about us
Our Mission
Guided by relentless focus on our core principles, we will constantly strive to build shareholder value, develop sustainable growth, create a shared vision within our portfolio, and build synergies across all the investments.
Our mission is to carry out investments projects in the domestic and international markets within the Aerospace & Defense industry.
Our Vision
Be the trusted disruptive global leader in Aerospace & Defense industry for US, allied, and friendly nations in national security endeavors. Relentlessly hone the razor’s edge of excellence.
Our Values
Creative. Passionate. Committed. Transformative. Discerning. Highest Integrity.
Financial Discipline.
Empyrean
Used to describe the celestial sphere in classical literature as an abode of pure light, fount of knowledge, and source of creation, empyrean exemplifies our company’s high ideals, unending quest for unifying principles, and the application of advanced technology toward transforming the world into a safer place.
Board of Directors
Vice-Chair of the Board, Founder – Nicolas Marcotte, Eng MBA: Nicolas, an officer of the Royal Canadian Navy, is a Corporate Director, CEO and serial entrepreneur, with a broad base of experience and corporate structures, an extensive international experience, a creative and strategic mindset, a clear orientation towards customers, growth and results, and a track record in crisis, stakeholder and change management. He is serving on various Boards where he can share his expertise in engineering, accounting, finance, risk management, corporate strategy, financing, M&A, JV and CSR. He was awarded “Diversity 50” in 2015 with the Canadian Board Diversity Council.
Director and General Counsel – Shawn Cheadle: Shawn is an accomplished senior executive and general counsel with over 25 years of experience in Aerospace & Defense (A&D). Shawn has been a corporate secretary and Board member of private, public company subsidiary, and non-profit entities. He was an award-winning general counsel under the Lockheed Martin Space segment. Through his A&D legal practice, Shawn has helped secure space program growth valued at over $15B. He was a trusted advisor to $6B in supply chain procurements (government subcontracts, commercial and international agreements). As a Director and Corporate Secretary to a Lockheed Martin Space subsidiary, he helped steer double growth post-acquisition. Shawn has supported dozens of U.S. government programs across the defense industry, including the F-22/A, F-35, missiles, U.S. Navy submarines, and of course, dozens of satellite and spacecraft programs.
Director – General (ret) Gaston Côté: Gaston, former Chief of staff J3 with the Canadian Armed Forces, is an experienced advisor with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. He has public company experience in the C-suite, and a track record in security, crisis management, negotiation, intelligence analysis, operations management, analytics, organizational development, and human resources management. Gaston has a keen interest in new technologies and, as a public speaker, he comments frequently worldwide military situations in the electronic media.
Director – Kevin Kuuskvere: Kevin, a US Navy nuclear submarine force veteran, is an experienced CFO, Chief Technology Officer and Operating Partner in the financial services industry. He has served on public, private and not-for-profit boards. Kevin has executed IPO, Joint Venture, Carve-Out and Spin-off transactions as a Financial Officer. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has 20 years of banking and asset management experience (Wells Fargo, Ares Management and TIAA). Kevin has managed major technology system implementations and is a qualified Board Audit Committee Financial Expert. He has raised capital at the General Partner level and been a private fund Limited Partner investor.
Director – Eric Rickard: President of a boutique business consulting firm to middle market defense and commercial companies who are seeking growth and near term exits. He currently serves as the CEO of a global free speech communications platform and President of a national digital and print publishing company. His expertise is primarily centered around emerging technology, both exploiting it and countering adversarial threats. As a strategic leader, his experience includes winning, managing, and delivering over $2B worth of products and services to support global intelligence and military operations. His technical acumen extends from robotics, AI, machine learning, cyber-resilient systems, adaptive communications networks, and distributed computing systems. Throughout his career he has established relationships across the defense industrial base, Congressional, DoD, and Agency leaders, investment banks and commercial technology ambassadors.
Director – Krisstie Kondrotis: Krisstie is an accomplished senior level executive with over 35 years of experience in Aerospace and Defense. Proficient in developing and executing company growth strategies, capturing new business and managing programs across a diverse government, commercial and international industry base. Throughout her career, Krisstie has held executive positions in fortune 100 Defense prime and Tier 1 companies with experience in varying markets; space launch and missile systems, fixed wing and rotary aircraft, command & control systems as well as intelligence information technology systems and services, to name a few. She is adept at P&L execution and leadership to include program growth, margin expansion and operational improvement to drive quality and delivery of critical hardware and systems.
Director – Victoria Mukovozov: Victoria is working with LarrainVial Securities U.S., LLC to help lead the sales and distribution efforts on behalf of LarrainVial U.S. based Asset Management Partner Firms. Prior to joining LarrainVial, Victoria was a senior Business Development professional at Wellington Capital Management, AQR Capital, and Credit Suisse Asset Management where she specialized in SFO, MFO, and RIA clients. Victoria holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a graduate of The Wharton School and The College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Pennsylvania. Prior to focusing on Business Development, Victoria was an Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, a Private Equity investor at Bain Capital, and a Consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Board Advisors
Siobhan MacDermott: Siobhan’s career has spanned 25+ years at the intersection of global business, banking, cybersecurity, intelligence, and technology, working in more than 10 countries. She was recently a partner at the Consello Group in New York. Prior to joining Consello, she was Vice Chairman at Bank of America as well as head of the Global Cyber Public Policy team, responsible for Bank of America’s participation in programs dedicated to improving risk and cyber resiliency of the global financial system. She was the Co-President responsible for standing up the FS-ARC (Financial Systemic Analysis and Resiliency Center.). Prior to Bank of America, she led the Cyber Economics Practice at EY (Ernst & Young), and consulted to Fortune 500 boards on strategy, M&A, geopolitics, intelligence and cybersecurity. Prior to EY, she spent over 20 years working overseas and in Silicon Valley.