Tellus Applied Sciences, Inc.

Henry "Tucker" Pierce, Jr., Co-Owner, President and CEO

Tucker Pierce brings more than 40 years of technical and business leadership experience to the Tellus management team. After earning an engineering degree from The Citadel, Tucker served as a military pilot for the US Air Force in Vietnam. After completing his service, he earned an MBA at Wake Forest University and an M.S., Physical Sciences, University of Houston. His early and mid-career technical management skills were developed through employment with NASA (as a Space Shuttle Flight Controller) and MCI (as a Launch Systems Engineer). He then spent fourteen years at Booz | Allen | Hamilton as a Principal and director of technical projects, developing a solid business management and client development background. During the next five years at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Tucker served as Senior Vice President in the Space Earth, and Aviation Sciences business unit and managed professional technical support engagements with NASA, NOAA, USGS and FAA. In 2006, Tucker started his own Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business, Tellus Applied Sciences, Inc.

Jane Pierce, Co-Owner and COO

Jane Pierce earned a BS Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota and a MS Computer Science from John Hopkins University. She worked as a communications flight controller at NASA-JSC during the first five years of the Space Shuttle program. She also worked as a communications engineer for American Satellite Co./Fairchild and GTE; and a communications software engineer for Hughes Aircraft Flight Simulation. She currently divides her time between software engineering and the Chief Operating Officer role at Tellus.

Michael L. Stancati, Senior Consulting Engineer, Space Sciences Division

Mike Stancati earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Illinois Institute of Technology M.S., a BGS in Computer Science from Roosevelt University, Chicago, and an MS in Operations Research from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has extensive experience in space mission planning and analysis, including thirty-four years experience leading and participating in development and analysis of mission design concepts, proposal evaluations, independent assessments and studies of mission feasibility, management, cost and schedule. He is a recognized space mission planner with specialties in management planning, project cost estimation and analysis, interplanetary trajectory design, and systems analysis/trade studies. Mike has over ten years line management (P&L responsibility) in aerospace engineering and seventeen years managing ID/IQ task order contracts for NASA engineering studies. From 1988 to 2007, he worked for Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) as contract manager for the principal source of engineering and management specialists who assist the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Science Support Office in its role managing all aspects of the acquisition process for new science missions. From 2007 to 2010, Mike worked as an independent consultant to NASA and contractor community specializing in cost and schedule estimation and related analysis, mission concept feasibility assessments, studies to support program planning, independent assessments and evaluation of current and proposed missions and concepts. Mike joined Tellus Applied Sciences, Inc. as a Senior Professional in 2010 and heads the Space Sciences Division.

Mark Bushnell, Senior Consulting Scientist, Oceanographic Data Systems Division

Mark Bushnell earned a BS degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Oceanographic Technology in 1977 and 24 post-graduate credits in Coastal Engineering from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. He worked at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami during 1978-1998. During 1998 – 2010 he was the program manager for the NOS Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) Ocean Systems Test & Evaluation Program (OSTEP) and he was a Level 1 FAC-COTR. As the first OSTEP program manger Mark was responsible for developing the program, and nurturing the supporting collaborative relationships. He retired from NOAA in 2010 after 31 years of service. Mark joined Tellus in 2010 as a Senior Professional and heads the Oceanographics Data Systems Division.