Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (“BCT” or “Blue Canyon”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corporation (NYSE: RTX), has promoted Chief Technical Officer, Stephen Steg, to Chief Executive Officer — he succeeds George Stafford, who will remain with the company in an advisory capacity.
A co-founder of Blue Canyon, Steg has served as CTO since the company was founded in 2008 and he oversaw the development of BCT’s spacecraft and component designs. He also guided BCT’s vertical integration with in-house products for nearly all spacecraft subsystems.
Steg has nearly 25 years of experience in the space industry with the design and analysis of spacecraft, mechanisms, and instruments. Prior to co-founding Blue Canyon, Steg spent 18 years at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was responsible for the mechanical design and analysis for optical instruments and space mechanisms on NASA programs. His designs include more than 75 space mechanisms on-orbit and he holds three patents for BCT products. Steg holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Blue Canyon reports into the Raytheon Intelligence & Space business of Raytheon Technologies following their purchase by Raytheon Technologies last December.
Joining Steg on the new Blue Canyon senior management team is Matt Magaña, who continues to serve as BCT President following his appointment to the position upon the completion of the company purchase by Raytheon Technologies. BCT’s current chief operating officer and co-founder Matthew Beckner has stepped into an advisory position for continuous improvement, opening and supporting the path for Steve Schneider to assume the role of COO, a promotion from his current role of Executive Director of Manufacturing, Test and Components. Matt Baumgart steps into Steg’s previous position of CTO following his promotion from Executive Director, Research & Development.
“Steve Steg brings the ideal combination of leadership, experience and vision as the new Blue Canyon CEO for this next chapter in the evolution and growth of the company,” said Roy Azevedo, President, Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “His expertise in the business of small-satellite systems and technologies will be invaluable to the broad range of solutions we offer to support our customer’s space missions. We thank George Stafford for his contributions as co-founder and CEO, and his legacy of leadership at Blue Canyon.”
“Blue Canyon is primed for growth and marketplace opportunity in the small-satellite systems sector of the new space economy,” Steg said. “With a strong senior management team at my side and the resources, synergies and talents provided to us by the backing of Raytheon Technologies, I look forward to guiding Blue Canyon into its next phase as an industry leader during these exciting and competitive times for the business.”
