Founding Team
0
Professionals
0
years experience
0
years as team
~
0
years average
Titans Space Industries (TSI) is a division of Titans Universe, which was founded by a group of partners with a combined 450 years of experience, and includes a former multi-billion dollar fund manager, a Hall-of-Fame NBA basketball legend, a next-gen telecoms pioneer, a billlion-dollar business strategist, a former MD of a Big 4 firm, and the former CFO of a Formula One racing team.
The team brings more than 450 years of combined experience, and has worked more than a combined 200 years together on other projects.
The team specializes in unique, disruptive projects with massive potential, which are referred to as Black Swan Events: disruptive, big, and with huge implications for their respective industries. In 2020/2021, they decided to halt all other projects and to focus on Titans Universe/Titans Space projects.
TSI recenly spun off its spaceplanes and spacecraft projects into a separate entity: Titans Spaceplanes & Space Technologies (TSST).
Please visit the TitansSpace.com website for further information about
The founding team basically acts as TSI's supervisory board. Management of the ever growing executive team and advisory board, consisting of space and aerospace experts, is the responsibility of Neal S. Lachman, Titans Universe and TSI's Principal Founder.
– 33 years business experience
– 27-year space, telecom, tech, investment veteran
– NBA Hall of Fame Legend
– Angel investor & professional connector
– 20+ years VC, M&A, operations experience
– KPMG M&A MD with 100+ transactions
– 25-year business experience
– Former CFO Spyker Cars/Force India F1/SandD
– 35+ years business experience
– Former Head of Bus. Dev. Apple/Nokia/Trend
– 20+ years media, marketing experience
– Produced content for Fortune 1,000 companies
– 32 years business experience
– Involved in multiple large international projects
– 25 years business experience
– Angel investor & communications professional
– 30+ years legal officer
– 27 years legal, investment operations experience
– 35+ years global business experience
– Managed & executed billion-dollar projects
– 30+ years business experience
– Joined the National Space Society in 1988
– 22+ years business experience
– 15+ years experience in oil, chemicals, infra
– 25 years business experience
– Passion for technology, telecom, automotive
– 30+ years business experience
– Passion for aviation, piloting, aircraft
– 25+ years experience, including Private Equity
– $6+ billion in PE funds raised and deals completed
Neal is the principal founder of Titans Universe, which he envisioned as a consolidator, builder, and developer of unique, disruptive projects, while creating incredible value for humanity at the same time.
Over the last 20 years, Neal assembled a team of highly successful people who share his goals for the long term.
The team has grown with a culture of trust and integrity, and a desire to do good for humanity.
Neal has more than 34 years of business experience, including 28 years in investing, finance, telecom, and technology.
Neal serves as the founding CEO of Titans Space Industries, which recently launched the world's largest commercial space program. He is an expert in orbital infrastructure with access to an international network of space and aerospace experts and executives.
Neal is a thoroughly experienced, energetic, and bold investor who is 'cut from entrepreneurial cloth.' He is also a pragmatic and strategic planner with a long-term business philosophy.
Neal is a telecoms pioneer and an outspoken entrepreneur; his opinion (often conveyed through White Papers since 2000) has earned him the respect from one part of the industry, as well as severe dislike from another part.
Neal takes pride in having correctly called most of the telecom and technology trends and developments since 2000, often contrarian to commonly understood trends.
From 1998 to 2000, Neal and his younger brother Aniel pioneered satellite broadband for millions of users in the international residential markets, which was a novel business model.
The brothers invested more than $2.5 million in R&D and marketing, including piloting the world's first multi-hundred megabit internet downlink on an Eutelsat satellite in December 1999, which they advertised in the Wall Street Journal and other global publications.
Just a few months later, in 2000, the global telecom and technology markets crashed, subsequently ending the satellite endeavors. Instead, the brothers decided to focus on fiber optics.
Since early 2000, Neal pioneered and evangelized, along with his brother Aniel, and Gregory Nemitz the Fiber-to-the-Home/Fiber-to-the-Premises industry, which at that time had no market, and is today a growing part of the $2 trillion telecom market.
Active in the residential fiber industry since 2000, Neal sponsored and presented at the first major Fiber To The Home (FTTH) gathering in the world, which took place at the Rotterdam Theater, the Netherlands, in March 2002. As such, Neal, his brother Aniel, and Gregory Nemitz are widely recognized as the earliest pioneers in the now global FTTH industry.
➟ Raised his first angel capital in 1989 (at age 18.5), and again in 1992 from a group of angel investors, including a direct investment from one of the Netherlands’ UHNW- and oldest business families
➟ Specialized (at age 22 – for his business mentor, a major real estate investor, and Management Buyout specialist) in finding real estate corporations with tax replacement reserve obligations. Neal’s success with this business allowed him to become an investor at a very young age
➟ 1992: Launched trial magazine for millionaires
➟ 1995: 27-year tech/telecom veteran
➟ 1995: Received 3 satellite broadcast TV licenses
➟ 1995-2000: Founding Managing Partner at Holland Advisory Services Ltd.- a boutique investment firm with several groups, including (media & retail) investments, business consultancy, and M&A
➟ 1998-2000: Pioneered Satellite Broadband (InternetHyperGate; see link)
➟ Since 2000, envisioned, introduced, popularized, and open-sourced numerous technology application concepts that are now widely used
➟ 2000-2003: Published the world’s largest Wi-Fi, Free Space Optics, and Fixed Wireless Access newsletter (sent to ~25,000 emails)
➟ 2000: Hired Dr. Barry Leiner, one of the fathers of the Internet (see link)
➟ 2000: Pioneered Fiber to the Home
➟ 2001: Hired Dr. Raj Reddy, the father of Artificial Intelligence (see link, p. 22)
➟ 2003: Founded 21st Century Infrastructures Consortium (see link)
➟ 2008: Hired Hollywood legend and angel investor Rutger Hauer as Creative Director
➟ 2008: Added NBA Hall of Fame legend and angel investor Rick Barry to NSL & Co as Partner
➟ Literally wrote “the book” (150+page white paper) on Next Generation Telecom Infrastructures (June 2007): “Building Communications Infrastructures for the 21st Century: A Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity for Investors, Vendors and Partners”. Read by 2,000+industry and investment professionals
➟ Alerted telco industry (through published papers) on shortcomings of Broadband over Satellite (2000), PON (2003), WiMAX (2005/07), City-WiFi (2007), etc.
➟ Wrote an analysis in August 2012 on Google’s entry in the FTTH market. Was the Editor’s Pick on SeekingAlpha. The analysis was featured in a Forbes article
➟ In November 2012, published “Disastrous Flaws in FTTH Business Planning”, a wake-up call that shook the industry, and forced the industry to look for more robust business and development models
➟ Wrote numerous consultancy papers for the FCC (USA), Ofcom (UK), and European countries.
➟ Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (accredited by ABC Awards) at MindPower Alliance; volunteering therapist for suicide-prevention, burn-out, and depressed individuals
Since 2019, Neal has been focusing on projects that will contribute to a better world for all living beings.
Neal's main focus is to build Titans Universe into the largest corporation in the world by 2035, generating multiple trillion dollars revenue from numerous disruptive projects, including lunar mining of precious metals, investments, aviation, telecom, media, technologies, transportation, robotics, automation, clean energy, (eco-)tourism, space commerce, and space tourism.
Rick Barry is a Basketball Hall of Fame member, and one of the Top 50 NBA players of all-time. He is nowadays involved in a myriad of businesses.
Rick has been involved with the Titans Universe founding team since 2008.
Rick is one of the most celebrated players in NBA history — not only for his game, but also for the competitiveness he brought to the court. In 1965, following a stellar collegiate campaign at the University of Miami (FL), Rick was drafted third in the first round of the NBA Draft by the San Francisco Warriors. He quickly established himself as an elite player, garnered NBA Rookie of the Year honors, and was a member of the NBA All-Pro First Team. The next season, Rick proved he was for real by leading the league in scoring (35.6 ppg), and being named MVP of the All-Star Game. Once again, he was part of the NBA All-Pro First Team.
For over 30 years, Rick proved to be an accomplished sports broadcaster, having covered a wide range of sports on both radio and television. Rick is also the two-time World Champion in the Grand Champions Division, a one-time World Champion in the Legends Division, and a one-time World Champion in the Masters Division of the ReMax World Long Driving Championships.
During his 14-year professional career, four in the ABA (Oakland, Washington and the New York Nets) and ten in the NBA (San Francisco, Golden State and Houston), Rick was a 12-time All-Star. His deadeye jump shot was one of basketball’s most feared weapons and enabled him to become the only player in history to lead the NCAA, ABA and NBA in scoring. In 1975, Rick earned the NBA Championship Series MVP, leading the underdog Warriors to a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets to win the title.
In a combined ABA/NBA career, Rick tallied 25,279 points and received nine All-NBA/ABA First Team honors. In 1987, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Rick as a player, and in 1988; the Golden State Warriors retired his #24 jersey. Rick is one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players. His unorthodox underhanded free throw style enabled him to finish his career with the second best accuracy in the history of the NBA, 90%.
Rick began his broadcasting career after his rookie season. He was the morning drive-time sports reporter on KNBR radio in San Francisco. His articulate style and insightful perceptions provided a refreshing and honest view of sports. After moving to the Oakland Oaks of the ABA, Rick began doing television work as a color analyst for college basketball games telecast on KTVU in Oakland, as well as providing sports commentary on a local radio station.
Rick’s next broadcasting experience came in New York City, when he played for the NY Nets. During the off-seasons, he worked as the weekend sports reporter for the local ABC-TV station. During the week, he also filled in for the six and eleven PM sports reporters, Frank Gifford and Jim Bouton. Rick even branched out into non-sporting event broadcasting, hosting NBC’s Monitor Radio program on several occasions.
Rick eventually returned to play for the Warriors and in his off-seasons, he provided color analyst for the nationally broadcasted NBA games on ABC-TV. Later he did both play-by-play and analyst work for the NBA games broadcasted by CBS-TV. Rick also covered a variety of sports, including track and field, swimming, diving, rodeo and even weightlifting and bodybuilding.
When TBS and then TNT began broadcasting NBA games, Rick became part of their broadcast team and did both play-by-play and color analyst work. He also covered other sports as part of Turner’s Goodwill Games in Moscow and Seattle. While living in the Seattle area, Rick served as the color analyst for the SuperSonics NBA games. He then moved to Los Angeles and did local sports at night for one of the independent TV stations. Finally, for two years he served as both the NBA studio analyst and game analyst for CTV in Canada as part of their NBA game of the week, which ended when the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis.
For five years, Rick was host of the Rick Barry Show on KNBR radio in San Francisco and for one season co-hosted “In the Paint” for the NBA, on Sirius Satellite Radio. He also was a co-host of some TV shows on the Outdoor Channel
For fun, Rick has started Rick Barry 24 Adventures, where fishing, golfing, hunting and other sports adventures are provided for companies and individuals.
Rick lives in Lakewood Ranch, FL in the winter, and in Colorado Springs, CO the other months with his wife, Lynn, who was an All-America basketball player at The College of William & Mary, where she became the first female athlete, and still is the only basketball player, to have her jersey retired. For twelve years, she was the Assistant Executive Director of USA Basketball, in charge of all women’s programs. For five years, Lynn was the special advisor to the WNBA and was a valuable asset in helping the new league get started.
Sanjay has over 20 years of experience in venture capital, M&A, and operating roles. He has been involved with the Titans Universe founding team since 2008.
Sanjay has served as Managing Director in M&A Advisory for KPMG, providing guidance to private equity and corporate clients on more than 100 transactions. He has worked on buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquisitions advising on transaction due diligence, valuation impact, business modeling, deal structuring and business integration.
Previously, Sanjay served as founder of Quest, an advisory startup, providing consulting services to “emerging growth” technology companies on transaction execution (valuation, deal structuring, negotiation and identification of funding sources) and technology execution.
Prior to Quest, Sanjay was a VP at Amphion Capital Partners, where he helped raise $150M. He established key business development and financing programs for Amphion portfolio companies and partner spin-offs based around patents (IP) in Software, Materials Technology and Electronics.
Sanjay holds an M.B.A. in Finance & Marketing from Pace University, New York City, an M.S. degree in Systems & Control from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK, and a B.S. in Electronic/Communication Engineering from Leeds, UK
Richard is the former CFO of companies like Spyker Cars, Force India Formula One, and Sandd, and (interim-)executive of numerous other large corporations - both public listed and privately operated. He has been involved with the Titans Universe team since 2008.
Richard is a thoroughly experienced corporate problem-solver with decades of executive experience, especially in the business development and financial field. Richard has a proven track record of creating winning environments and successful turnarounds within numerous corporations in order to successfully initiate and execute change processes.
➟ Former CFO of Spyker Cars, Force India Formula One, and SandD
➟ Founder Questore
➟ Corporate business strategist
➟ 25+ years business experience
➟ Partner NSL & Co. since 2008
Richard is a generalist with an exceptionally strong financial, operational, and change background, having served in roles at CFO as well as COO levels. Richard is a people manager who ensures that the company has intrinsic values or changes intrinsically.
Richard has worked at companies in automotive, leasing, insurance, music, high-tech, technology, media, and logistics. These companies all had a serious challenge that his team solved under his leadership.
Richard received a Masters of Science degree in Business Administration(MSCBA) from Erasmus University (2001), with a major in Change Management, and a minor in Marketing Management & Information Management. In 1995, Richard got a diploma as Qualified Controller from NIVE - HOFAM, and he received a Bachelor of Economics degree from Praehep - SPD in 1993.
Ian Browde has more than 35 years of experience in leadership and management, business development, strategy, product and product support management, sales, sales training, marketing and consulting.
Ian has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2004 in various roles, including advisory board member.
Ian has extensive public speaking experience as keynote speaker and business futurist. His business strengths include relationship development, mentoring and stewardship, solutions architecture and evangelism.
Ian was the head of business development for Apple’s International division in the mid-1980s when Apple expanded significantly in Europe with the Apple University Consortium, Japan, and Latin America. In 1989 he led Apple’s first foray into China, long before it was mainstream, by establishing a personal computing lab at the University of Western China for the Medical Sciences in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.
Ian also served as Director of Strategy & Business Development at Nokia Enterprise Solutions. Over the years, Ian has been founder/CEO of a number of cybersecurity and sustainability companies.
Ian and his wife, Dr. Melissa Berrenge, have run their horse farm in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, a few kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, for the last 19 years. They have specialized in managing a show-horse barn, keeping trainers, borders, and horses happy.
Ian holds a BA from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a JD in Law from Santa Clara Law School in California.
Joel Dunn is an internationally renowned media executive and producer. He has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2008.
Joel is a proven leader in marketing, advertising, movie, video, and commercial production
Joel serves as Chief Executive Officer of Theory Industry, a New York City based digital marketing and advertising agency. The agency has won dozens of international awards and accolades. His team has produced content for Fortune 1,000 companies including Warner Bros. Records, Sony Music, Columbia Pictures, Amazon, Proctor & Gamble, and Nike.
Joel also leads Theory Films, a motion picture and television production company. In addition, Joel sits on the boards of several charities, and he guest lectures at New York University.
Aniel has more than 32 years of business experience, ranging from satellite broadcasting (1995) to pioneering satellite internet (1998-2000) and fiber to the home (2000).
Aniel is the Founder & CEO of Kishan Bhumandla NV, a project developer in Suriname that has many large scale projects in the pipeline, including a joint venture to develop Titans Universe’s proposed spaceport and its related Titania Oceana (floating city) in South America.
Aniel and his brother, Neal S. Lachman, Principal Founder of Titans Universe, have been business partners since 1989, when they started a small snackbar in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands as teenagers. They have come a long way since.
➟ 1992: Launched trial magazine for millionaires
➟ 1995: 27-year tech/telecom veteran
➟ 1995: Received 3 satellite broadcast TV licenses
➟ 1995-2000: Founding Managing Partner at Holland Advisory Services Ltd.- a boutique investment firm with several groups, including (media & retail) investments, business consultancy, and M&A
➟ 1998-2000: Pioneered Satellite Broadband (InternetHyperGate; see link)
➟ Since 2000, envisioned, introduced, popularized, and open-sourced numerous technology application concepts that are now widely used
➟ 2000-2003: Published the world’s largest Wi-Fi, Free Space Optics, and Fixed Wireless Access newsletter (sent to ~25,000 emails)
➟ 2000: Hired Dr. Barry Leiner, one of the fathers of the Internet (see link)
➟ 2000: Pioneered Fiber to the Home
➟ 2001: Hired Dr. Raj Reddy, the father of Artificial Intelligence (see link, p. 22)
➟ 2003: Founded 21st Century Infrastructures Consortium (see link)
➟ 2008: Hired Hollywood legend and angel investor Rutger Hauer as Creative Director
Shakuntala has a diverse background in business. She has been an angel investor since the 1990s, and she founded and operated Sandesh Events, where she planned and organized events and catering, as well as a business lounge for business people. She is an accomplished business coach and advisor, and has excellent communications and customer service skills.
Shakuntala worked as a pedagogical employee in child care for many years, and at the beginning of her career she worked as an administrative employee of Philips and Postbank N.V.
Shakuntala has a straight and clear vision of the business world, where integrity and ethics serve as banner characteristics. She cares deeply about socially responsible business practices, cultural awareness, world improvement, and animal rights - going as far as living a vegan lifestyle, and sharing her home with birds and bunnies, and having the same values instilled in her son and daughter.
Shakuntala is an authentic life and business coach, and as such she has been the primary coach for her brother, Titans World’s founder, Neal S. Lachman since his earliest days in business (1989). She was also a significant angel investor in almost all of his (previous) businesses.
In her free time, Shakuntala is dedicated to finishing her first roman, which is planned for publication in 2023.
Mahinder has more than 30 years of experiences, including business ventures, and operating his own legal advisory firm since 1999. He has been an angel investor since the 1990s, and was co-founding investor of the first millionaire and elite magazing in the Netherlands, which was founded by his brother, Titan Universe's principal founder, Neal S. Lachman.
In 2018, Mahinder co-founded BusinessLegals, a business and legal advisory firm that focuses on startup and entrepreneur consultancy, and seed investments.
Mahinder holds a Masters of Law degree from the Open University Netherlands.
Farooq is a throughly experienced executive, having previously managed and executed billion-dollar projects, and revenues of almost $500 million.
Farooq has 35 years global business experience, including 20 years in executive leadership roles. He has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2005 in numerous executive positions.
➟ Managed and executed billion-dollar projects
➟ Generated revenues of approximately $500 million
➟ 20 years executive experience
➟ 35 years global business experience (EU, Asia, South America, Africa)
Farooq brings extensive experience in several fields to Titans Universe, including business development, organizational transformation, M&A, investor reporting, financial policies, HR, regulatory compliance, ROI, and strategic planning. Farooq has led global businesses and turnarounds, and managed billion dollar projects.
Farooq executed customer management, and built executive relationships to manage high profile, strategic customers to grow business and close projects and products delivery successfully, with high quality and customer satisfaction. He managed major, strategic accounts and delivered mega-value contracts, up to $80 million, each.
Farooq managed global turn key projects and programs in the Asia-Pacific, EU, EMNA, and South American regions, at a value of almost $200M. He worked with global service providers, enterprises, financial, and health and government/state agencies to provide network infrastructures, systems, services, solutions, and applications.
Farooq delivered over 17 mega projects with high Earned Value Management (EVM), while establishing regional competency centers to gain quality efficiencies (98%), customer responsiveness (24 hours), vendor management, and in-country sales support functions. He established regional strategies and contracting of mega-bids, for as much as $300 million. Farooq also headed the Lucent company-wide Y2K conformance program for 180 products, and for 80 global customers.
Farooq lead efforts in general and business management, portfolio management, BPM, BTO, BPO, ISVs, out-sourcing, billing, OSS, network management, communication, and ordering to achieve a target of budget allocations to 98%, on-time delivery to 97%, and Quality 99%.
Farooq built an in-country supplier & alliance network to deliver differentiated services portfolio, and to mine cost out of business. He performed mergers and acquisitions to gain expedited growth. Farooq managed vendors and procurement, and he defined delivery, quality, and offering parameters.
Farooq holds an MBA in International Business & Marketing (1984), a Masters in Computer Science (1985), a Masters in Electrical Engineering (1981), and a M.Sc. Physics (1975). He also earned Certification in Project Management, and is a Six Sigma Green Belt expert.
Greg's personal passion is being a Space Activist. Much of his career focus has been for developing seeds for a space-faring civilization for humanity's future. He joined the National Space Society in 1988, the Space Frontier Foundation in 1995, and he was elected Advocate of the Foundation in 1997.
Orbital Development is Greg's consulting company for space activities. He developed extensive contacts in the emerging commercial space industry and the space activist movement.
As a part of his space advocacy, he performed extensive legal research into property rights, common law, and constitutional rights and initiated legal proceedings to require the US government to recognize claims and property rights to natural objects in Space - for humanity's future.
Greg also worked in Moscow, Russia as his client's liaison to major aerospace companies, government agencies and academic aerospace programs. He was a C-level executive at TransOrbital, a start-up company created to provide infrastructure services in space and on the moon. Plans included lunar orbiters, microlanders and deep space communications services.
Greg was liaison to potential customers and investors, developed technical specifications for proposed missions, and wrote and reviewed contracts. At International Space Enterprises, he was an Engineering Technician in the field of robotics, hand-building a series of 14 remotely controlled prototype Mars rovers for a NASA contract.
Greg is currently sailing the oceans again. He began voyaging by learning celestial navigation using a sextant, and setting out from California as crew, sailing south to Panama, then west to Australia; he was at sea for eight months.
Greg's roles at Titans Universe include advising the core development team on business strategies and directions. Greg has worked closely with Titans Universe's principal founder, Neal S. Lachman, since 1999 in a broadly technical and business development capacity.
Amjad has more than 22 years of business experience, including 15 years experience in the fields of oil, chemicals, infrastructures and development.
He has worked in senior roles in Dubai (UAE) and India. Amjad has been associated with Titans Universe's principal founder, Neal Lachman, since 2000, and served in several advisory and executive roles.
Shamir is the current CEO of Fibrolan. He has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2016 and co-invested in the team's 2017 pioneering pilot of 10 Gigabit connectivity for residential buildings.
Technology has always been a key source of fascination to Shamir. Ever since he was a young boy, he has been around electronics, computers and machines, strongly influencing his career choices and general course in life. Be it programming a simple game on an 8086 based computer in the 80s, or deliberately blowing electronics systems into pieces in high school, it has always been around technology and its practical uses.
Shamir is married, with three children, and lives in a local town in the Northern part of Israel. Volunteer activities include involvement with the Israeli Hitech Association, as well as different roles in his hometown’s high school’s central PTA.
Following graduation from one of Israel’s top technological high schools (majoring in computer science, electronics and physics), Shamir joined the Israeli Air Force, where he served as an instructor for radar technicians, throughout his three year service.
During his early career stages, Shamir went on to obtain a B.Sc degree in Communication Systems Engineering from the Ben Gurion University (one of the top 4 academic institutions for technology in Israel), followed by M.Sc studies that followed later on. The skills and knowledge gained during this period laid the foundations for Shamir to become a Communications expert.
Mike is a high achieving, results producing, team building, and business development leader with 30+ years of telecommunications, construction industry, and U.S. military leadership experience. He is proficient at implementing projects on time, on budget, reducing costs, and maximizing capital investment payback.
Mike has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2014.
Mike successfully led multiple 150+ employee teams. He has a strong reputation as an outstanding leader who has instant credibility with customers; he can get things done and deliver bottom line value. Mike has an exceptional ability to work with multi-function senior leadership, middle-management, and front-line teams.
Mike has consistent outstanding performance evaluation ratings throughout his career, as CEO or other C Level, as senior military officer, and as a front line employee.
Mike is a team building and business development leader with experience in multiple industries that spans over 30 years, but the industry where he honed all of his skills was communications. Beginning his career as a lineman with Frontier Communications in 1987, Mike became an expert in the architecture of fiber optic engineering and construction. His natural leadership skills helped him rise through the ranks as Frontier Communications to become Corporate Director for the company.
As a combat arms veteran in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1994, Mike learned how important having the right surveillance and protective equipment is to protect troops. With a wealth of knowledge in engineering due to his service training, his education at State University of New York, and many years in communication engineering, Mike started consulting for Defense Solutions International Group (DSIG) in 2006. He made the jump from communications to defense in 2017 where he signed on as COO of DSIG. The company has become a leading defense contractor, providing military and government program management, specializing in military equipment upgrades and infrastructure project management.
Just a few of the projects the now multinational DSIG has spearheaded include T-72 tank upgrade programs, oil pipeline construction, and security in Iraq and factory builds in India as well as past projects such as the rebuild and delivery of armored vehicles in Iraq, Hungary, Jordan and the Ukraine and government building, construction and real estate acquisition and management on multiple sites.
Richard has more than 25 years experience, including 17 years in emerging markets private equity where he raised more than US$6 billion in private equity funds and deals completed worldwide. Richard has been associated with the Titans Universe team since 2008.
As a private equity professional, Richard gained over 25 years of experience in buying, growing and exiting from a wide variety of early to mid-stage growth companies and large infrastructure companies around the world. He founded Centurion Capital in London in 2003, a mid-market buyout firm targeting deals in a variety of sectors including retail, financial services, distribution and real estate.
Richard was also a Managing Director of Dubai Capital Group’s private equity activities in the CIS Region where he helped to set up and run a private equity fund group affiliated with Dubai’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Richard was also the co-founder of several successful emerging market funds including Troika Capital Partners’ $300 million (Moscow) Russia New Horizon Fund targeting private equity investments in Russia, and the €150 million European New Horizon Fund (London) targeting private equity investments in Central Europe and Russia.
Previously, Richard was one of the founding members of Emerging Markets Partnership (EMP) in Washington DC where he helped launch the $1.1 billion AIG Asian Infrastructure Fund in 1994, the world’s largest emerging market private equity fund at the time. At EMP, he also worked on the $1.8 billion AIG Asian Infrastructure Fund II and the €550 million Emerging Europe Fund.
Earlier in his career, Richard was an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector part of the World Bank Group. He also served as the senior international finance director at Martin Marietta Corporation and a senior management consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton.
Richard was an adjunct professor of International Finance at Johns Hopkins University and at the Georgetown University School of Management, both in Washington D.C.
Richard holds a Master’s degree in Applied Finance and Economics from Harvard University and a BS with honors from the University of Toronto. Richard was the Chairman of the Uplift Equity Investment Committee where he assisted Uplift in sourcing, managing, and funding socially responsible investment opportunities. He also served as a Member of the Supervisory Board at ESCADA AG and headed ESCADA’s audit committee.