The Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation has hired a soon-to-retire Air Force general to replace CEO Tom Zelibor, a retired Navy rear admiral, when he retires June 30.
Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle is commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and technology executive officer for the Air Force and Space Force. She manages 6,000 people and $3 billion in Air Force research and technology projects as well as more than $2 billion in research funded from other sources.
Retiring Space Foundation CEO: Space a $1 trillion industry by decade's end
She was selected after a nationwide search led by Denver executive search firm McAleer Gray. Pringle will leave the laboratory June 5 and start as the foundation’s CEO July 1.
The laboratory also has a software development operation at Catalyst Campus, a downtown Colorado Springs business park focused on technology and space, and it sponsors an internship program at the campus where interns are mentored by the lab’s scientists and engineers.
Pringle’s “demonstrated capabilities as an engineer/scientist, educator, innovator and team builder give us great confidence she is the right leader for Space Foundation,” Jeff Grant, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, said earlier this month in a news release.
Pringle said in the release that the space “ecosystem presents greater opportunities for more people than ever before, and I look forward to doing my part with Space Foundation’s team to advance education and service opportunities for everyone.”
The new CEO is a 1991 graduate of the Air Force Academy, receiving a bachelor’s degree in human factors. She also received master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from the University of Illinois and has additional master’s degrees from the Air Command and Staff College and the Naval War College.
During her 32-year Air Force career, she has been an instructor at the Air Force Academy, commanded air base wings in New Mexico and Texas, held senior staff positions for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was executive officer for the Air Force chief of staff.
