Will Pomerantz

Pomerantz was born in 1980 in Buffalo, New York. His parents are Sandra Pomerantz, a social worker and lawyer, and James Pomerantz, a cognitive psychologist.[1][2] His step-mother is Mary McIntire, Dean of Continuing Studies at Rice University.[1] Pomerantz studied Earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University. During his undergraduate degree he studied at the NASA Academy.[3] He completed a master's degree at the International Space University, working in the Information, Communication and Space Technology group at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.[1] Pomerantz co-founded the website SpaceAlumni with Nicholas Skytland in 2004, a social media platform for young space professionals, acting as chief editor until 2007.[3][4] He worked at Brown University as a planetary scientist, identifying surface features on Mars.[5]

After graduate school Pomerantz joined Futron, an aerospace consultancy that eventually became acquired by Avascent.[6] In 2005 Pomerantz joined X Prize Foundation, acting as Director of Space Prizes.[3] He was promoted to Senior Director of Space Projects and helped to create both the Google Lunar X Prize and Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.[7] In 2010, Pomerantz contributed a chapter to the textbook Space Commerce.[8] He joined Virgin Galactic in 2011 and was appointed vice president.[9][10] He was determined to use the SpaceShipTwo to support educational and research payloads as well as space tourism.[10][11] He spoke at the 2013 TEDxPCC at the Expanding Horizons of Understanding event, where he discussed why humans explore space.[12] Pomerantz led the effort to launch the LauncherOne, which allows people to launch small satellites from an air-launched system.[13] He was the first employee of Virgin Orbit, which will 3D print rockets and engines for satellite launches.[14] His wife is the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Diana Trujillo.[3]