Tuesday, April 5, 8:00-8:40 am
Topic: Manufacturing Technologies for the 21st Century – The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
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Tom Burbage
Executive Vice President & General Manager
F-35 JSF Program Integration
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
Mr. Burbage has received numerous industry awards, including the inaugural U.S. Naval Academy/Harvard Business Review 2007 Award for Ethical Leadership named after Admiral James B. Stockdale; the 2006 Society of Automotive Engineers Leadership in Aerospace Award; the Donald C. Burnham Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers; the Silver Knight Award from the National Management Association; three Aviation Week Laurel Awards; and the Aerospace Industry Personality of the Year for 2002, presented at the Singapore Air Show. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
In December 1987, he was appointed Vice President for Washington operations and coordinated the company’s relationships with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Congress, as well as the embassies of foreign governments. He moved to Marietta, Georgia in 1990 as Vice President for Business Development and Product Support at Aeronautical Systems. During his tenure, LM Aero launched several new initiatives including C-130J, C-27J, C-5 Modernization Programs. Mr. Burbage was named Vice President and General Manager for Navy Programs in 1994.
In 1995 he assumed the duties of Vice President and General Manager, F-22 and led the F-22 Program through first flight and initial flight test. In 1999 he was named President, LM Aeronautical Systems Company, Marietta, Georgia and led the restructuring of that company and consolidation into the newly formed LM Aero, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
From 1969 to 1980, Mr. Burbage served on active duty in the United States Navy. He completed the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in 1975 and has accumulated more than 3,000 hours in 38 different types of military aircraft. On Oct. 31, 1994, he retired from the Navy Reserves as a captain.
In 1969, he received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy. He also has Masters degrees in Aeronautical Systems from the University of West Florida and Business Administration from UCLA.
Tuesday, April 5, 8:40-9:20 am
Topic: Developing Manufacturing Technology - Pulling Boeing’s Productivity Lever
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Mike Vander Wel
Manufacturing Domain Leader
Enterprise Technology Strategy Office
The Boeing Company
Mike Vander Wel is the Director of the Manufacturing Domain in the Enterprise Technology Strategy office reporting to the Office of the CTO in Engineering, Operations and Technology. In this role, he is responsible for the leadership and strategy of Boeing’s technology portfolio in the Manufacturing Domain across the Boeing enterprise. This is one of the eight domains established to ensure the company is creating and maintaining a sustainable technical competitive advantage and maximizing the yield of enterprise investments in technology development.
Mr. Vander Wel has over 19 years of engineering, operations, and technology experience with The Boeing Company. Earlier program assignments include roles on the 787, 767-400, 747-500/600X, F-22 Raptor, 777 composite Empennage, and B-2 bomber programs.
As an MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow, Mr. Vander Wel holds a Masters in Business Administration and Masters Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. In addition to a professional engineer’s license, he holds a Bachelor Degree in Engineering from Dordt College, a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, and a Masters in Engineering Management from Washington State University. He and his wife Kerry reside in the Seattle area with their four children.
Tuesday, April 5, Luncheon Presentation 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Topic: The Business of Aerospace and Defense
David Wickwire
Vice President, Production Operations
Operations & Program Management
Lockheed Martin Corporation
David Wickwire is Lockheed Martin Corporate Vice President of Production Operations. Since joining Lockheed Martin in 1998 Dave has held several positions in operations, and enterprise transformation. In his current role he is responsible for leading development and implementation of Lean Production systems, and for developing leaders to lead production in this environment. Wickwire was one of the principal architects of the Lockheed Martin Operating Excellence program, (LM21) which has achieved dramatic operational and financial results since 2000.
Dave has over 30 years of experience in complex aerospace and defense manufacturing, assembly, and testing. Further, Dave possesses an extensive background in product and process flow, production planning and scheduling, material management and logistics.
Prior to his Lockheed Martin experience, Dave was Operations Director for Allied Signal Aerospace. In this role Dave managed the day-to-day production operations for aircraft fuel controls while leading implementation of lean and six-sigma.
Before joining Allied Signal, Dave was with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft division of United Technologies in East Harford, CT. Over his eighteen year career there; he held several positions in materiel management and manufacturing operations. While Business Unit Manager for Turbine Blades, Dave was trained extensively in the application of Toyota Production System methods and led work system changes that resulted in significant improvements to cost, quality, lead-time, and inventory.
Dave holds a BS degree in Marketing from Central Connecticut State University. In addition he is a certified Lockheed Martin black belt, and a member of the Board of Governors for the South Carolina Shingo Prize.
Wednesday, April 6, 8:00 – 9:00 am
Topic: OSD ManTech - Fostering Innovation in Manufacturing
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Steve Linder
Director, Manufacturing Technology
Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy Department of Defense
Mr. Linder has been with the Missile Defense Agency Producibility and Manufacturing Office for the past seven years and is the Director, Manufacturing Technology, within the Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) Office of Technology Transition. This position oversees the Congressionally-mandated Department of Defense (Dod) ManTech program as required by Title 10, section 2521, which provides centralized guidance and direction for the ManTech Program within the DoD. He also manages the Defense-Wide Manufacturing Technology (DMS&T) Program Element which matures cross-cutting defense manufacturing needs beyond the ability of a single service to address.
Mr. Linder represents the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) ManTech as the principle member to the Joint Directors of Manufacturing Technology Panel. He is former Director of the Navy’s Manufacturing Technology Program with over thirty-seven years of service to the Department of Defense.
Thursday, April 7, 8:30 – 9:10 am
Topic: NASA’s Technology Program & Partnerships in Manufacturing
Douglas Comstock
Director for Partnership, Innovation and Commercial Space
Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT)
NASA Headquarters
Comstock is responsible for directing the IPP portfolio of technology investments and partnering mechanisms including Small Business Innovative Research, Small Business Technology Transfer Research, the Centennial Challenges and the Innovative Partnerships Seed Fund. Additionally, he is responsible for intellectual property management and technology transfer that will provide broad societal benefits from the nation’s investment in NASA’s space and aeronautics missions, and for encouraging and facilitating partnerships with the emerging commercial space sector, including the agency’s purchase of emerging commercial services.
Mr. Comstock previously served as the NASA comptroller, responsible for the preparation, tracking, presentation and defense of NASA’s budget to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congress. As the founding director of NASA’s Strategic Investments Division, he was responsible for integrating NASA’s strategic planning and program analysis supporting budget decisions into a single organization. Under his leadership, NASA was the first agency to achieve GREEN status as part of the President’s Management Agenda for Budget and Performance Integration and NASA received its first honorable mention for the President’s Quality Award.
Before coming to NASA, Comstock spent four years as a program examiner in OMB, with responsibility for NASA’s human space flight activities, biological and physical research and personnel. Prior to his government service, he was Director of Engineering with the Futron Corporation, a Bethesda, Md.-based technology consulting firm, and began his career with General Dynamics Space Systems Division, conducting preliminary design and systems analysis for numerous aerospace systems, from strategic defense to advanced space transportation.
Comstock has undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington in both mechanical engineering and architecture. He did his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received masters degrees in both aeronautics and astronautics, and technology and policy.
Thursday, April 7, 9:10 – 9:50 am
Topic: NASA’s Composite Manufacturing Roadmap for Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles
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Dr. James K. Sutter, PhD
Senior Scientist
Polymer Branch, Materials & Structures Division
NASA Glenn Research Center
Dr. Sutter has been a member of the Polymers Branch/Materials & Structures Division at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH, since earning a PhD in Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Sutter works in the NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC) where he held the position of Deputy Discipline Engineer for Materials. He also led a team of materials engineers for the NESC on composite pressure vessels on Shuttle and Space Station studying the interaction of composite aging and stress rupture.
Dr. Sutter is the Co-Chair for the NASA Composite Pressure Vessel Working Group. In addition to Dr. Sutter’s role at the NESC, he is a senior research polymer scientist and project manager for polymer composites. Dr. Sutter’s research focuses on applications requiring high-temperature polymers for advanced aircraft and hypersonic engines. His research includes the synthesis of new polymers, carbon fiber surface treatments, the use of organic/polymeric materials in nuclear power systems and coatings for particulate erosion and oxidation protection on polymer composites that are used on commercial and advanced aircraft propulsion applications. Beginning in 2008, Jim began working on composite materials for large composite space structures for use in Ares V – NASA heavy lift launch vehicle.
Early in his NASA career, Dr. Sutter led a team of University, Industry and NASA scientists and engineers in Microgravity Materials Science focusing on polymer science. Dr. Sutter was responsible for the construction of a Microgravity Polymer Science Laboratory which supported several space experiments such as the diffuse mixing of organic solvents for polymer crystal growth. From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Sutter led a team of more than 80 engineers, scientists from NASA, Air Force Research Labs, industry, and universities to successfully produce and hot-fire test the first composite support structure for a hypersonic air breathing engine capable of traveling at speeds of Mach 8. Jim has over 180 publications in technical journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Sutter also co-chairs a Department of Defense/NASA workshop on high temperature polymers and their composites.
