Leading Dream Jobs in Aerospace with Celeste Ford and Janet Grondin

Join us as we talk to Celeste Ford, board chair and founder of Stellar Solutions, and Janet Grondin, CEO of Stellar Solutions, about leadership transitions, aerospace, connecting the dots and creating dream jobs.

Show Notes:
(7:30) After the leaders introduce their stories, we talk about creating a long-time vision. Janet and Celeste share Stellar Solutions’ vision to satisfy customer critical needs while realizing your dream job, and they break down what that means to them. Janet and Celeste share how the landscape in aerospace has changed – that the money is no longer all from government and how that has required more connecting of the dots across the industry.

(13:30) Next, we talk about creating dream jobs and how they know they have succeeded. We get to talk about the Baldrige framework; Janet and Celeste’s actionable advice and their secret sauce – hint it’s about including everyone!

(20:55) Culture – the leaders share how they create something bigger than themselves, develop a team living the culture and how they provide 9 weeks of paid time off!

(28:15) Janet and Celeste share breakthroughs on remote work to keep everyone connected (no one size fits all!) and leaning into the big concept of deployment.

(33:25) Part 1 of the conversation wraps up with one piece of advice from Janet and Celeste but there is plenty more coming your way next episode when we talk to them more.

About Celeste: She founded Stellar Solutions in 1995 and served as CEO until 2018 with the mission to deliver high-impact performance for defense, intelligence, commercial, civil and international clients. She established Stellar Solutions Foundation in 1998, QuakeFinder humanitarian R&D program in 2001, and expanded Stellar’s global presence. She launched Stellar Ventures in 2022 to invest in the next generation of space technology companies. Celeste is Board Chair and Founder of Stellar Solutions, Inc., a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-winning aerospace engineering company. She is Managing Director at Stellar Ventures.

About Janet: She is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stellar Solutions Inc., a small, woman-owned business and leading provider of high-impact engineering services to significant intelligence, defense, civil, commercial, and international customers for the past 29 years. Prior to this role, she served as Vice President for Intelligence Programs, Vice President, Defense Programs and Director of Emerging Space Capabilities. Janet is a former Northrop Grumman Director and a retired USAF Colonel with 30+ years of experience in navigation, remote sensing, satellite communications, launch, space superiority, and launch ranges.

Resources:
www.stellarsolutions.com

https://baldrigefoundation.org

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