NorthWind Partners Recruits CEO for Slingshot Aerospace
February 27, 2024 – Reston, VA-headquartered executive search firm NorthWind Partners has assisted in the recruitment of Tim Solms as the new CEO of Slingshot Aerospace, a provider of satellite tracking, space traffic coordination, and space modeling and simulation. Brian Thomas led the assignment of behalf of NorthWind Partners. “Tim’s business acumen and track record in scaling data, analytics, and software solutions at some of the world’s most recognizable and admired brands makes him the ideal leader to push Slingshot’s groundbreaking capabilities forward to best serve our customers,” said David Godwin, chairman, co-founder, and president of Slingshot Aerospace. “Slingshot selected Tim because he is a proven operational leader who is execution focused, has extensive experience in both commercial and government organizations, and shares our mission of making space safe, sustainable, and secure. Tim is well positioned to take Slingshot to the next level and steer the organization through our next chapter of growth.”
Mr. Solms is an 18-year United States Army veteran who also brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience with a focus on optimizing businesses for growth and profitability. He has led the transformational growth of the defense and government divisions of multiple global corporations, including serving as general manager at Microsoft overseeing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) business, managing all DoD and NATO business for VMware Federal, and heading Dun & Bradstreet’s Public Sector business.
Most recently, Mr. Solms was at Dun & Bradstreet, where he served as executive vice president and general manager overseeing all U.S. federal, state and local government, and Canadian government business. He has executive leadership experience in both private and public companies. In his role at Dun & Bradstreet, Mr. Solms helped the company go private after an acquisition of the publicly traded company in February 2019. In July 2020, Mr. Solms aided in the successful re-listing of the company on the New York Stock Exchange. Before entering the tech industry, he spent nearly two decades in the United States Army as an officer and Apache attack helicopter pilot serving in command and staff positions in the United States and overseas.
As Slingshot’s CEO, Mr. Solms will focus on innovation, growth, and expansion within government and commercial markets, in the U.S. and internationally. “Slingshot has the opportunity to be the global leader in providing unique and highly relevant space data and analytics to help customers maximize their missions,” he said. “This is an innovative and disruptive organization filled with smart and creative people who are driven to make a meaningful impact and I am honored to work with them as their CEO. Slingshot is already rapidly growing and I look forward to helping further accelerate that growth as we pursue our mission.”
Mr. Solms is an experienced board member and will be joining the Slingshot board of directors. He is currently on the board of 4C Strategies, a global provider of solutions for exercise and military capability development, and holds the position of president of the board of directors for the HondaJet Owners and Pilots Association. He has also held board positions for the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, and the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association.
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Slingshot Aerospace provides satellite tracking, space traffic coordination, and space modeling and simulation solutions to government and commercial customers around the world. Using mission-critical data, insights, and applications powered by the Slingshot Platform, space operators improve spaceflight safety and optimize their orbital operations.
Serving Clients Globally
NorthWind Partners is a global, strategic executive search advisory firm. Its work is primarily focused on business and professional services, systems, solutions, and product companies spanning the aviation, aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial, and technology sectors. The firm also has deep experience and relationships in the government contracting arena. NorthWind Partners’ success rate on engaged assignments is about 96 percent with 99 percent of executives placed maintaining a minimum tenure of one year.
Mr. Thomas is a partner, industrials, aerospace & defense, government services. With over 20 years of executive search and advisory experience, he is known for his commitment to delivering retainer-based executive search and leadership consulting solutions to boards, sponsors and C-suite executives across aerospace, government services & security, business services, and industrial markets. In addition to leading the firm’s Industrial and ADG practice, Mr. Thomas manages the capital region office for the firm and leads all financial officers searches across NorthWind’s practice groups. He is also a member of the firm’s technology and private equity practices.
Mr. Thomas has completed over 500 executive searches for clients that range from small, rapid-growth PE portfolio companies to large, globally integrated companies. His experience spans across all functional areas but has a particular focus on enterprise operations, financial & HR officers, business development & strategy, and technology leaders.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
