2026 Speakers | Space Beach Law Lab

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Elio Morillo

Elio Morillo is an Ecuadorian-born immigrant, space systems engineer, author, and advocate for Latino leadership in STEM. Raised in Puerto Rico and New York City, he earned his degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Systems Engineering & Design from the University of Michigan before joining NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At JPL, Elio helped lead the Mars 2020 mission, testing the Perseverance rover and working on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, where he authored the sequence that woke the helicopter for its first historic flight on another planet.

Today, Elio serves as Avionics Test Manager at Blue Origin, where he leads integration and testing of lunar landers that will help return humanity to the Moon. He is also the award-winning author of The Boy Who Reached for the Stars (HarperCollins), where he shares his inspiring life journey from Ecuador to NASA and Blue Origin.

Beyond engineering, Elio is a Lifetime Member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and an active advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through mentorship, media appearances, social media, and keynote talks, he empowers the next generation of leaders to break barriers, embrace resilience, and boldly pursue their dreams—both on Earth and among the stars.

Arthur Grijalva

Arthur F. Grijalva is the Director of SpaceWERX. He directs the strategy and execution of $460 million annually across the Space Force through the Ventures, Spark, and Prime

programs. His work focuses on expanding the defense

industrial base for advanced technologies, empowering

Guardian talent, and accelerating technology transition to operational capability.

His journey commenced upon commissioning from the U.S.

Air Force Academy, leading to his most recent role as the

Deputy Director for Acquisition Delta-Space Warfighting at

Space Systems Command where he managed a Presidential

priority multi-billion dollar classified portfolio. He holds an M.S. in industrial Engineering from New Mexico State University and is an alumnus of the University of Southern California’s SHIELD program.

Jae Um

An industry-leading voice on legal market economics, Jae has built a career helping lawyers innovate, price, and compete more successfully through client empathy and commercial acumen. Jae’s current brief is to guide legal teams and businesses seeking new pathways to deliver, measure, and communicate the value of their services in a rapidly evolving era of AI-enabled knowledge work.

The Second Horizon: How Lawyers Lead in Hyper-Growth Frontiers

Space companies are building and scaling in a true frontier, where the rules are still being written. Senior legal leaders face a core tension: a profession trained on process and rules now operating inside hyper-growth environments that demand judgment to drive outcomes.

In this keynote, Jae Um introduces practical mental models for leaders of legal functions in transformative industries. She shows how senior lawyers balance vision with execution, advise on risk without becoming risk-averse, and operate with credibility when precedent doesn’t exist. Drawing on real examples from fast-scaling growth sectors, the talk reframes the legal function as a strategic scout for enterprises reshaping the economy—enabling momentum, shaping risk-weighted growth decisions, and helping build the shared infrastructure the future requires.

This session is not about AI tools or operational tactics. It’s about how senior lawyers elevate their role, inspire and strengthen their teams, and contribute to industry formation by shifting from guarding process to enabling outcomes that matter.

SPEAKERS