New Sierra Space Government Operations Team to Build Next Generation of International Partnerships in the Orbital Age™
Sierra Space, a leading, pureplay commercial space company building the first end-to-end business and technology platform in space, announced the expansion of its Global Government Operations team, a team focused on building strong, trusted international partnerships, backed by a global regulatory framework, to ensure space is secure and available for all of humanity.
Newly created in March, the Sierra Space Global Government Operations team integrates three of Sierra Space’s critical business functions: long-term strategic planning, global government operations and business development. Tim Keating leads this organization; he was named the Chief Strategy Officer & SVP Global Government Operations earlier this year. Tim has expanded the team with key industry leading executives. The expanded team now includes Juliane Carter Sullivan, Danielle “Danie” Buckon, Dan Curran and John C. “Red” Walker.
Sierra Space is shaping new transportation networks and establishing a new business model with the very first commercial, private and revenue-generating research and manufacturing centers in space.
“Sierra Space is leading the birth of a new industrial revolution that we call the Orbital Age, which is rooted in a new, vibrant space economy in low-Earth orbit,” said Tim Keating, Sierra Space’s Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Government Operations. “These distinguished and experienced leaders join our team to engage with governments and industries around the world to help establish the necessary regulatory frameworks and policies to support this new commercial space economy.”
Juliane Carter Sullivan, Vice President, Legislative Affairs
Sullivan has more than 20 years of experience as a senior staff director and advisor in Washington. She has a proven record of navigating high growth corporations through complex legislative and regulatory issues, conducting outreach to key policymakers, and gathering strategic intelligence. Sullivan has presented her legislative and grassroots strategies before Congress and the executive branch. She joins Sierra Space from J. Sullivan Advocacy, a firm she founded in 2021, and previously served as a staff director and appropriations advisor to U.S. Representative Tom DeLay.
Danielle “Danie” Buckon, Vice President, Government Relations
Buckon has more than 36 years of experience in program oversight, business development, strategy, management and acquisition. Most notably, she supported development and acquisition efforts across major programs within the Department of Defense, serving as a program manager and contracting officer. Prior to joining Sierra Space, she was Director, Advanced Mission Systems for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.
Dan Curran, Sr. Director, Legislative Affairs
Curran has spent more than 12 years inside the Washington D.C. beltway working alongside U.S. legislators. He has vast experience providing strategic communications counsel to defense and internationally focused corporate and government clients. His work spans from advocacy campaigns targeted to Capitol Hill and federal government agencies to messaging on political, trade and policy issues at all levels of government to growing and engaging grassroots advocates. He comes to Sierra Space from McKinsey & Company and previously served as deputy press secretary for U.S. Senator Jack Reed.
John C. “Red” Walker, Director, Policy and Requirements
A retired Air Force Brigadier General and former liaison to Congress, Walker has extensive defense industry, operation command, requirements development and defense acquisition experience. His expertise resides in operational planning and executing, government planning and operations, technology transition and integration, and uncrewed system architectures. He joins Sierra Space from Northrop Grumman, where he spearheaded the company’s business development strategy, leveraging his extensive U.S. government knowledge, partner company expertise and detailed understanding of legislative cycles.
Under Keating’s direction, Sullivan, Buckon, Curran and Walker will work from Sierra Space’s Washington D.C. office to support the company’s new space transportation networks with its flagship Dream Chaser® spaceplane, the first commercial research and manufacturing centers in space, education and advocacy among political, regulatory and customer institutions worldwide and new systems and solutions for U.S. national security, ensuring the freedom and protection of space for everyone.