Founder & CEO

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I come from a family of exiles, fighters, and revolutionaries.

 

This fuels the vision and drive behind Xphera. And with this, every individual in our team plays a critical role in driving us forward.

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My dad escaped Vietnam into the ocean on a fishing boat passing the notice of the agents by hiding under blocks of ice in the fish bin. He made it to Malaysia before destroying his own boat. My mom escaped Vietnam the day Saigon fell under heavy gunfire on a small navy barge to Guam.

 

Since I was a child, I've been able to travel around the States, starting where I was born in Atlanta. Traveling to new cities, it's been a common feeling lost in new places, with city centers and crowded centers being a common place for this. I’ve been lost.

Science fiction has been showcasing the abilities in Star Trek and Tony Stark’s helmet to have the ability to map out one’s surroundings, provide real-time data, and highlight points of interest such as enemy positions, flight trajectories, and environmental hazards. Why not make this a reality for everyone? Solving the inadequacies of navigation was our mission in 2021 and drives us to where we are now.

 

I still remember what Steve told me when we were chatting about XPHERA’s work:

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“I love that — you’re actually one of those doers —” (Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple Inc.)

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

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Having spent years traveling through major international airports and transit systems, I've repeatedly seen how quickly spatial awareness breaks down once you move indoors or underground. My personal experiences navigating complex transfers at Newark Liberty International Airport, unclear signage in large terminals like Frankfurt Airport, and the language and layout challenges in the Charles de Gaulle Airport made the limitations of GPS immediately apparent.

 

Those experiences shaped my belief that spatial intelligence must be treated as core infrastructure—not a convenience feature. That conviction is what drew me to Xphera, where I now lead the day-to-day partnership strategy to position Xphera as the de facto alternative to GPS in environments where accuracy, context, and trust truly matter.

Senior Strategic Counsel to the Chief Executive

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At the start of 2026, we’re honored to welcome Lisa Valencia as Senior Strategic Counsel to the Chief Executive Officer. Lisa brings more than three decades of experience leading mission-critical navigation and flight-safety programs across government and industry. In March 2025, Lisa’s NASA team landed the first GPS receiver on the Moon in history, enabling GPS capabilities for the moon (LuGRE mission).

Lisa started her career as a SOHO Mission Engineer at NASA for the Packet Payload Processing System. During her time at the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Lisa managed the Autonomous Flight Termination System program now utilized by SpaceX—advancing onboard range safety capabilities to make real-time flight termination decisions if a launch vehicle goes off course. She also led the Space-based Telemetry and Range Safety project, helping prove how space-based communications can reduce reliance on costly ground systems during flight operations.

At XPHERA, Lisa will support our CEO with strategic and execution guidance as we build resilient positioning and navigation for critical infrastructure—on Earth, and in future space-enabled environments.

Head of GIS Engineering

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Ever since I can remember, I've been making things, and starting things in my own way and in whatever way interests me at the time. My heroes are the likes of Adam Savage, and I love spending time with and collaborating with my other maker friends, like JohnGabriel with his creation of Xphera.

 

One of my first public creations that I remember was building a wooden block tower that reached the ceiling of my classroom at Montessori in preschool. It was such a moving piece that one of my classmates asked for an autograph! My next big gig was creating an origami cell phone business in first grade, and after that I was hooked on making things, and sharing them with the world. I went on to make things like a dirt bike track, RC boat, bow and arrows, a metal foundry, custom PCs, various electronics projects, underwater robots, tree houses, 3D printers, a camper van, various software systems, GIS systems, and many more things.

 

I've learned life isn't just about making things, it's about making great things, and I'm currently on a quest to understand at a deep level what that means. What I've learned is that great things are simple. What is the simplest way you can make something before it becomes too simple? That is the solution. To make is to be human, to put a piece of yourself into the world with the beauty of constraint, to understand the world with all of your senses, and to learn what is possible and true.

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Xphera represents this concept of human creativity and exploration of the space around us. Creativity and experience can be a function of position in space, and there's always a balance of going and of being. During my adolescence, my father, brother, and I traveled to Antarctica on a research vessel to meet with extreme remoteness. Last year, I spent 9 days in complete silent meditation, living only off of charity.

 

In the first case, my sense of the known vs. unknown was shattered by going to a far away land. In the second case, my sense of everyday experience was shattered by simply paying more attention to my current position. We have much to gain from plotting trajectories to unknown positions, but of also closely studying the space around us. Xphera is dedicated to exploring this in order to improve the fundamentals of navigation from a first principles standpoint.

Machine Learning Scientist

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Mr. Lutterbach likes machine learning, mathematics, metal, Magic the Gathering, literature, German Shepards, and cats. Machine learning scientist at Booz Allen and previously solved logistics problems within the FAA through Cobec Consulting. Specializes in adversarial machine learning/AI and computer vision systems. After obtaining his Masters in Ops Research/Information Engineering from Cornell University, he conducted research on evasion attacks and data poisoning methodologies. Supports the design and deployment of XPHERA’s visual positioning systems and artificial intelligence (AI) pipelines.

Cloud Architect

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I’ve traveled through a variety of airports around the world, each with its unique charm and occasional challenges. I’ve navigated major hubs like San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, and Seattle, as well as international terminals in Panama’s Tocumen Airport and São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport. My journeys have also taken me through several Brazilian airports, including those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Porto Alegre, where the vibrant atmosphere often contrasts with the chaos of busy terminals. From the sleek terminals in Austin and Oakland to the smaller, more intimate spaces in Tampa, each airport has its own rhythm. While I haven’t had any truly epic lost-in-the-airport stories, I’ve certainly had my moments of confusion—whether it was frantically searching for a gate change in a crowded terminal or trying to navigate through a foreign airport where the signs and language were unfamiliar. Along the way, I’ve discovered that getting a little lost can sometimes be the best way to uncover hidden gems in both airports and cities alike.