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.
Glenn Wells
Mr. Wells has 30 years of experience leading military, government, and commercial operations and manufacturing. As COO, he will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Paragon, establishing plans and strategy to guide Paragon towards specific business goals, and executing the vision of the company’s leadership. Most recently, he was the Vice President and General Manager of Sun Country Industries, New Mexico’s largest aerospace contract manufacturer. Prior to joining Sun Country Industries, he was the site General Manager for Celestica (Military, Defense, & commercial products). Previous positions include Sr. Vice President & General Manager of Composite Engineering (Military & Defense products), as well as Vice President of Operations for Cubic Defense Systems (Military, Defense & commercial products). Throughout his career, Glenn has managed revenues exceeding $300M, multiple domestic and offshore manufacturing facilities, and personnel exceeding 1200 individuals. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from California State University Northridge, a Master in Business Administration degree from Pepperdine University, a Program Management Professional certification from the Program Management Institute, and Lean Certification from the Acuity Institute. He has also completed and passed all training and testing requirements required of the Six Sigma Black Belt certification process.
Norman Hahn
As Chief Technologist 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 17+ 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 SNC 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.