Space Funding: The Role of Government vs the Private Sector
Erika Wagner
US Business Development Leader
The Exploration Company
Dr. Erika Wagner serves as the Lead for US Business Development at The Exploration Company, one of the fastest growing space companies globally, building reusable space capsules and lunar landers. Previously, Dr. Wagner spent more than a decade at Blue Origin, where she helped drive the company’s go-to-market strategies in suborbital research, commercial space stations, and lunar technologies. Earlier, she worked with the X PRIZE Foundation as Senior Director of Exploration Prize Development and founding Executive Director of the X PRIZE Lab@MIT. She also served at MIT as Science Director and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program.
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In the community, Dr. Wagner has worked with The National Academies since 2014, including her current seat on the Steering Committee for A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars. Her Board service currently focuses on STEM/STEAM engagement and innovation with The Museum of Flight and Aurelia Institute. She is an also involved with the International Women’s Forum and Brooke Owens Fellowship.​ Dr. Wagner’s interdisciplinary academic background includes studies in Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering from Vanderbilt University, MIT, International Space University, and the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Her research spanned both human and mammalian adaptation to microgravity, partial gravity, and centrifugation; as well as organizational innovation and prize theory. She has been named a Fellow of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) and the Explorers Club, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Matthew C. Weinzierl
Senior Associate Dean, Chair, MBA Program
Harvard Business School​
Moderator
Matt Weinzierl is Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA Program at Harvard Business School, where he is the Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on the optimal design of economic policy, in particular taxation, with an emphasis on better understanding the philosophical principles underlying policy choices. Recently, he has launched a set of research projects focused on the commercialization of the space sector and its economic implications, viewable at www.economicsofspace.com. Prior to completing his PhD in economics at Harvard University in 2008, Professor Weinzierl served as the Staff Economist for Macroeconomics on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and worked in the New York office of McKinsey & Company.
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Professor Weinzierl currently serves as Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA Program. He previously served as Program Chair of the MBA Required Curriculum (RC), the first year curriculum of the HBS MBA. Prior to those positions, he was the coursehead for Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE), an RC course, and as Chair of MBA Community Standards and the Conduct Review Board at HBS. He has created and currently teaches two courses in the Elective Curriculum: The Role of Government in Market Economies (RoGME) and Space, Public and Commercial Economics (SPACE). For the former, he has written case studies on public education, national health insurance, welfare reform, immigration, and a variety of topics in taxation. For the latter, he has written case studies of Astroscale, Blue Origin, Made In Space, NASA, Planetary Resources, Space Angels, SpaceX, Spire, the U.S. Space Force, and other institutions.
Preston Dunlap
Founder and Managing Partner
Arkenstone Capital & Arkenstone Ventures
Preston Dunlap has over 20 years of executive leadership experience across technology, national security, and private investment. He is the founder of Arkenstone Ventures and Arkenstone Capital, serves on Boards and as Lead Preferred Director of Pixxel Space Technologies, and advises Fortune 100 companies, startups, private equity, venture capital firms, and RAND. He is also a Senior External Advisor at Bain & Company.​ He led the Department of Defense Nuclear Enterprise Review in collaboration with the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency. Additionally, he spearheaded the Investment Committee strategy, analysis, and diligence for the Secretary of Defense, overseeing the allocation and deployment of over $750 billion annually across national security sectors, including infrastructure, services, space, cybersecurity, AI, communications, transportation, logistics, ships, aircraft, vehicles, and weapons.
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Mr. Dunlap initiated over $250 billion in new programs under four Secretaries of Defense, including the newly unveiled B-21 bomber, Hypersonic Prompt Strike, classified space and intelligence projects, and Joint All-Domain Command and Control programs. He also led initiatives with the Vice President of the United States and Cabinet on the future of commercial, civil, and national security space, transformed federal venture capital investments, and was the first Chief Technology Officer of the Space Force and Air Force, managing $75 billion in products. He has also contributed to the early stages of successful software and infrastructure companies. His accolades include the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, the Secretary of the Air Force Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service.
Raphael Roettgen
Founding Partner
E2MC
Raphael Roettgen is the founding partner of E2MC, a space-focused early-stage venture capital firm with over 25 space investments to date. E2MC is also a co-founding entity of two accelerators: KickSky, India’s first space accelerator, and the new Orbital Edge accelerator in the U.S.
Besides his VC role, Raphael is a co-founder and CEO of Prometheus Life Technologies, a space biotech startup focused on organoids.
He lectures on space entrepreneurship and finance at several universities including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL), International Space University (ISU), and Nova Business School. Raphael hosts the popular Space Business Podcast, and is the author of “To Infinity”, an introductory book on the space economy.
Previously, he held senior roles at global investment banks and hedge funds and was also a fintech entrepreneur in Brazil.
He holds degrees in finance from Wharton, machine learning from PUC-Rio and space studies from the International Space University, where he also serves as a governing member.
