By Hope King
With a new administration in the White House, space companies should feel confident to move forward with their growth and expansion plans. That’s if you listen to Wayne Monteith, Associate Administrator of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
“I’m not exactly sure where the new administration is going yet, but I can tell you it’s going to be important to them,” said Monteith.
Monteith spoke Tuesday during IPO Edge’s New Kids on the Block series kickoff focused on the emerging space economy. Other panelists included:
- Tom Markusic, CEO, Firefly Aerospace
- Abel Avellan, CEO, AST & Science, merging with New Providence Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: NPA)
- Andrew Rush, President and COO, Redwire
- Phil Denning, Partner, ICR
- Chris Quilty, Founder and CEO, Quilty Analytics
- Karen Snow, Head of U.S. East Coast Listings & Capital Markets, Nasdaq
- Scott Wisniewski, Managing Director, Technology, Media & Telecom Group, Barclays
Earlier in the month, Monteith told IPO Edge that he shifts his team around so that three-fourths handle the “alligators” closest to him and one-fourth handle those further at a distance.
“I’ve got a team set aside just to go through what we call pre-application to get you started … in a way that is not as resource intensive as it used to be,” he said. “CEOs and presidents of companies also have my direct line and … if our teams are miscommunicating or not communicating well with each other … we can sometimes fix in a single phone call, and I think that’s key here is we move forward, because the speed that this industry is moving forward.”
Monteith stepped into his current role two years ago after spending nearly three decades in the United States Air Force, where, as Brig. General, he ran Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
