Scout Space Inc. has announced that long-time aerospace and defense executive, Philip Hover-Smoot, has been named the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), as of January 12, 2024.
Hover-Smoot succeeds Co-founder and CEO, Eric Ingram, who will now be taking on the roles of Chairman of the Board and Chief Strategy Officer. As the Chief Executive Officer, Hover-Smoot will uphold Scout’s mission of ensuring security in space operations with cost-effective plug-and-play vision systems that enhance customer missions and enable satellite autonomy. He plans to continue to cultivate collaboration between government and commercial customers and expedite both technical progress and technical hiring in the near term.
Previous to Scout, Hover-Smoot served as the General Counsel at Spaceflight Inc., a group company of Mitsui & Co. Ltd., best known for pioneering orbital transfer vehicles and commercial rideshare missions. Prior to that, he held the roles of Deputy General Counsel and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS), an in-space services provider.
Hover-Smoot has also held a series of roles at Raytheon Technologies, primarily in the Office of General Counsel at Raytheon Technologies’ Intelligence & Space business, where he held key advisory roles in compliance and contracting with a focus on remote sensing and electronic warfare systems. Earlier in his legal career, he specialized in the implementation of technology security and foreign disclosure controls and counseled both aerospace and technology organizations.
Mr. Hover-Smoot holds a JD/MBA from Drake University and has completed postdoctoral work at Stanford’s Spogli Institute for International Security Studies, with an emphasis on national security and intelligence.
CEO Eric Ingram said, “We’re pleased to have someone of Philip’s caliber at Scout as our CEO. We’ve experienced unprecedented growth over the last year, assembled an incredible team, and demonstrated our ability to capture meaningful business within our core national security customer base. We’re now well-positioned with Philip’s leadership to accelerate growth and transition Scout from an R&D business into a business with real deliverables for both government and commercial customers.”
Hover-Smoot said, “I am thrilled to be joining Scout at such a dynamic time. For all the right reasons, we need to refocus on developing the business and refining our execution plans. With Scout’s proven flight heritage, secure sensor solutions, and advanced autonomy capabilities, we have the potential to revolutionize the SDA segment.” Hover-Smoot added, “Not only has the team managed extraordinary growth over the last few years, but Scout also built an amazing corporate culture, which has been key to its ongoing success. I’m looking forward to supporting that culture and collaborating with the team at this critical juncture to lead the company through a much anticipated and accelerated growth period.”