SPEAKER

Thomas Engler

Director, KSC Center Planning and Development Directorate
NASA

Thomas O. (Tom) Engler is the Director of the Center Planning and Development Directorate at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC).  He provides strategic leadership and management integration of Center planning activities and partnership development initiatives to further develop KSC as a multi-user spaceport supporting both government and commercial launch providers and their customers.  He leads the identification and development of strategic and business partnerships that advance NASA and KSC goals, and provides the KSC ‘front door’ interface to industry and other governmental organizations.  He also ensures the effective use and development of the Center’s land, facilities and technical capabilities in support of NASA missions through Center land use planning, development of spaceport infrastructure and business strategies, and the preparation and coordination of the Center Master Plan with NASA organizations and external stakeholders.  He is responsible for the development, negotiation and coordination of proposed real estate agreements with public and private entities for use of KSC land and facilities.

Prior to this assignment, Tom was manager of the organization’s Partnership Development Office.  His efforts were focused around identifying new opportunities to bring commercial launch, spacecraft manufacturing, technology and related business to Florida, as well as leading efforts to increase University partnerships with KSC.

Prior to this assignment, Tom was the Team Lead of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) Reusable Solid Rocket Booster (RSRB) Assembly and Refurbishment Facility (ARF).  His responsibilities included managing all of the operations that occurred at the SRB facilities at the KSC, which included 4 complexes of facilities located across the KSC.  These operations encompassed over 800 employees that manufactured flight critical components for the RSRM.  In addition, he was responsible for managing the facilities infrastructure for the SRB facilities, which included managing day-to-day maintenance of the facilities to preparing Agency Construction of Facilities requests.

Tom holds a B.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and a M.S. in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.


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