Kurt Lindstrom Named Civilian Space Business Area Executive at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Kurt Lindstrom has been named business area executive for Civilian Space at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. The appointment puts him in charge of APL’s current civilian space science and technology programs, as well as business development activities for future missions.

Lindstrom had served as acting business area executive since May 2010, after becoming the deputy business area executive in July 2009. He came to APL in May 2008 after a 25-year NASA career that included headquarters roles as a program analysis branch chief as well as a budget director and program executive — overseeing missions such as the Europa Orbiter, the Dawn asteroid orbiter and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. He also directed the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and served as a program manager at NASA Ames Research Center.

Lindstrom earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife science from Utah State University and a master’s in public administration from the University of Utah, where, as an adjunct professor, he later developed and taught a graduate-level course on reinvention and change management. He also completed senior executive leadership programs at Harvard University and the Federal Executive Institute.

He resides in North Potomac, Maryland.

The Applied Physics Laboratory has more than 50 years in the space business, drawing on a tradition that began with development of the world’s first satellite navigation system, Transit. APL has built instruments and missions to targets such as near-Earth asteroids, comets, Pluto, Mercury, the Sun, and our moon — and APL continues to support NASA as it implements initiatives to explore the far reaches of our solar system. For more information on APL space programs, visit http://civspace.jhuapl.edu/index.php.