Dyndrite appoints Steve Walton its Head of Product Development
Dyndrite Corporation, a software developer headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA, has appointed Steve Walton as its Head of Product Development. Walton is said to bring with him more than a decade of experience in innovation, testing, and production of rocket systems at Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company, where he most recently served as the Director of the company’s Additive Manufacturing group.
According to Dyndrite, after Walton completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, USA, in 2008, he started his career at Blue Origin as a Development Engineer on the H202/RP-1 Suborbital Booster, applying his combustion and materials specialisation to address performance and manufacturing challenges with the engine. He then moved on to develop subsystems on the manned crew capsule, as well as new test stands and components to support both the large and small rocket engines.
In 2016, he was appointed Lead of In-Space Propulsion and built teams for the development of the smaller rocket systems for Blue Origin’s mission. As part of this effort the company committed to implementing AM for production of a few specific parts on the New Shepard, New Glenn, and the Lunar Lander vehicles. Building on this success, Walton started a new Additive Manufacturing organisation for Blue Origin, taking the AM operation from a few machines and team members to a development and production organisation with many functional teams and manufacturing technologies over the last three years.
“I’m excited to change this industry with Steve,” stated Harshil Goel, CEO and Founder, Dyndrite. “His superpower is being able to talk to anyone, assess their needs, and create a framework to help them. He can empathise with anyone on the organisational chart; whether you are a technician, engineer, manager, director, or board member, he cares about what issues you face on a daily basis. He’s uniquely equipped given his years spent procuring software, hardware, and materials as an additive customer in aerospace. He knows what it takes to get to production-grade additive in one of the most demanding industries on the planet.”
“Throughout my career I have built teams that are empowered to improve rapidly by challenging assumptions, innovating operations, and communicating lessons through open dialogue,” Walton commented. “At Dyndrite I am excited to be able to develop that same environment as we build the world’s most powerful 3D geometry kernel to solve the challenges the AM industry is facing.”
Walton will host online sessions for the Dyndrite Developer Council 2020, an online conference which aims to bring experts, end users and press in the Additive Manufacturing industries together. The event is scheduled to take place on April 21–22, 2020, at 08:00 PST.
Further information and registration details are available via the company website.
