In the beginning, we established criteria for people to become members of the Avaliant Team.  Each person has demonstrated character, integrity and compassion and has achieved world class success in their field.  The foundation of a high quality, high performance team is the qualities of each team member.

Bob Bagshaw - President & Founder

Bob is accomplishment and team oriented. Areas of expertise include Business Management, Program Management, Technical Project Management, System Engineering, Network Engineering,  and Software Development with a focus on complex integrated systems. His experienced tracked the advancement of technology from Mainframe, to Mini to Mac to Networking to Space. He continues to learn and apply knowledge and skills developed through the career path and with every Avaliant project and client.,  His recognized broad technical and leadership skills contributed to significant accomplishments for each organization and continues in support to our clients.

Previous: Teledesic, The Boeing Company, Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, Mitre Corporation, US Army Field Station Augsburg

Education: State University of New York - BS Computer Science

Dave Morse, Phd - Vice President - Communications

Dave Morse is Vice President of Communication Systems with a broad range of expertise in systems engineering and the analysis and design of wireless and satellite communications systems. His twenty years of professional experience include positions of increasing responsibility at Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Teledesic prior to joining the Avaliant team. He has led engineering teams in the analysis and design of satellite payloads, RF communication systems, satellite system architectures, military training devices and wireless LANs.

Education: BS, MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines.

David Patterson - Vice President - Chief Scientist

Dave Patterson is Avaliant’s Vice President and Chief Scientist.  He has over 40 years of management, system engineering and design experience in leading-edge wireless and satellite communications systems and networks. As first employee, Vice President and Chief Architect of Teledesic he led the initial architecture and design of the “Internet-in-the-Sky” system: a global broadband network employing a constellation of packet-switched satellites interconnected by inter-satellite links. He has held key management and technical positions in several other companies including: AutoPath Systems, American Telecorp, SPRINT, TRW, ITT, Le Matériel Téléphonique, and ATT Bell Labs.

Education: BA in Mathematics from Hendrix College; BSEE from Columbia University; MSEE from University California at Berkeley

Mark Taylor - Vice President

Mark Taylor is Vice President of Network Engineering with a background in telecommunications, network architecture, system design, modeling and development. He has served in positions of increasing responsibility at AT&T Bell Laboratories, United Airlines, Motorola, McCaw Cellular, AT&T Wireless and Teledesic prior to joining the Avaliant team. He has led technical teams in the design and development of data networks, network management systems and wireless data technologies.  He led the team that created the technical standards for Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), the first widespread IP-based wireless WAN o­n behalf of the North American cellular industry. He also led the team that built AT&T’s first wireless data network and is the first person to have sent and received e-mail via a North American cellular-based network. 

Education: B.A. in Mathematics and Physics from Augustana College, Illinois; M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Steve Bliesner- Principal Software Engineer

Steve Bliesner is Principal Software Engineer with broad expertise in both systems engineering and software development. His thirty years of professional experience include positions of increasing responsibility at Boeing and Teledesic prior to joining the Avaliant team. He has developed software models for satellite capacity, coverage and traffic.  He has extensive experience regarding service oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise service bus (ESB) and distributed system design.

Education: BSEE from Washington State University; MBA from Seattle University; MSCSE from the University of Washington

Paul Palmiter- Principal Engineer

Paul Palmiter is Vice President of Systems Engineering with an extensive background in that field, as well as Engineering and Program Management.  His specialty is satellites and communications systems. He has been responsible for design, implementation, and operations of space and terrestrial systems.  Mr. Palmiter has considerable experience working with the Legal, Financial, and Marketing departments of companies to coordinate technical and business concerns.  He has held positions as Director of Systems Engineering at Iridium LLC, Chief Engineer at Teledesic LLC, Senior Director of Engineering at COMSAT, and Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Advance Radio Telecom. 

Education: BSEE from the University of Maryland

Phil Horkin- Principal System Engineer

Phil Horkin is a Principal Systems Engineer with a broad range of expertise in the analysis, design, and development of satellite payloads, communications systems, and system architectures. His forty years of professional experience include positions of increasing responsibility at Hughes, Lockheed Martin, Motorola and Teledesic prior to joining the Avaliant team. He has led product development teams for a variety of satellite payloads, and RF and Optical communication systems. Many orbiting satellites carry his designs.

Education: BSEE from Drexel University in Philadelphia

Dave Troje- Senior Software Engineer

Dave Troje is a Senior Software Developer with 30 years of experience. Prior to joining Avaliant, Dave spent 13 years at Amazon, primarily as a lead developer.  Dave was one of the primary architects/developers responsible for launching the Amazon mobile shopping app.  In addition, he worked on a number of supply chain related tools and systems and occasionally fulfilled the role of software development manager for small teams. Before Amazon, he spent 15 years at Boeing, working on real-time data acquisition and analysis type systems.

Education: BS in Computer Science from University of Washington