership and balanced oversight of the company’s emerging technologies. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
During his 19+ years at Paragon, Mr. Hahn has served as Chief Engineer and/or technical lead for Paragon’s efforts on the Orion, Inspiration Mars and StratEx programs as well as Program Manager for the FLO1, Brine Processor Assembly and Sierra Space Radiator projects. He has also done extensive theoretical and experimental development of flow stagnation and established highly accurate parametric models of radiator performance and ATCS capability. Mr. Hahn has led the development of Paragon patented xRAD® radiator design from concept to successful proposal through to the delivery of flight hardware. Other duties have included management of the Systems Engineering and Integration team.
Mr. Hahn’s previous experience includes design, analysis and testing of turbomachinery incorporating fluid film bearings. In this work he developed complex models to predict bearing performance and aerodynamic thrust loads. In another position he managed a product development group responsible for designing and developing exhaust gas sensors for automotive applications.
Ron Wright
Bio coming soon.
Thierry Carriere
Dr. Carriere has over 20 years of experience in Research and Development, Engineering and Technology Transition to commercial and government markets. Following his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, he started his professional career at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) developing new industrial and military technologies for the company’s business units. In particular, he led the technical development and program management of innovations in the area of toxic gas sensing and fire suppression systems. After 8 years at UTRC, he joined ADA Technologies, a small technology incubation business as Director of Technology. In that capacity, he was responsible for capturing funding and leading technology development for ADA’s NASA and DOD customers. For the first five years, his main project was the research, engineering, implementation and qualification of a novel fine water mist fire suppression technology for the International Space Station. After the portable extinguishers were successfully delivered to the ISS, Dr. Carriere assumed the role of Vice President and oversaw all aspects of projects focused on a variety of critical defense areas including jet fighter fuel tank safety research for the Air Force, high-pressure scuba and ultra-safe battery enclosure products for the US Navy, and austere environment wearable sensors for the US Army. He joined Paragon in April 2021 following an 11-year tenure at ADA.