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The SIGHTER Team
Our team at SIGHTER represents a strong mix of experience, all passionately committed to realizing the SIGHTER mission. The team includes accomplished professionals in UX/UI design, application development, marketing, legal, and scientific research. Communication, community engagement, a deep understanding of the market culture and technical challenges in the space rounds out our startup roster.
David Coy, Founder
David is an accomplished leader with extensive experience in project management. His 15-year career in the tech industry, notably as a Senior Project Manager and PMP at Computer Sciences Corporation, allowed him to master the skills of guiding teams to success. In addition, he has created and operated several online businesses over the years, ones that remain durable, operating and profitable after 20 years. He’s been an Anytime Fitness franchisee and established a club that was a top 5% producing Anytime store for 6 years. David holds a B.A., Psychology from Wayne State University. He completed all course work leading to a Project Management Institute (PMI) PMP Certification from University of California Irvine. Other areas of expertise include critical and systems thinking, structured problem solving and root cause analysis.
Merav Knafo, Award-winning UX/UI Designer
Merav has designed and produced more than 20 web applications from dating sites and eLearning to nationwide photography scheduling, advertising apps and social network platforms. She’s won awards and more importantly, she’s won users and customer loyalty. Merav loves UX design and pays close attention to flow, to usability, and to user experience based on use case analysis and the application’s purpose. Merav bridges developers and end users, making sure that the software is easy for anyone to use. Merav believes that the best way to employ the skill of a developer is to give them very detailed specs and leave very little to interpretation. They can focus on writing beautiful and easily sustainable code, and the end user gets an application they can use—easily and instinctively. This is especially critical for the evolution of the SIGHTER app and brand.
Kathryn Price, Business, Contract and Equity Management
After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, Kathryn attended graduate school at Oregon Law with the idea of becoming an attorney. However, she quickly found a path in better alignment with her core values – professional training in Alternatives to Litigation, or Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). In efforts to maximize the opportunity, Kathryn earned a fellowship at the ADR Center at Oregon Law followed by being accepted as the first-ever intern from Oregon Law at the United Nations. During her time at the UN, Kathryn earned a fellowship from the Savage Endowment for International Relations and Peace. Kathryn completed an additional internship at the Oregon State Legislature as a Policy Analyst before graduating with honors. Kathryn will manage all aspects of SIGHTER investor reporting, contracts and compliance requirements.
Robert Powell, Cofounder and Partnership Liaison
Robert Powell is a founding Board member of the highly respected Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU). He was the Director of Research at MUFON from 2007-2017 and created MUFON’s Science Review Board in 2012. Robert is one of two authors of the detailed radar/witness report on the “Stephenville Lights” as well as the SCU report “UAP: 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico”. He is also the primary author on the recently published paper, “A Forensic Analysis of Navy Carrier Strike Group Eleven’s Encounter with an Anomalous Aerial Vehicle”, is a secondary author of a paper published in the journal Entropy entitled, “Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles”; and co-author of a book published in July 2012, entitled: “UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry”. Robert is a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration, the UFODATA project, and the National Space Society. Enthusiastic and fully supportive of SIGHTER’s innovative approach, mission and goals, Robert will play a critical and active role in developing SIGHTER’s partnership base, PR and public messaging, and partnership outreach efforts.
Douglas Buettner, Ph.D , Cofounder and Chief Technologist
Dr. Doug Buettner holds a Ph.D. in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering. He also has an M.S. in Physics with a minor in Atmospheric Science from Oregon State University and a B.S. in Physics from the same institution. With extensive experience, he’s contributed to classified programs for the DoD and conducted research for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s played pivotal roles in various startup companies, worked at The Aerospace Corporation for two decades, and advised multiple NASA and USAF projects. Currently, he teaches at the University of Utah and serves as Deputy Chief Scientist at the Stevens Institute of Technology, a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for the DoD. As a board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, Dr. Buettner plays an active and instrumental role in laying out SIGHTER’s technology roadmap. As an enthusiastic advocate of SIGHTER’s approach, his work is fundamental in guiding the app’s technical and operational evolution.
Richard Griffiths, Senior Advisor and Partnership Liaison
Richard Griffiths holds a B.Sc.(Special) in Physics from Imperial College, U. London and a Ph.D. from U. Leicester (1972) in the field of X-ray astronomy. He is Prof. Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University. Prof. Griffiths’ research interests have been primarily in X-ray astronomy, but he has also worked extensively on the results of deep surveys using the Hubble in visible light and these studies have concentrated on the evolution of galaxies with cosmic time. He continues to work on X-ray deep surveys, the ground-based identification and follow-up of X-ray sources, and gravitational lenses. Prof. Griffiths has over 300 publications in refereed journals. He is MUFON State Director for Hawaii. Prof. Griffiths will contribute to SIGHTER’s advanced capability planning and development and play an instrumental role in the framing of near-term collaborations with third-party tech providers, researchers and data licensees.
Braden Pilling, Senior Business Strategist
With over 25+ years as an executive manager and business owner across thirteen different industries from real estate to non-profit to software development, Braden is a seasoned business and operational strategist. Braden loves the entire evolution of building a business from ideation to formulating business, financial, and operational plans to implementation and sustained growth. He is Lean Greenbelt certified and is always looking for ways to optimize processes whether it is through a formal Value Stream Mapping Kaizen event or making small, daily improvements. Braden also views a company’s culture and their ability to collaborate, communicate, problem-solve, and manage change as a primary driver for delivering mission-critical results. Building SIGHTER’s business and operations on a balanced foundation of clients, finance, employees, and internal processes will maximize positive outcomes for all stakeholders.
Dan Williams, Advisor
Dan Williams holds a B.A. in Physics from Amherst College. He has 18 years of software industry experience as an instructor-led trainer, technical writer, product manager, and product planner at Microsoft, RealNetworks, Attachmate, and Stamps.com. Dan founded two startups, one of which was CompanyWay, a gamified online discussion tool that helped companies crowdsource innovation from their employees. Dan is currently a coordinator for the Society for UAP Studies, where he recently hosted a UAP citizen science workshop. Dan enjoys advocating for participatory science and supporting scientists in the UAP field. He also advises other commercial ventures in the UAP field.
Unnamed, Multi-Disciplinary Participants With an Iconoclastic Leaning – a Unique Blend of Competence, Demonstrated Passion, Project Planning and Execution Skills.
Always looking.