Mrs. Lisa Ohanian is the Founder, Owner, and CFO of STA and is responsible for day-to-day operations of the business. With nearly 25 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience, Lisa has successfully operated highly profitable consulting companies specializing in the design and implementation of financial and business management software. She was one of the early distributors of the Novell LAN OS for small businesses in Southern California. Lisa has designed and implemented local and wide-area networks for small start-up to mid-sized companies. Additionally, she has designed and implemented multi-clustered systems with DOS, Windows, and UNIX operating systems. At Micro Center, Lisa was the Director of Education and Training for the Tustin location exceeding all sales projections. Lisa has a B.S. in Computer Information Systems.

Mr. Tedi Ohanian is the CEO and Chief Technical Officer at STA and is responsible for long-term strategic planning and all technical aspects of the company. With nearly 25 years of experience in launch vehicle systems/sub-systems, combustion devices, and engine system technology development, Tedi has successfully executed programs ranging from Boeing’s EELV Booster and AFRL’s low cost engine initiatives to DARPA's FALCON. Prior to STA, Tedi was the Manager of Propulsion Technology and Systems at Schafer Corporation. He was one of three presenters to a Technical Panel formed by Mr. Teets to assess the feasibility of small launch vehicle technologies in the United States. This ultimately resulted in the birth of the FALCON program. He was the PM and Chief Engineer for a highly successful FALCON Phase I concept where he led a team to the formulation of an innovative design. Tedi developed the first aerospace hardware product line for Schafer Corporation. As the IPT lead for the Delta IV Common Booster Core Propulsion, he was responsible for the $250+M propulsion development program. He directed a sub-scale injector experimental program which led to the significant reduction in number of elements of the RS-68 injector which further reduced overall recurring cost. In an unprecedented 18-month cycle, his team completed the full-scale design and development of the 650,000-lb TCA. Tedi was responsible for the Delta-IV payload sensitivity analysis and led a number of committees to assess technology insertions for the upper-stage. Tedi has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and an MBA from UCLA, Anderson School of Management.

Dr. Larry Zajac supports strategic acquisition and planning for STA. With over 40 years of experience in rocket engine and combustion driven chemical and gas dynamic lasers, Larry has managed (as PM and Chief Scientist) multi-million dollar research and development programs including SIGMA (a multi-megawatt airborne laser) and ALPHA (a multi-megawatt space based laser). In his last position, Larry was Vice President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Operation and Member of the Board of Directors of Schafer Corporation. Under Larry’s leadership, the Los Angeles Operation grew in revenues to over $10 million representing over a third of Schafer Corporation’s total revenues. In support of USA, USAF, NASA, and BMDO (MDA), the Los Angeles Operation provided management and technical expertise to programs as diverse as the Army’s Crusader and SDI’s ALPHA. Personnel in his Operation served as SETA to the USAF Laboratories at Edwards and Kirtland, and to NASA Huntsville providing propulsion and launch vehicle analysis and concept evaluation. Larry has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.

Mr. Ray Mills provides detailed design and manufacturing support at STA. Ray is an expert with CATIA SOLUTIONS version 5.X. He has in-depth experience in combustion devices design of LOX/hydrogen and LOX/RP-1 systems. Ray has over 35 years experience in design, fabrication support, development, and testing of large and subscale liquid rocket combustion devices at Rocketdyne (now a division of United technologies). That experience has included: 1) Design Engineer with responsibilities in preliminary and final design; design coordination with manufacturing, structural, materials, thermal support organizations; fabrication support and coordination; 2) Development Engineer with responsibilities as Resident Development Engineer for J-2 thrust chambers and injectors, test planning and setup, specification of test stand configuration, test conducting, data analysis, test requests, engine system support representation, and material review board member; 3) Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Combustion Devices Lead Engineer responsible for SSME combustion devices (nozzle assembly) design, fabrication, repair/rework, flight support, material review, customer interface, staff work assignments; 4) Advanced Combustion Devices Engineering Specialist with duties to propose and administer IR&D projects, to provide conceptual design and development of advanced technology items, designs for proposal inputs, and prepare proposal segments including cost and manpower.

Mr. Don McAlister provides technical/programmatic advisory and oversight to STA programs. Don has nearly 40 years of experience in the technical and program leadership of advanced liquid rocket engine systems development, production, and flight operations. Leveraging is extensive engineering experience and expertise from PWR in liquid rocket engine component design, fabrication, integration, assembly and test, Don has led as Program Manager and Chief Engineer for both domestic and international engine development programs including the RS-68, IPD, RS-27A, and a partnership with Mitsubishi for a new rocket engine. Don is an expert in Program, Risk, and Opportunity management. He established a Program Management Office (PMO), which provided, for the first time, enterprise-wide oversight and integration of program management processes, practices, tools, and training. Don has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Ms. Ana Cool provides engineering support in linear and non-linear thermal-structural analysis using PATRAN and CosmosWorks FEA tools. She has nearly 20 years of experience performing complex thermal-structural analysis on propulsion and laser systems. Ana recently completed dynamic analysis of a launch vehicle complete with tanks and propulsion system to assess required tank and interstage wall thicknesses. She has performed numerous thermal-structural analysis on 5,000-155,000-lb class TCA using metallic and ablative chambers. Ana has performed heat transfer analysis on re-entry vehicles using various TPS methods. Her soak back predictions have been experimentally validated. Ana has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Mr. Tai Yu provides expertise in all aspects of LRE engine development to STA programs. This includes facility development, activation, analysis, and test operations. He provides technical support during selection of key feed system components to meet basic flow-and-pressure balancing needs and additionally mechanical safety and material compatibility; also, support selection of instruments and their respective locations along the feed systems for accurate measurements and safety of the instruments themselves and the downstream hardware in case of physical demise of instruments during test operations. With over 35 years of experience at PWR, Tai has performed hardware development related to component-level tests and has gained wide range of experience invaluable to identifying test system requirements, continuing technical support during build-up phase and on-site actions toward final stand activation. Tai has performed as the development engineer for numerous programs including the RS-84 ox-rich preburner, RS-68, IPD, X-30 SCRAM Jet, XLR-132, and LOX/P-4 MHD Power Generator. Tai has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.