GeoOrbital

Our Founder & CEO, Michael Burtov, has 15 years of experience in starting-up and seeing companies through their lifecycle. Before GeoOrbital, Michael was the founder and CEO of three companies and was most recently the founder and CEO of Cangrade, a hiring platform, from 2011 to 2014 at which time he founded GeoOrbital. He is very proud of having served over two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. In his spare time Michael is an instructor on innovation topics at the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and an advisor to over a dozen startups. He was named “One of the top Inventors of 2016" and one of the "most dynamic and creative people shaping business today" by the Upstart Business Journal.

Our CTO, Dakota Decker, joined the Company in 2015. He comes with years of experience as a development engineer for SpaceX, where he worked from 2009-2015. SpaceX is one of the most innovative and future-focused engineering companies in the world. SpaceX taught him to develop a wide array of skills and unique problem-solving abilities, which are crucial to making a startup succeed, along with passing on a vast knowledge of materials and techniques to bring any hardware product to reality. Dakota is very proud to have earned his master’s degree at the age of 19 and declined an invitation to pursue a PhD so that he could build rockets with SpaceX.

Our VP of Business Development, David Cohen came to GeoOrbital with decades of experience creating strategic partnerships in a variety of technology markets. He began his career in 1986 in the medical device industry, where he demonstrated to surgeons and hospital administrators the value add of multi-use instruments. During this time, he observed over 2,300 surgeries, highlighting his desire to thoroughly understand his customers’ needs. From 1996 until joining GeoOrbital in 2015, he made the transition to the energy industry, representing several high-efficiency solar, heating, and cooling manufacturers. David has successfully managed sales teams, distributor and dealer networks, and created numerous sales training programs.

Jeff came to GeoOrbital in June 2017 after serving as a senior level law enforcement executive, including 14 years as a police chief and Emergency Manager in localities in the State of New Hampshire and Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia. Jeff has thousands of hours of specialized training over the course of his 29 years of working in capacities such as patrolman, narcotics detective, supervisor, past vice president of Cape Cod Chiefs, control chief of a regional SWAT team and motorcycle unit. Additionally, Jeff has supervised large-scale events such as the Pan Mass Challenge, Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride, Laconia Motorcycle Week, US Presidential visits as well as executive protection for politicians and celebrities. Jeff is a current retired member of the International Chiefs of Police, FBINA, Massachusetts and New Hampshire Police Chief Association.

Anthony, a Mechanical Engineer, came to us as a class of 2016 graduate from University of Virginia. Previous to GeoOrbital, Anthony interned with Amazon Robotics, working directly with the Hardware team on accelerated life testing and quality assurance. Anthony has become the jack-of-all-trades when it comes to working for GeoOrbital, with responsibilities ranging from reliability testing, to technical support, to developing new applications for the wheel. His background in business and CAD software allows him to better design our future products for manufacturing and economic feasibility.

Our Marketing Manager, Michael Potts has been launching, marketing and selling technical products around the globe for over 25 years. In the late 1990's at Ford in the EU and United States, he was part of the project management team for the Company’s electric vehicle program, working with focus groups to understand customer adoption strategies for new products. From 2015 to 2017, he ran a marketing agency, Network Engagement, to develop online business for companies like Idyllic Software and began his engagement with GeoOrbital. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Business Development Director for Sustainable Minds, a B2B cloud provider of software and services for environmental product transparency applications. In 2008, he was the manager of a Colorado E Bike store - Small Planet E Bikes. Michael has a BSc (hons) in Mechanical engineering from Brunel University United Kingdom.

Our Customer Experience Manager, Shelley, has worked in the bicycle industry since the founding of Buddy Bike, LLC in 2005. As the Director of Marketing & Business Development she managed all aspects of the small business that manufactures and distributes a tandem bicycle for riders with special needs. Shelley brings to the GeoOrbital crew a dedication to providing the level of customer service that she herself would appreciate as a consumer. Besides bicycles and adaptive cycling advocacy, Shelley’s other passion is animal rescue. She is trained in large animal rescue and disaster rescue. She was a volunteer with a South Florida horse rescue for over 8 years and served as their Volunteer Director for 5 of those years. She enjoys spending her free time with her rescued dogs and horses.