Kevin M. O’Connell

Kevin M. O’Connell is a recognized expert on space commerce, the global space economy, global intelligence activities, and U.S. national security matters. For almost four decades, he has focused on space commercialization and technological competitiveness and how to advance them in global markets. He has also focused on how these innovations impact U.S. and allied national security.

Mr. O’Connell is the CEO of Space Economy Rising, a firm that provides advisory services to space companies, related high-tech companies, and stakeholders in the space economy. In this capacity, Mr. O’Connell provides strategy, finance, and regulatory advice, helps investors assess space market trends, and identifies opportunities for increased participation in the space economy. Aside from several private sector boards, he Chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute of Space Commerce and sits on the advisory boards of Foundation for the Future and the Association of Commercial Space Professionals.

Mr. O’Connell is the 2024 winner of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s Lundahl-Finney lifetime achievement award for his enduring work on geospatial issues and space commercialization.

Mr. O’Connell’s prior role was as Director of the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) within the U.S. Department of Commerce, from 2018-2021. He was the principal advocate in the U.S. government for the commercial space industry, including identifying new ways to facilitate innovation and increase market size. He focused on the growing role of the private sector in space, encouraged new space partnerships, worked to ensure the competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space industry, encouraged regulatory reform, and advanced American leadership in space safety and sustainability. Mr. O’Connell has testified before Congress on seven occasions about space policy and regulatory issues, U.S. space competitiveness, and the growth of space commerce. He was awarded the Vice President’s Dedicated Service Award for his support to the National Space Council.

Mr. O’Connell also expanded international outreach on space commerce with a wide range of U.S. allies and partners to promote new partnerships, effective regulation, and to advance space safety and sustainability. His overseas space activities included participation in the U.S.-Japan Comprehensive Space Dialogue, as a member of a Space Delegation to Luxembourg, and high-level discussions with the EU, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Commonwealth partners. These discussions about space policy and global market issues have continued since his departure from government.

Mr. O’Connell’s previous government roles includes positions in The Department of Defense, The Department of State, The National Security Council, Office of the Vice President, and Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Within the private sector, Mr. O’Connell was a senior research analyst for almost a decade at RAND and served as the first Director of RAND’s Intelligence Policy Center. In 2007, he founded Innovative Analytics and Training, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in assessing high-tech market trends in areas of space and geospatial markets, cloud computing, and cyber analytics.

Mr. O’Connell is a recognized expert on the policy, security, and commercial aspects of satellite remote sensing technologies and markets. He served as the Executive Secretary of the Independent Commission on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in 2000 and later as an senior advisor to the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He was a long-standing member of NOAA’s federal advisory committee, ACCRES, including as Chair between 2012 and 2016.

Mr. O’Connell has been a regular author on space commerce and regulatory issues. Recent articles have covered the need for space mission authorization and the economic and business aspects of space sustainability. He contributed to “Space Policies for the New Space Age: Competing on the Final Economic Frontier,” by Bruce Cahan and Mir Sadat (NewSpace New Mexico, December 2020). Earlier, he co-authored Commercial Observation Satellites: at the Leading Edge of Global Transparency (ASPRS/RAND, 2000), which foreshadowed the roles that commercial satellites would have on global security matters.

Mr. O’Connell has over twenty years of teaching graduate courses in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the RAND Graduate School. Today, he is a frequent lecturer on space and space commerce at prominent academic and research organizations around the world, including MIT, SDA Bocconi, The George Washington University, Thunderbird School of Global Management, and the University of Tokyo. He is co-host of the Space Economy Insights podcast produced under the SpaceWatch.Global brand.