Board of Directors

Will Porteous has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021 and served on Legacy BlackSky’s board of directors from February 2015, and specifically as Chairman of the board from December 2018, until the closing of the merger. Mr. Porteous is a General Partner with RRE Ventures and also serves as RRE Ventures’ Chief Operating Officer. During his 20-year career as an investor, Mr. Porteous has served on the boards of more than 20 companies. In addition to serving on BlackSky’s board, Mr. Porteous also currently serves as a director of BuzzFeed, Nanit, Paperless Post, Pattern, Pilot Fiber, Spire, Ursa Space Systems, and Wave. Mr. Porteous is also Chairman of the Dockery Farms Foundation, which he founded. From 2003 to 2018, Mr. Porteous served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School where he taught a course on venture capital. Mr. Porteous holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University, an M.S. from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. with Honors from Stanford University.

Brian E. O’Toole is chief executive officer of BlackSky and is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of the company’s business plan as well as product and technology strategy for BlackSky’s global monitoring service. He joined the company in 2016 when BlackSky acquired OpenWhere, a technology company he founded, which delivered on-demand location intelligence solutions to government and commercial customers.

Brian brings more than 30 years of executive experience building and growing high-performance technology businesses at startup, growth, and Fortune 100 companies. Prior to OpenWhere, he served as chief technology officer at GeoEye, with global responsibility for developing, managing, and expanding the company’s technology, products, and services in geospatial intelligence and location-based services. He left GeoEye after a successful $1.3 billion merger with DigitalGlobe. He’s also held senior product leadership roles at a number of companies, including Overwatch Textron Systems, which he joined when they acquired ITspatial, an early pioneer of interactive 3D mapping that he co-founded and served as president. Brian holds a Master of Science Degree in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Clarkson University.

Dr. Magid Abraham has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021. Dr. Abraham is founder and CEO of Neurawell Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company developing mental health treatments. He was founding CEO of comScore for 14 years, which he took public in 2007, focusing on innovation and industry leadership. He was founder and CEO of Paragren Technologies, producing CRM systems. He was president of IRI, a major international research company, which he led through sustained growth and innovation. He became a Visiting Scholar at Stanford in 2016, where he taught for 3 years at the Graduate School of Business. He serves on a number of commercial and institutional boards.

Dr. Abraham is a world expert on consumer and market measurement and syndicated information services. He has authored seminal award winning articles. He received the Advertising Research Foundation’s “Lifetime Achievement Award”. He earned the AMA’s Parlin award and MIT’s Buck Weaver award, both in recognition for lifetime contributions and leadership in the theory and practice of Marketing Science. He was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year and inducted in the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and designated “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum. Dr. Abraham received a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. from MIT, and is engineer of the École Polytechnique, France.

David DiDomenico has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021 and served on Osprey’s board of directors from July 2019 until the closing of the merger. Mr. DiDomenico has been a Partner of JANA Partners, an investment advisor based in New York City, since 2010. As the Head of JANA’s SPAC strategy, Mr. DiDomenico leads JANA’s SPAC efforts. In this capacity and during its investment phase, he served as Osprey’s Chief Executive Officer and President from June 2019 until the closing of the merger. He has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of Osprey Tech II since September 2020 and a member of its board of directors since March 2021. He previously served as a Co-Portfolio Manager of JANA’s hedge fund strategies.

Prior to joining JANA Partners LLC in 2010, Mr. DiDomenico was a Managing Director of New Mountain Capital and the Portfolio Manager of the New Mountain Vantage Fund (2005-2010). He was previously an Associate Portfolio Manager at Neuberger Berman (2002-2005). From 1999-2002, Mr. DiDomenico was a member of the Acquisitions Team at Starwood Capital Group where he focused on corporate and real estate transactions. From 1998-1999, he was an Analyst at Tiger Management. From October 2019-June 2021, Mr. DiDomenico served on the board of directors of KAR Auction Services, Inc. (NYSE: KAR), a provider of car auction services in North America and the United Kingdom. He holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an AB from Harvard College.

Susan Gordon has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021. Ms. Gordon is a highly respected intelligence professional, visionary leader, and trusted strategic advisor on a broad spectrum of complex issues, including cybersecurity, emerging and disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence, and information operations. Ms. Gordon is the former principal deputy director of national intelligence, the nation’s highest-ranking career intelligence officer. In that capacity, Ms. Gordon managed the operations of the intelligence community and was a key advisor to the President and National Security Council. Prior to her role as principal deputy director of national intelligence, Ms. Gordon served as deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). In this position, she provided leadership to the agency and managed the National System of Geospatial Intelligence. Prior to the NGA, she served 27 years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). At the CIA, Ms. Gordon rose to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support. Over the course of her career, Ms. Gordon led the establishment of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture arm, and ultimately became the Director’s senior advisor on cyber issues. 

Ms. Gordon is currently a consultant and advisor on technology and global risk with GordonVentures LLC. Among other endeavors, she is a member of the Board of CACI, Avantus Federal, and National Intelligence University Foundation. She also serves on several technology advisory boards and consults with Microsoft Corporation. Ms. Gordon is a fellow at Duke and Harvard Universities and she continues to support Defense Department and Intelligence Community study activities. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology (biomechanics) from Duke University.

Timothy Harvey has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021. Mr. Harvey has been the Executive Chairman of VTS, Inc., a leasing and asset management platform, since April 2017. Prior to that, from December 2014 to April 2017, he served as President of Commercial Solutions at BAE Systems Plc (“BAE”), a leading global defense, aerospace and security company. Mr. Harvey joined BAE as a result of BAE’s December 2014 acquisition of SilverSky, a provider of security software and managed services, where he served as CEO and was responsible for the growth and sale of the business to BAE. Mr. Harvey currently serves on the boards of OpenWeb, a social engagement platform, NoFraud, an all-in-one fraud prevention solution, Electric, an information technology company that helps businesses manage their IT security, and Keyfactor, a provider of secure digital identity management solutions. Mr. Harvey graduated with a degree in Finance from the University of Florida and served four years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

James Tolonen has served on BlackSky’s board of directors since September 2021. Mr. Tolonen served as the Senior Group Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Business Objects, S.A., an enterprise software solutions provider, where he was responsible for its finance and administration commencing in January 2003 until its acquisition by SAP AG in January 2008. He remained with SAP AG until September 2008. Mr. Tolonen served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer and a member of the board of directors of IGN Entertainment Inc., an Internet media and service provider, from October 1999 to December 2002. He served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Cybermedia, a PC user security and performance software provider, from April 1998 to September 1998, where he also served as a member of the board of directors from August 1996 to September 1998. Mr. Tolonen served as Chief Financial Officer of Novell, Inc., an enterprise software provider, from June 1989 to April 1998. Since May of 2016, Mr. Tolonen has served as a member of the Board of Directors of New Relic, Inc. and as chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee. 

Mr. Tolonen previously served on the boards of directors and audit committees of MobileIron, Inc. (2014—2020), Imperva, Inc., (2012—2019), Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (2008—2012) , and Taleo Corporation, (2010—2012). Mr. Tolonen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. Mr. Tolonen is also a Certified Public Accountant, inactive, in the State of California.