United Launch Alliance names Gary Wentz VP of government and commercial programs

United Launch Alliance (ULA) of Centennial, CO announced on March 6 that it named Gary Wentz, vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. In this role Wentz will lead the mission management, hardware integration, program management and launch services for ULA’s government and commercial customers, as well as the team responsible for ULA’s role in returning human spaceflight to American soil on The Boeing Company’s CST-100 Starliner capsule.

“Gary brings tremendous program management leadership and decades of aerospace experience to this new role,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “ULA’s primary focus is on our customers and the critical missions they launch. This new program office maximize customer communications and ensures effective integration of our customer’s requirements into a comprehensive plan.”

Prior to this role, Wentz served as ULA’s vice president of Human and Commercial Systems. At his previous company, he served as the chief executive officer of Stratolaunch Systems Corporation and during the first four years and was instrumental in establishing a small entrepreneurial company and leading the team through all startup activities. In addition, he successfully completed construction and out‑fitting of two large facilities in Mojave, California., to manufacture and assemble the air-launch platform.

Previously Wentz served as a senior executive at NASA and has worked projects onboard SpaceLab, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program, Orbital Space Program, and Exploration Systems.