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Phil Bathurst is President of Coltala Aerospace, a Texas-based aerospace platform backed by Coltala Holdings, building a national aviation aftermarket platform supporting both commercial aviation and U.S. defense. A veteran aerospace operator, Phil has spent more than three decades leading, scaling, and transforming aviation  maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) organizations across the global aerospace aftermarket. 

In his role at Coltala Aerospace, Phil works closely with leaders across the platform, including Nick McDonald of Evans Composites and Michael Campbell of ACD Consulting and AeroParts Machining, to drive national growth and the expansion of  mission-critical aerospace services. He is focused on building a long-term aerospace platform that combines operational rigor with innovative solutions for both commercial aviation and defense. 

Prior to joining Coltala, Phil served as Chief Executive Officer at Aspire MRO, a Fortress Investment Group-backed company in Fort Worth, Texas, where he grew the organization from 30 employees to over 500 and expanded its capabilities to support five Boeing 777 P2F modification lines. Before that, he held senior leadership roles at Embraer, EmpowerMX, Aviation Technical Services, and TIMCO (AAR), overseeing complex maintenance operations, technology platforms, and large technical teams. Phil began his career installing avionics on small aircraft and has built a reputation for operational excellence, scaling mission-critical aerospace services, and developing top technical talent. 

Phil’s leadership philosophy emphasizes teamwork, accountability, and cultivating a culture where technical excellence and operational discipline drive measurable results. 

Tim Booher is Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Leidos, where he focuses on the intersection of defense and technology—turning advanced R&D into war-winning, fielded capability. Previously he was Vice President of Autonomy at Boeing, leading enterprise autonomy across commercial and defense programs spanning perception, robotics, navigation, certification, and trusted systems, and earlier led corporate strategy and portfolio initiatives. Tim has also held senior engineering and security leadership roles at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, HSBC, and Colgate-Palmolive, and served 20 years in government, including as a DARPA program manager. He continues to serve in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and on National Academies panels, and he holds degrees from MIT and AFIT.

As Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at Quantum XChange, Tom Butta brings transformative brand leadership to the quantum security revolution. With a career built on defining and dominating emerging software categories, he has repeatedly proven that knowing what to do—and how to do it—is what separates market leaders from the noise.

His track record speaks volumes: CMO roles at SignalFx (acquired by Splunk), Sprinklr (CXM: NYSE), AppNexus (acquired by AT&T), NICE Systems (NICE: Nasdaq), PTC (PTC: Nasdaq)—where he architected the enterprise PLM playbook—and Red Hat (acquired by IBM) after leading the open source revolution. Tom was also a Consultant in Residence at Andreessen Horowitz, shaping market-changing innovations for the Fortune 2000.

Christopher “Chris” Colaw is a professor and the Executive Director for Industrial Partnerships and the Center for Digital and Human-Augmented Manufacturing (formerly known as the Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing) at ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ University’s Lyle School of Engineering. This role is focused on rebranding and launching the new Center, driving the incorporation of Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Augmentation and High-Power Computing (HPC) into the engineering discipline, increasing funding opportunities and partnerships with industry, and aligning research activities with overall goals and vision of the engineering school.

Chris has an academic portfolio consisting of 5 courses which have been taught to over 300 students across ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ and UTEP, >10 peer-reviewed journal papers, leadership as Chair of 2 Advisory Boards, and has led numerous department level initiatives focused on inclusion of artificial intelligence and applied learning methodologies in the classroom. 

Formerly, Chris was a Lockheed Martin Fellow with expertise in digital transformation, inspection technology, autonomation, 3D modeling, and quality management systems. In this role, he is responsible for a quality and digital transformation portfolio valued at over $200M in cost savings for Lockheed Martin. This savings performance is complimented with two issued patents, one trade secret, and receipt of the 2022 ES&H Excellence Award for application of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things solutions to reduce injuries and lost time associated with elevated space workplace hazards. Additionally, Chris was selected as one of the “Top 100 Visionaries in Education” by the Global Forum for Education and Learning for his contributions to development of global university talent.

Building upon his industrial and academic expertise, Chris has very recently launched QualTech Aero LLC which was created to identify, measure, and improve the human-workmanship gap between engineering design and manufacturing reality in an Industry 5.0 world.

Chris holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Master of Science Degree in Management, Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, all from ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ University. Chris is also a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence from the American Society of Quality.

Edward Crawford is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Coltala Holdings, Owner of Coltala Aerospace, a growing aerospace platform serving commercial and defense customers. Coltala is a long-term focused infrastructure company building enduring businesses across air, land and water — including aerospace MRO and engineering, one of the top real estate engineering firms in the country, and one of the oldest water companies in Texas.

Edward leads with a “mission and margin” philosophy focused on strengthening America’s industrial base through disciplined ownership and operational excellence.
A U.S. Navy intelligence officer and Bronze Star recipient, he served with Special Operations Command South and advised SEAL Teams during Operation Enduring Freedom. He began his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he founded a coffee cooperative that still operates today.
Edward previously served as a Vice President at Goldman Sachs and holds an MBA from MIT Sloan as a Leadership Scholar, along with graduate degrees from Tulane University and a BA from TCU. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Founder of the War Veterans Fund, Co-Founder of the Sentinel Defense Forum, a Founding Board Member of NYSE Texas, and serves as Membership Chair and active member of the Dallas YPO chapter.

Will Edwards serves as the co-founder and CEO of Firehawk Aerospace, an end-to-end energetics company revolutionizing the supply chain to fuel the future of defense. Focused on solid rocket motors and missile integration, Firehawk  3D prints propellant for rocket motors using a patented additive manufacturing process.
Edwards co-founded Firehawk Aerospace in 2019. Under his guidance, Firehawk has evolved from a nascent startup into a reliable defense ally, providing cutting-edge solutions to national security clients. His leadership has enabled various testing initiatives, raised venture funding, secured government contracts, and essential partnerships, introducing transformative speed and agility to the rocket propulsion and energetics sector.

Edwards offers a distinct viewpoint in the aerospace sector. Prior to establishing Firehawk, he occupied leadership positions in corporate development and assisted in launching various early-stage technology startups. In 2021, Edwards was recognized for his pioneering work in additive-manufactured rocket propulsion and was named to Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Manufacturing & Industry.

Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas, where he filed and was granted his first technology patent. He is based in the Dallas area with his family.

Will Edwards serves as the co-founder and CEO of Firehawk Aerospace, an end-to-end energetics company revolutionizing the supply chain to fuel the future of defense. Focused on solid rocket motors and missile integration, Firehawk  3D prints propellant for rocket motors using a patented additive manufacturing process.

Edwards co-founded Firehawk Aerospace in 2019. Under his guidance, Firehawk has evolved from a nascent startup into a reliable defense ally, providing cutting-edge solutions to national security clients. His leadership has enabled various testing initiatives, raised venture funding, secured government contracts, and essential partnerships, introducing transformative speed and agility to the rocket propulsion and energetics sector.

Edwards offers a distinct viewpoint in the aerospace sector. Prior to establishing Firehawk, he occupied leadership positions in corporate development and assisted in launching various early-stage technology startups. In 2021, Edwards was recognized for his pioneering work in additive-manufactured rocket propulsion and was named to Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Manufacturing & Industry.

Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas, where he filed and was granted his first technology patent. He is based in the Dallas area with his family.

Ryan Morfin is the CEO of Lowndes Square (“LSQ”), an asset management firm investing on behalf of several family offices in non-correlated asset classes such as: commercial real estate, private equity and venture capital. Throughout his career, he has held several executive management roles, including at U.S. and international portfolio companies owned by clients of well-known PE firms and family offices.

Immediately prior to his LSQ role, Mr. Morfin was the founder and CEO of Wentworth Management Services, a holding company that acquired 10 wealth management businesses over a 5-year period creating the 20th largest independent US wealth management firm by revenues. Under his leadership, Wentworth grew revenues by 20x to over $200mm in five years and the platform had over 2,200 financial advisors that managed over $300Bn of AUM. In July 2022, the business was sold to a strategic investor at an all-time high valuation for broker dealer businesses delivering a 15x to his initial investors.

He is currently the host of the Non-Beta Alpha podcast, where he has insightful conversations with thought leaders like Jocko Willink, Dr. Oz, General Flynn and General McChrystal among many other asset management and wealth management CEOs. Ryan does national and local media speaking about economics and capital markets issues as well.

Ryan is also the founding partner of IronGate Capital Advisors, a defense technology investment platform that focuses on funding innovation in the defense department and in the intelligence community. The fund has invested in over 150 companies in the last 5 years and is in the process of launching its second closed end fund. Mr. Morfin was a founding partner of Maroon Capital Group, a NYC based merchant bank which focused on PE investing. Previously, at Countrywide Merchant Banking, he established and scaled the firm’s expansion into private equity, creating the business plan as well as sourcing, evaluating, and underwriting the group’s investment opportunities. Mr. Morfin began his career at Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the CMBS/CRE CDO group, later becoming an Associate in the firm’s Merchant Banking division. In that role, he worked on the team that made principal investments for various MSRE fund vehicles on behalf of institutional clients.

Ryan is politically engaged in education policy, national security policy and Hispanic political outreach. Mr. Morfin also sits on the Board of Directors for Voz Media, IM Financial Services, Vega Wealth Technologies and Albers Aerospace. Mr. Morfin holds Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from the University of Chicago.

Matt Muns is a seasoned Technology & Consulting entrepreneur and executive with extensive knowledge in emerging technologies, the federal defense departments and commercial aerospace & defense industry. He has overseen growing and successfully exiting 2 technology service start-ups that created $100m’s in shareholder and enterprise value.

Matt exited the board and leadership of his last company, Argano, a Digital Transformation Consultancy firm that had grown to $400m in revenue and 3,000+ employees at the end of 2024. His current company, Redhawk, was a spin-out of the federal and defense business of that company and today his team is working on some of the most critical defense technology imperatives to empower the U.S. warfighter.

Matt also invests in emerging Aerospace and Defense and Dual-Use technology and other “real” business technology through his family office and serves on the board or in advisory roles for many of these companies.

Matt holds a J.D. from St. Thomas University School of Law and maintains a Texas Bar card. He completed his undergraduate work at ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ University in Dallas where he also lettered in Football. Matt has served on various Chapter, Regional and International Boards for YPO and is actively involved with the ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ Letterman’s Association. He resides in Southlake, Texas with his wife, Sarah, and 3 children.

Bryan Perkins has over 20 years of aerospace manufacturing experience, during which he has held many leadership positions. As CEO, President, and Founder of Novaria Group, he continues to build a growing enterprise focused on Aerospace Tier 2 manufacturing. Since 2011, he has closed over 20 aerospace component manufacturing transactions, all of which were privately-held, multi-generational, or entrepreneur-owned businesses. 

In addition to serving as CEO, he has taken on a variety of hands-on operational leadership roles within Novaria during various stages of scaling. His public and private company experience extends to the leadership and successful closure of multiple transactions, integrations and supplier-customer negotiations with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. 

Prior to founding Novaria group, he spent 10 years in various aerospace manufacturing, operating and corporate development roles with Parker Hannifin.