Board of Directors

RJ Arneson is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Element U.S. Space & Defense. He assumed the role at the inception of the proxy company in September 2022.
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Mr. Arneson is also President of RJ Arneson, LLC, a boutique consultancy that provides strategic guidance for mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments with potential national security implications. He is a member of several other boards with mitigation agreements under CFIUS and DCSA. He previously served with the National Security Agency (NSA) for over two decades in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility. Mr. Arneson worked in all major NSA directorates, where he applied his experience in signals intelligence, cybersecurity, foreign affairs, and research and development.

He was hired at NSA to establish strategic marketing practices on a par with those of private industry and to improve the agency’s rapport with customers and partners. Most recently, Mr. Arneson led the NSA team that provides technical analysis to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and Team Telecom. In that role he reviewed hundreds of cases, developed risk mitigation strategies and agreements where feasible to permit the commercial transaction to proceed while protecting U.S. national security interests. In addition, he ensured that FOCI mitigation was implemented through DCSA when required.

Prior to joining NSA, Mr. Arneson led marketing and business development activities for major aerospace & defense firms and small businesses. As an internal corporate consultant, he conducted operational reviews encompassing all functional areas of the business. He also planned construction and selected architects for a semiconductor manufacturing facility.

Rear Admiral Kevin Sweeney is a founding Director of Element U.S. Space & Defense Board. Rear Admiral Sweeney is a national security expert with decades of leadership experience both in and out of the government. He is the Founder and Principal of KSweeney Consulting, LLC, a national security consulting firm. In addition, he is the Senior Advisor at both McKinsey & Company and The Roosevelt Group. He is an Independent Board Member for AIRBUS U.S. Space and Defense Inc and the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics, and most recently was a Board Member for Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corporation.

He also serves as a Trustee for the James Barry-Robinson Home for Boys, a Board Member for the St. Patrick Catholic School in Norfolk, Virginia, and sits on the Advisory Board for the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey.

Rear Admiral Sweeney served as Chief of Staff to the 26th Secretary of Defense, James N. Mattis from January 2017 to January 2019. He was the primary advisor to the Secretary across the full spectrum of national security issues, from great power competition to counterterrorism missions, and oversaw the Department of Defense’s strategic initiatives and daily operations around the world.

Rear Admiral Sweeney served more than 32 years as a Surface Warfare Officer before retiring from the U.S. Navy in 2014. While in uniform, he served two years as Commander of Carrier Strike Group TEN and the Harry S. Truman Strike Group; Commander of Destroyer Squadron 26; and Commanding Officer of the USS Cole where he oversaw the ship’s restoration and return to fleet operations following the 2000 terrorist attack in Yemen. He also closely advised senior civilian and military leaders within the Department of the Navy, U.S. Joint Forces Command, NATO’s Allied Command for Transformation, and U.S. Central Command.

Between his retirement from active duty and return to the Department of Defense as a senior Presidential Appointee, Rear Admiral Sweeney held several leadership roles in the private sector. As Interim President and CEO of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, he guided the joint public-private corporation through a strategic review that successfully restructured corporate governance and realigned resources and internal processes. In addition, he served as Vice President of Track Patch 1 Corporation, a start-up dedicated to developing an innovative radio frequency patch to monitor the safety of Alzheimer’s patients. He also served on several boards during this time, including the Eastern Virginia Medical School Board of Visitors and the Old Dominion University Research Foundation Board of Trustees.

Rear Admiral Sweeney holds a B.S. in Resources Management from the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated with distinction from the Naval Postgraduate School with an M.S. in Financial Management, holds an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Michael Molino has been a Director on the Board of Element U.S. Space & Defense from the inception of the proxy company in September 2022.

Mr. Molino is a seasoned executive and thought leader in the defense marketspace. He currently leads corporate strategy and growth at SEACORP, an innovative engineering company, which is a leader in Navy Mission Systems. Mr. Molino has also worked as a lead corporate strategist at Leidos where he helped initiate the company’s transition from a traditional government services company to a defense contractor focused on in emerging technologies to support distributed warfare. Mr. Molino worked on efforts to support the Leidos proposals for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program at DARPA and the resulting SEAHUNTER vessel. He has participated in the Army Science Board and was a key contributor on the Manned-Unmanned Teaming study in 2018 and the Character of Future Warfare study in 2017 where he led discussion about how unmanned systems integrate with manned forces.  Early in his career, he worked with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency on nuclear weapons planning systems. He also traveled to the former Soviet Union working on the Nunn-Luger program to dismantle their nuclear weapons infrastructure.

Mr. Molino is a graduate of the United States Military Academy with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics, and of The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University with a Master’s in Business Administration.