Kevin O’Connell

CEO & Founder, Space Economy Rising

Kevin M. O’Connell is a recognized expert on space commerce, the global space economy, and U.S. national security matters. For almost four decades, he has focused on space commercialization and technological competitiveness and how to advance them in global markets. He has also focused on how these innovations impact U.S. and allied national security.

Mr. O’Connell is the CEO of Space Economy Rising, a firm that provides advisory services to space companies, related high-tech companies, investors and other stakeholders in the space economy. There, Mr. O’Connell provides strategy, finance, and regulatory advice, helps investors assess space market trends and investment opportunities, and identifies pathways for increased participation in the space economy. Aside from several private sector boards, he Chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute of Space Commerce and sits on the advisory board of the Association of Commercial Space Professionals and the Lunar Policy Platform. He also serves as an advisor to several private equity, venture capital and family offices.

Mr. O’Connell was the winner of the 2024 U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s (USGIF) Lundahl-Finney lifetime achievement award for his enduring work on geospatial issues and space commercialization. He currently serves on USGIF’s Board of Directors.

Mr. O’Connell’s previous role was as Director of the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, from 2018-2021. He was the principal U.S. government advocate for the commercial space industry, including identifying new ways to facilitate innovation and increase market size. He focused on the growing role of the private sector in space, encouraged new space partnerships, worked to ensure the competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space industry, encouraged regulatory reform, and advanced American leadership in space safety and sustainability. Mr. O’Connell has testified before Congress on seven occasions about space policy and regulatory issues, U.S. space competitiveness, and the growth of space commerce. He was awarded the Vice President’s Dedicated Service Award for his support to the National Space Council (2021).

Mr. O’Connell also expanded international outreach on space commerce with U.S. allies and partners to promote new partnerships, establish effective regulation, and to advance space safety and sustainability. His overseas space activities included participation in the U.S.-Japan Comprehensive Space Dialogue, as a member of a Space Delegation to Luxembourg, and high-level discussions with the EU, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Commonwealth partners. He continues many of these international discussions about space policy and market issues in a private capacity today.

Mr. O’Connell’s prior roles include positions in The Department of Defense, The Department of State, The National Security Council, Office of the Vice President, and Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Within the private sector, Mr. O’Connell was a senior research analyst for almost a decade at RAND and served as the first Director of RAND’s Intelligence Policy Center. In 2007, he founded Innovative Analytics and Training, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in assessing high-tech market trends in areas of space and geospatial markets, cloud computing, and cyber analytics.

Mr. O’Connell is a recognized expert on the policy, security, and commercial aspects of satellite remote sensing technology and markets. He served as the Executive Secretary of the Independent Commission on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in 2000 and later as a senior advisor to multiple directors of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He was a long-standing member of NOAA’s federal advisory committee, ACCRES, including as Chair between 2012 and 2016.

Mr. O’Connell has been a regular author on space commerce and regulatory issues. Recent articles have covered how countries increase their participation in the global space economy, the need for space mission authorization, and the economic and business aspects of space sustainability. He contributed to "Space Policies for the New Space Age: Competing on the Final Economic Frontier,” by Bruce Cahan and Mir Sadat (NewSpace New Mexico, December 2020). Earlier, he co-authored Commercial Observation Satellites: at the Leading Edge of Global Transparency (ASPRS/RAND, 2000), which foreshadowed the roles that commercial satellites have today on global security matters.

Mr. O’Connell has over twenty years teaching graduate courses at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, and the RAND Graduate School. He currently serves as a Professor of Practice in the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is a frequent lecturer on space commerce at prominent academic and research organizations including MIT, SDA Bocconi, and the University of Tokyo.