Visiting Alumnus – David Beckett
National Defense Business Development Manager
Ball Aerospace
Broomfield, CO

Friday, March 24, 1:00 pm
Sidney & Marian Green Classroom (3550 MEK)
Light refreshments will be served
Free and open to the public

As the Advanced Technology Manager for Ball Aerospace’s National Defense business unit, Dave Beckett leads and manages pursuit of business opportunities with the Advanced Research Project Agencies of the Department of Defense – DoD (DARPA) and Intelligence Community – IC (IARPA), DIUx – Defense Innovation Unit Experimental. His responsibilities include identifying new threats to DoD and IC missions, developing IR&D and CR&D solutions to these threats, creating new capabilities and technologies, and work with the customers and industry partners to turn these ideas into reality. In addition to his primary responsibilities in National Defense, he supports other Ball business units (Tactical Solutions (TS) and Systems Engineering Solutions (SES)).

Dave has more than 26 years of engineering, and management experience supporting the aerospace industry and government customers.  Prior to coming to Ball Aerospace he worked for Boeing (on the International Space Station (ISS) and on Commercial Aircraft) and at Lockheed Martin on two classified spacecraft programs. Since joining Ball Aerospace in 2001, Dave has served in engineering and leadership positions for a variety of space system programs including the Russian American Observational Satellite (RAMOS), XNAV, P-974, P-976, P-991, and Space Based Radar (SBR).

Dave began his aerospace career as a mechanical engineer at Boeing on the ISS. His carrier has encompassed roles as a structural analyst / design engineer, a Principal Investigator in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Facility, a software programmer, a lead spacecraft design engineer, a Government SETA for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) – technical expert on a foreign systems, and a Program Manager.

Mr. Beckett holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah and University of Alabama at Huntsville.