The Sergio Velasco Story
A concise executive narrative: science → engineering → product → leadership → what comes next.
I build technology organizations around difficult missions.
My career sits at the intersection of technology strategy, product leadership and deep engineering. Today I work in sovereign defense and Space Domain Awareness C2; my foundation is in Physics, Astrophysics and advanced optical systems.
The transition was deliberate: from research questions to mission outcomes.
I started in academic research at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, coordinating adaptive-optics instrumentation and working across international collaborations. That scientific discipline became a foundation for engineering and industrial execution.
The next step was not leaving science behind; it was applying the same analytical rigor to products, programs, customers, risk and delivery.
A technical foundation built on optics and space systems.
At IAC, I worked on adaptive optics and astronomical instrumentation. At IACTEC, SENER and Satellogic, that expertise moved into spaceborne payloads, AIT, optical engineering and commercial Earth observation.
The next chapter became leadership.
After building a deep engineering foundation, I moved toward technical strategy, systems management and product leadership. Today that means shaping roadmaps, coordinating multi-partner defense programs, leading teams and taking technical accountability from architecture to CDR.
Executive education added the business layer.
The ESADE Executive MBA formalized the management side of my career, complemented by international executive modules at Babson, Imperial, St. Gallen, Aalto, The Lisbon MBA, SDA Bocconi, NUCB and the American University in Dubai.
Meet me in person.
This final slide will become the personal video introduction: who I am, why I moved from academia into industry, what I have built in space and defense, and what I am looking for next.