On September 8, Satellogic, Inc. announced that Vice Admiral (Ret.) Frank D. “Trey” Whitworth has been named president of the company, effective immediately. In this role, Whitworth will lead Satellogic’s internal operations, integrating mission with sales and marketing efforts, while also shaping strategy for the company’s defense and intelligence product suite. Whitworth will report directly to Emiliano Kargieman, CEO and co-founder of Satellogic.
The appointment comes as Satellogic scales increasingly complex, mission-critical sovereign satellite programs for governments and defense partners around the world.
“We’ve had the benefit of Trey’s insights as an advisor for the past several months, and he will bring exactly the leadership and operational execution we need at this stage,” said Kargieman. “His vision for where this industry is going, combined with his deep understanding of defense and intelligence requirements and the problems our customers are trying to solve, makes him uniquely suited to help us scale.”
Whitworth steps into the president role directly from his strategic advisory position, which began in March 2026, and his most recent role as chief executive officer of r4 Federal, where he led artificial intelligence-driven decision advantage initiatives for defense and intelligence partners.
Whitworth brings more than 36 years of leadership in the U.S. Navy and the American intelligence community. From June 2022 to November 2025, he served as the eighth director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), where he led a 16,000-person Combat Support Agency and expanded the Pentagon’s Project Maven artificial intelligence program across every military service and combatant command. Earlier in his career, he served as Intelligence Director for The Joint Staff, advising the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; as Intelligence Director for U.S. Africa Command; as Deputy Director for Computer Network Operations at the National Security Agency; and as Intelligence Director for Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Whitworth is a graduate of Duke University and holds a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Persistent Global Intelligence is no longer a future concept, it’s an operational necessity for the missions and organizations I’ve spent my career serving,” said Whitworth. “Over the past several months as an advisor, I’ve seen firsthand the speed and discipline this team brings to problems that used to take years to solve. I’m looking forward to helping Satellogic scale that execution as we deliver increasingly complex, mission-critical solutions to the challenges impacting partners around the world.”
Source: Satellogic
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