Kevin M. O’Connell is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center and a recognized expert on space commerce, the global space economy, and US national security matters.

For over four decades, he has focused on space commercialization and technological competitiveness and how to advance them in global markets. He has also focused on how these innovations impact US and allied national security. O’Connell is the chief executive officer of Space Economy Rising, an advisory firm to space companies and other stakeholders in the space economy. The firm provides strategy, finance, and regulatory advice; helps investors assess space market trends; and identifies opportunities for increased participation in the space economy. O’Connell is the 2024 winner of the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s Lundahl-Finney Lifetime Achievement Award for his enduring work on geospatial issues and space commercialization.

His prior role was director of the Office of Space Commerce within the US Department of Commerce, from 2018 to 2021. He was the principal advocate in the US government for the commercial space industry, identifying new ways to facilitate innovation and increase market size. He focused on the growing role of the private sector in space, encouraged new space partnerships, worked to ensure the competitiveness of the US commercial space industry, encouraged regulatory reform, and advanced US leadership in space safety and sustainability. O’Connell has testified before Congress on eight occasions about space policy issues, US space competitiveness, and the growth of space commerce. He was awarded the vice president’s Dedicated Service Award for his support to the National Space Council. His prior government assignments include roles at the White House and the Departments of State and Defense, while other assignments include research at the RAND Corporation and within Innovative Analytics and Training, a firm he founded in 2007.

O’Connell has, for over twenty years, taught graduate courses at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the RAND Graduate School. Today, he is a frequent author and lecturer on space and space commerce at prominent academic and research organizations around the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SDA Bocconi, George Washington University, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and the University of Tokyo. He is co-host of the Space Economy Insights podcast produced under the SpaceWatch.Global brand.