Ben leads Canopy in developing advanced composites across a number of industrial use cases.

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He brings an extensive background spanning across the aerospace and renewable energy industries, with over a decade of experience in composites manufacturing, quality assurance, project management, and product development.

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Prior to Canopy, Ben was at Blue Origin where he was a Senior Composites Manufacturing Engineer working on reusable composites and integrated thermal protection systems for the New Glenn launch vehicle. In his role, he was integral to creating Blue Origin’s TPS and composite structures, taking the program from early development/qualification all the way through full scale production.

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Prior to Blue, Ben worked at Vestas Wind Systems as a Lead Quality and Production Engineer, working on some of the largest wind blades in the world. He was the engineer responsible for running the production lines from composite lay-up all the way through finishing and final assembly. He has also consulted in the renewable energy industry and worked on a hybrid energy system project with University of Colorado and National Renewable Energy Labs.

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His first job was at SpaceX as a Product Validation and Production Quality Engineer, working on large composite structures and thermal protection systems for the most flown rocket in U.S. history. He worked on early-stage composites development through production and qualified the first F9 landing legs for flight. As the launch cadence increased there was a big focus on quality engineering and build reliability, which he took the lead on during the production ramp up of Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecrafts.

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Ben has a Master of Science in Global Energy Management from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Bachelor of Science is in Plastics, Composites, and Vehicle Engineering from Western Washington University. During his undergrad career, he worked on X-Prize cars, bio-composite materials, and built a hybrid bus from scratch for the Department of Transportation.