Steve Isakowitz is a recognized leader across the government, commercial, space and technology sectors, who has worked tirelessly throughout his career on behalf of the public good in space.
Isakowitz drove significant changes to Aerospace’s strategy and culture. These better positioned the company to outpace threats to the country’s national security, enable new capabilities and emerging technologies from industry, and connect complex missions end-to-end in support of national priorities including space warfighting, layered missile defense, and human space exploration.
Under his leadership, the corporation embraced its role as a trusted partner across the space industrial base, driving the adoption of cutting-edge commercial capabilities for government missions. Isakowitz drove breakthrough space vehicle designs and advanced cutting-edge small satellite technologies and prototypes. He greatly expanded the corporation’s role in federal space policy to deliver informed analysis of top space issues and spearheaded construction of a facility to support wargaming and simulation. Throughout his tenure, he significantly invested in new technologies, top talent, world class R&D and state-of-the-art facilities across a growing nationwide footprint, all while controlling costs to provide exceptional value.
Over the course of his career, Isakowitz has made impactful contributions across a number of prominent roles, including at Virgin Galactic, NASA, the Department of Energy, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the White House Office of Management and Budget. His work has led to renewed plans for space exploration of the moon and Mars, opened up commercial frontiers of space, and furthered basic scientific research and advanced energy technologies in the national security and civil sectors. He has a proven history of success in driving both complex, multibillion-dollar enterprises, as well as smaller, rapid developments.
Prior to leading Aerospace, Isakowitz was President of Virgin Galactic and, before that, Chief Financial Officer at Department of Energy, a position appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate.
Isakowitz served on the Aerospace Corp board as well as various advisory boards including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where he received his bachelor and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering), Council on Competitiveness, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and has served on the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. He is also the founder of Space Workforce for Tomorrow, a cross-industry effort to strengthen the nation’s space workforce for generations to come and supports the development and success of STEM graduate student initiatives as the chair of the National GEM Consortium.
Isakowitz is an AIAA Honorary Fellow (its highest career recognition), and his work has been widely acknowledged and awarded, including with the University of Southern California Viterbi Epstein Award for exceptional accomplishments in engineering management, the Presidential Senior Executive Service Distinguished Rank Award, the Scantlebury Award for federal-level chief financial officers, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.
