Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. has named former Microsoft, Dell, VMware, and Dun & Bradstreet executive Tim Solms to the role of CEO.
Solms is an 18-year United States Army veteran who also brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience with a focus on optimizing businesses for growth and profitability. Solms has led the transformational growth of the defense and government divisions of multiple global corporations, including serving as General Manager at Microsoft overseeing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) business, managing all DoD and NATO business for VMware Federal, and heading Dun & Bradstreet’s Public Sector business. As Slingshot’s CEO, Solms will focus on innovation, growth, and expansion within government and commercial markets, in the U.S. and internationally.
Most recently Solms was at Dun & Bradstreet, the leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, where he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager overseeing all U.S. federal, state and local government, and Canadian government business. Solms has executive leadership experience in both private and public companies. In his role at Dun & Bradstreet, he helped the company go private after an acquisition of the publicly traded company in February 2019. In July 2020, Solms aided in the successful re-listing of the company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Before entering the tech industry, Solms spent nearly two decades in the United States Army as an officer and Apache attack helicopter pilot serving in command and staff positions in the United States and overseas. Solms earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Citadel.
The appointment of a new CEO comes at a time of substantial growth for Slingshot. The company was recently selected by the United States Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce (OSC) to provide LEO SSA data and services for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) Consolidated Pathfinder project. Solms will be responsible for overseeing the company’s overall growth, the continued expansion of the Slingshot Global Sensor Network, and executing the strategy that brings Slingshot’s mission-critical data and insights to space operators around the world.
“Slingshot has the opportunity to be the global leader in providing unique and highly relevant space data and analytics to help customers maximize their missions,” said Solms. “This is an innovative and disruptive organization filled with smart and creative people who are driven to make a meaningful impact and I am honored to work with them as their CEO. Slingshot is already rapidly growing and I look forward to helping further accelerate that growth as we pursue our mission.”
“Tim’s business acumen and track record in scaling data, analytics, and software solutions at some of the world’s most recognizable and admired brands makes him the ideal leader to push Slingshot’s groundbreaking capabilities forward to best serve our customers,” said David Godwin, Chairman, Co-founder, and President of Slingshot Aerospace. “Slingshot selected Tim because he is a proven operational leader who is execution focused, has extensive experience in both commercial and government organizations, and shares our mission of making space safe, sustainable, and secure. Tim is well positioned to take Slingshot to the next level and steer the organization through our next chapter of growth.”
Slingshot Aerospace provides satellite tracking, space traffic coordination, and space modeling and simulation solutions to government and commercial customers around the world. Using mission-critical data, insights, and applications powered by the Slingshot Platform, space operators improve spaceflight safety and optimize their orbital operations. Slingshot’s platform combines data from the Slingshot Global Sensor Network, the Slingshot Seradata satellite and launch database, satellite owner-operators, and other third-party space data providers, to create the most up-to-date representation of space on the market today. This common operating picture of space activities, past, present, and predicted, empowers the world’s leading space operators to better understand what is happening in space and plan their operations. Slingshot is driven by its mission to make space more safe, sustainable, and secure for all. The company was launched in 2017 and has locations in California, Colorado, and the UK.
