Meet Our Team
INVESTOR
Matthew Riley
Founder, CEO, President
Chairman of the Board
Matthew Riley is the Founder and CEO of Astron as well as the Chairman of the Board. Matthew’s latest invention, Astron’s H2 Starfire engine is revolutionary and will be disruptive to every engine market. Matthew is a creative genius in mechanical propulsion systems.
INVESTOR
Yogesh Umbarkar
Global Executive Vice President
Executive Board Advisor
Mr. Yogesh Umbarkar brings a wealth of experience and expertise to Astron Aerospace with his educational background in automotive and off-highway R&D. His specialized knowledge in engine design, simulation, and virtual validation, gained through his work at a world leading technology companies like Ricardo, Cummins, and Caepro, makes him a valuable asset for the company.
Meet the Legend
INVESTOR
Chris Theodore
Executive Technical Expert
Executive Board Advisor
Chris is an automotive industry legend. He is a 40 year automotive industry veteran and is known as The “Father of the Ford GT,” and the “engineer´s engineer”.
Other Products: 2005 Ford Mustang, Ford 150, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Viper, Plymouth Prowler, second-generation Chrysler Minivans, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Delorean Twin-Turbo,Chrysler/Calspan Research Safety Vehicle and numerous Powertrains, among others.
INVESTOR
George Salazar
NASA Engineer
Mr. Salazar is a retired NASA engineer with over 40 years of experience in telemetry, communications, speech control, command and data handling, audio, displays and controls, intelligent lighting, project management, and systems engineering. During his time at NASA, he has received various patents and awards, including the NASA Silver
Achievement Medal, the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award, and the NASA, Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate Legacy Award for his contributions to human spaceflight. He has also co-authored several technical papers on spacecraft design, systems engineering, and Human Systems Integration.
INVESTOR
Phil Alei
Executive Advisor
Dr. Philip E. Alei is a Ph.D. Mechanical Engineer with over 25 years of experience in designing, building, and testing prototypes. He is a Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) and has taught Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced SolidWorks topics at the college level.
INVESTOR
Steve Vander Griend
Technical Director
During his tenure as a United States Marine, Steve developed a strong mechanical background. As Technical Director at Astron, this background, along with technical data collection and engineering relationships, has been extremely beneficial in the development of the H2 Starfire engine with insight into America’s energy and environmental needs.
INVESTOR
Daniel Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
Executive Board Member
Mr. Johnson is Astron’s CFO. He has been employed as a tax accountant for over 20 years. He currently is majority owner in a small CPA firm in Derby, Kansas that employs 10 people. They provide tax, consulting and accounting services to a wide range of individuals and businesses.
INVESTOR
Mike Mockry
Director of Operations
Chairman of the Advisory Board
Mike Mockry has been in the aerospace industry for over 30 years and is the owner of Mockry & Sons Machine. His career in aerospace began in 1988 as a shipping & receiving clerk at McGinty Machine where he advanced to becoming an accomplished machinist and manager.
INVESTOR
Cody Liby
Director of Product Development
Cody Liby has been in the automotive and aerospace industries for over 24 years. He began working in the automotive industry in 1994 at R&L Automotive where he built engines and performed other automotive repairs for all makes and models.
INVESTOR
Mark Kendrick
Director of Manufacturing Operations
Mark Kendrick has been a business owner and a manager of operations for the past 30 years. He was the sole proprietor of Kendrick Farms where he managed all facets of farming operations including production control and equipment maintenance while overseeing all sales and financial aspects of the business.
INVESTOR
Evan Keomany
Staff Engineer
Evan is a highly talented engineer at Astron Aerospace and graduated from WSU with his bachelor’s in engineering.
He holds a BS in Manufacturing Engineering with experience in CATIA/SolidWorks for MBD and simulations. Previously, he gained first-hand experience in the manufacturing of advanced composite materials, parts, and assemblies. He has analyzed and optimized processes through the implementation of lean principles and created process standardization by generating process manuals.
INVESTOR
John Meanor
Board Advisor
With an impressive 48-year career in the automotive service industry, John brings a wealth of experience, precision, and leadership to every role he undertakes. For the past 43 years, he has specialized in the Porsche brand, where he’s earned recognition as a Gold Certified Porsche Technician and served as a High Voltage Technician. His dedication to excellence and deep technical knowledge has also led him to take on the role of Shop Foreman, mentoring teams and ensuring top-tier service and performance. His journey reflects a lifelong commitment to automotive innovation, craftsmanship, and customer satisfaction.
Bryan Stanley
Corporate Patent
Legal Counsel
Bryan serves as the Kansas City office Corporate Department Chair and is a registered patent attorney, mechanical engineer and former patent examiner for the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). His practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property law, with an emphasis on patent prosecution, patent infringement/non-infringement opinions, negotiating and documenting technology-related transactions, strategic protection of intellectual property assets and intellectual property litigation.
INVESTOR
Greg Wilson
Digital Marketing
Web Development
Greg is a front-end web developer with certification from Lambda School (now BloomTech). He specializes in WordPress development, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Express.js, Postgres – front and backend development, plus graphic design/video editing with the Adobe suite. His passion when it comes to websites is designing beautiful UI (user interface or website designs) and building it via code or a builder, as well as making apps with React.js in which users interact with data. Note: Greg’s belief in reflective nature is brought to his skillset.
Matthew Riley
Founder, CEO, President
Chairman of the Board
…In 2011 at the SAE conference Riley was recognized with one of the greatest achievements as an inventor when he was awarded the “Best of the Best” award for a two-stroke engine design that he invented. Matthew has many patents to his credit and has many new patents, both filed and pending for Astron’s revolutionary new technology.
Yogesh Umbarkar
Global Executive Vice President
Executive Board Advisor
…As an Engineering Director, Mr. Umbarkar has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills by successfully overseeing powertrain technology consulting projects. His contributions in expanding the software and consulting business through the development of technical capabilities and identification of new opportunities showcase his strategic thinking and business acumen.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Mr. Umbarkar is widely recognized for his comprehensive understanding of engine design and development across various industries. He has actively shared his expertise as a renowned speaker and has chaired international conferences, further establishing himself as an authority in the field. Additionally, his technical papers and articles published in leading industry magazines have contributed to the advancement of engineering knowledge.
Mr. Umbarkar’s educational background, including a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai, and an Executive MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, highlights his strong academic foundation and his ability to merge technical expertise with business management principles. Furthermore, his participation in the Harvard Executive Program underscores his strategic thinking and leadership capabilities.
With his extensive experience, leadership abilities, and unwavering passion for engine design and development, Mr. Yogesh Umbarkar is poised to make significant contributions in driving innovation and business scale at Astron Aerospace!
Chris Theodore
Executive Technical Expert
Executive Board Advisor
Companies:
- CEO – American Specialty Cars
- CAD/CAE Design and Analysis
- CEO – Saleen, Inc.
- PVP – Ford North American Product Development
- VP North American Car Product Development (including Jaguar and Ford of Australia)
- VP North American Product Development
- VP Advance Product Development
- Products included: Ford GT, 2005 Mustang, F150, Fusion, Freestyle, 500, and advance programs including Flex
- Senior Vice President Daimler Chrysler
- VP – Chrysler Platform Engineering
- VP of Platform Engineering
- General Manager of Minivan and Small Car Platforms
- Head of powertrain engineering
- Products included: 2nd generation Minivan, Neon, PT Cruiser, Prowler and Viper
- Director – AMC Engine Engineering
- VP – Cars & Concepts
- VP – Legend Industries
Phil Alei
Executive Advisor
…His education includes a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from The University of California, Berkeley, also in Mechanical Engineering. Along with his design expertise, Dr. Alei owns a full machine shop and eight 3D printers. One of these printers, a Markforged Mark Two, prints with chopped carbon fiber reinforced nylon. It also has the capability to incorporate continuous fiber reinforcement with fiberglass, carbon, or Kevlar yielding parts with tremendous strength and stiffness.
These lightweight parts are equivalent to or better than quality purchased components, but custom parts can be designed and produced in a matter of days. This combination of education, skill, experience, and fabrication capability puts Dr. Alei in a unique position to provide ultra-fast design iterations on a large variety of projects. In 1991, Dr. Alei and two other Ph.D. graduates from UC Berkeley founded Berkeley Engineering And Research (BEAR, Inc.), a consulting company focused on design, analysis, and testing of a variety of mechanical devices and systems. More can be found on our website: www.bearinc.com The company is now involved with several COVID-related projects, including a non-invasive ventilator.
Using a CPAP, full-face snorkel, and related interface we can provide oxygen to a patient without intubation. Although the United States government has not approved the device, we have successfully employed hundreds of these units in foreign countries, saving many lives in the process. Dr. Alei’s passion is providing fast prototype development, taking an idea “from your head to your hands” A recent colleague has stated: “Dr. Phil, with you, I don’t even need a bar napkin! I wave my hands with design ideas, and you put a working prototype in my hands within days that is even better than I imagined”
Steve Vander Griend
Technical Director
He has an impressive background. For the last decade, Steve has been involved in numerous projects focused on the modeling of mobile source emissions related to gasoline and ethanol blends. Steve’s influence was instrumental in enabling testing that resulted in the publishing of numerous Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) papers on ethanol’s performance and emission benefits. In 2019, Steve was awarded the High Octane Award by BBI International and Ethanol Producer Magazine for his passion and unstoppable pursuits to benefit the ethanol industry.
Steve has also been instrumental in raising awareness within the scientific community, ethanol industry and general public on the health and emission benefits of ethanol. His dedication to engine and fuel properties has created a new level of research and understanding related to fuel ethanol.
Industry Involvement
- As an ASTM member, Steve has presented multiple times on fuel property limits and the challenges with modeling ethanol in a gasoline mixture.
- Member of the National Conference of Weights & Measures
- Member of EPA’s MOVES Review Group which reviews and analyzes the emission modeling qualities of EPA’s Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) model.
- Active member in the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Association
- Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee, Clean Fuels Development Coalition
Mark Kendrik
Director of Manufacturing Operations
…From 2009-2015 he was a member of the Wellington COOP Board of Directors overseeing the administration of product needs for the local farming community and from 1998-2006 he was a member of the Chikaskia TWP (township) board of directors where he helped oversee the maintenance and infrastructure needs of the township. He moved on in 2017 to work for Clearwater Engineering who is a supplier to the aerospace industry.
This move provided him experience in high-speed precision milling machining and the operations of a modern machine shop. He quickly moved into shop management and eventually into the expanded role of Operations Manager.
With this change, he managed all complex high speed and hard metals milling as well as assembly, maintenance, and facilities. His hands-on experience in machining and shop floor management, as well as other managerial positions, has also led to leading roles in lean manufacturing, production management, and efficiency initiatives including high levels of work in business systems and operations management.
Cody Liby
Director of Product Development
…In 1997 he began working for a small aerospace machine shop, Mockry and Sons Machine and in 2000 he became the Shop Manager.
Mike Mockry
Director of Operations
Executive Board Member
…With this experience, he moved into other managerial roles including becoming the Shop Supervisor and later the Quality Control Manager and eventually a General Manager. In 1994 along with his father he started Mockry & Sons Machine Company where he has spent the last 26 years managing this successful aerospace manufacturing company. During this time, he also gained experience in the automotive industry helping a local business develop and reengineer their fluid exchange machines including transmission, coolant, brake, and fuel systems. He continued to grow his business in the aerospace industry implementing the business systems and certifications necessary that helped his company to become a first-tier supplier to multiple aerospace manufacturers such as Spirit AeroSystems and Textron Aviation to name a few.
Daniel Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
Executive Board Member
…He received his Bachelors of Accounting degree from Wichita State University in 1998. In 2000 he received his Masters of Professional Accountancy degree from Wichita State University. He then sat for the CPA exam and passed it in 2002 receiving his certificate to practice. He is currently a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants.
George Salazar
NASA Engineer
Investor
…Mr. Salazar received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and his Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas and holds an Expert Systems Engineer Professional certification through the International Council on Systems
Engineering.
Bryan Stanley
Corporate Patent
Legal Counsel
…Bryan regularly handles procurement of intellectual property in the U.S. and abroad, including in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and numerous other jurisdictions worldwide. He has counseled clients on the analysis of patent validity and infringement, represented clients in patent infringement litigation, and prosecuted numerous patent applications relating to such technologies as:
- medical devices (e.g., dental and surgical implants and related surgical procedures, intubation devices and procedures, prosthetics, dialysis systems, periodontal treatment systems and protocols, implant design and manufacturing systems and procedures, wound treatment compositions and treatment procedures/protocols, biomaterial scaffolds and cages, and systems and methods of design and fabrication of biomaterial scaffolds/cages).
- robotics, commercial/industrial machinery and related manufacturing processes and control systems (e.g., food processing machinery, vending machines, robotic delivery and control systems, pot and pan washing systems, CNC machine systems).
- telecommunications systems (e.g., interactive voice response systems).
- mechanical and electrical devices (e.g., heated hand grips, storage systems, hand tools, cookware, garment steamers, steam cleaners).
- RFID (radio frequency identification).
- software.
- financial products.
- business methods.
- In addition, Bryan is a member of the ABA’s Post-Alice Task Force, designed to identify (1) how the USPTO and the courts are applying Alice v. CLS Bank (a 2014 Supreme Court decision that significantly increased the difficulty of obtaining and enforcing software-related patents) and (2) the types of inventions, claims and arguments that survive a patentable subject matter challenge following the Alice decision.