Jay Wakenshaw has been named COO of Xona Space Systems Photo: Xona Space

Xona Space Systems appointed Jonathan “Jay” Wakenshaw as the company’s first chief operating officer, announced Jan. 23.

With over 25 years of leadership experience across aerospace, aviation, and advanced manufacturing industries, Wakenshaw will focus on Xona’s internal teams and laying the groundwork for scaling to the full constellation and operations network. Xona plans to have Wakenshaw move the Xona Pulsar satellite navigation constellation from prototype to full operational capacity.

Wakenshaw commented: “Xona’s Pulsar commercial satellite navigation service has the potential to transform global industries, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to help bring it to the mainstream market.”

Wakenshaw’s background includes serving as the COO for Elroy Air, the vice president of Operations for Toray Advanced Composites, the CCO for Ascent Aerospace, the president for Danco Machine, and more.

“Many companies underestimate the challenges of scaling up such complex processes,” Xona’s co-founder and CEO, Brian Manning said. “Jay’s leadership will ensure our operational readiness and scalability to meet the increasing demand for resilient and precise navigation services for our partners.”