With 20 years of in-house general counsel experience, Randy Segal brings an individual perspective to every matter she handles, both as your outside counsel and as someone who has walked in your shoes. With a focus on satellite, wireless, drone, and technology transactions, Randy provides commercially practical solutions in industries where technological change is ever-present. Randy’s practice often involves multi-level chess games, where every move needs to be considered from a multitude of angles to be successful.
As a result, Randy’s practice is reflected in three segments. First, as co-leader of the Space and Satellite practice, Randy has handled many types of transactions, from day-to-day matters to the most complex international transactions for industry operators, investors, and technology providers. She has been involved in taking companies public, advising on acquisitions, divestitures, and complex cross-border joint ventures, as well as large satellite system development, deployments and funding.
Second, as an advisor to technology investors and their portfolio companies, Randy has advised on transactions focused on big data analytics, IT, wireless systems, spectrum licenses, environmental analytics, wireless proximity analysis, drone technology, terrestrial positioning, and other innovative technologies.
Third, Randy provides “strand of pearls” advice to global clients, working seamlessly with our international offices to develop familiar, comfortable and “right-sized” solutions. Randy’s extensive cross-border experience has resulted in an extensive tool-kit of resolutions for the most complex of legal regimes. Randy’s transactional and advisory experience is both deep and broad, working throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and on the most complex of international programs and legal issues.
PPhillip (Phil) is a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2002 as an Analyst in the firm’s Melbourne, Australia, office. In 2004, he relocated to the New York office where he joined the Global Industrials Group. Phil specializes in the coverage of Aerospace & Defense, Security and General Industrial companies and has worked on a variety of M&A and capital markets transactions for clients across these industries.
Notable space-related transactions include the IPO of MDA, the SPAC merger of Rocket Lab with Vector Acquisition Corp, Harris Corporation’s acquisition of Exelis and its merger-of-equals with L3 Technologies, and debt and equity financings for several commercial and government-customer focused space companies including Virgin Galactic, Maxar and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Phil is a passionate supporter of the space community outside of the work environment, most notably as an executive mentor under the Mathew Isakowitz Fellowship Program and as a member of the ASCEND Guiding Coalition. Phil graduated from The University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons). During and after his years at university, he served as an Infantry Officer in the Australian Army Reserve. Phil currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Laura and their four daughters.
26 years experience in Investment Banking and Strategy Consulting
Coordinates firm relationships in mobile technology, wireless, industrial tech, and aerospace industries
Has led advisory teams on public and private company mergers, leveraged buyouts, special committee assignments, hostile takeover and activist defense, and corporate restructurings
Received an AB in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and studied International Relations and Economics at the London School of Economics
2021 space transaction highlights include Viasat-Inmarsat, the Astra and Blacksky SPAC mergers, the Orbcomm LBO, Intelsat’s Ch. 11 restructuring, Kymeta’s Series B, and HawkEye’s Series C and D financings
Matt O’Connell is an Operating Partner with DCVC (Data Collective Venture Capital) (Palo Alto). He sits on the Board of one portfolio company, Capella, and is an observer to another, Fortem.
Prior to joining DCVC, Matt was a Managing Partner at Seraphim, a London-based, publicly traded venture capital firm focused exclusively on space. From October 2015 to July 2016, he was CEO of OneWeb.
Matt founded GeoEye (NASDAQ: GEOY), a leading global provider of satellite and aerial imagery and digital mapping information, in 2003. GeoEye grew from 60 employees producing $9 million of revenue per year, with an equity value of zero and enterprise value of $33 million, to 760 employees producing $360 million, with an enterprise value $1.3 billion and an equity value of approximately $850 million. In January 2013, he concluded its sale to DigitalGlobe.
Matt began his career on Wall Street as a mergers and acquisitions attorney.
Matt has been recognized as a thought leader in the satellite, digital mapping and intelligence industries. Â He has served on many Government and industry advisory panels.
Mr. Schmidt is a Managing Director at KippsDeSanto & Co., recently acquired by Capital One’s commercial bank, and co-heads the Aerospace & Defense Group, where he focuses on sellside and buyside M&A advisory engagements and sourcing growth capital. Key areas of experience includes space, defense electronics, and armaments. Prior to joining KippsDeSanto & Co., Mr. Schmidt worked at a competing investment bank where he helped create a leading Aerospace·Defense·Government Services industry banking group.  Notable space-related clients and assignments include multiple General Dynamics space businesses, BEI Precision, Orbital Sciences, GeoEye, and other space-component businesses.
Leading up to his entry into investment banking, Mr. Schmidt served in various combat arms assignments in the US Army across the globe and in various Joint and Army staffs working on classified intelligence assessments, equipment modernization, and weapons testing. Mr. Schmidt earned a B.S. in (aeronautical) engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an M.S. in operations research from the Naval Post Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is registered with FINRA as a General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7, 63).