We are committed to bringing together experienced leaders, scientific knowledge, and proprietary data to represent the physical world in a a digital space. We are unlocking new opportunities to operate, collaborate, and innovate.
Winning Team
Shawn Springs
Chief Executive Office
Shawn Springs is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Windpact, a Materials Data and Technology company located in Leesburg, Virginia. He leads an organization driving innovation and accelerating development by providing critical data and analysis tools. The company’s technology helps clients solve difficult manufacturing challenges, enabling brands to move into a new era of product development.
His inspiration behind the founding of Windpact stemmed from 13 seasons playing football in the NFL. Drafted third overall in the 1st round of the 1997 draft, he spent time with the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Football Team, and New England Patriots.
Shawn completed a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from The Ohio State University. As a member of the football team, he was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten Athlete and Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year in 1996.
He is a TEDx presenter, giving a talk entitled “Tackling Helmet Protection Head On.” Shawn is a board member of Boulder Crest Foundation, supporting combat veterans, first responders, and their families working through traumatic brain injury. He has pledged to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation in support of CTE and Concussion Research.
Born in Williamsburg, VA, Shawn attended high school in Silver Spring, MD and currently resides in Northern Virginia, where he can be found in his free time coaching football to his kids.
Shawn Springs
Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Perkins
VP of Design & Development
Kenneth is an experienced and passionate design leader, with 10+ years in consumer goods. He is currently the VP of Design and Development at Windpact where he leads the company’s commercial strategy. He is also responsible for business development and strategic partnerships and has worked directly with large retailers such as REI, Target and Dicks Sporting Goods and major licensed partners like Champion, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Bahama & Sperry Top-Sider.
Prior to Windpact he led design and development at Bern Helmets where he partnered with major companies like Bird and Lime to champion head protection in the Micromobility space. His experience with overseas manufacturing and the design and development process has allowed him to bring hundreds of successful products to market, across numerous categories.
Perkins design inspiration and dedication to creating meaningful products and experiences is sparked by his insatiable love of travel. Born and raised in Northern Virginia, he studied Industrial Design at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit. He has traveled to over 22 countries, spanning 5 continents and after stops in Boston and Dallas, he currently calls Brooklyn, NY home.
Kenny Perkins
VP of Design & Development
Brent Ewald
VP of Informatics & Engineering
Brent is Windpact’s Vice President of Informatics and Engineering, leading the development of Additive Manufacturing and Data Solutions for product development. Before joining the Company, he was a Solution Architect for HP’s Personalization and Industrial Business (PIB), developing digital solutions for targeting applications and verticals. Ewald also spent four years working in research and development of the technologies that enable HP’s 3D printing process. Prior to HP, Ewald worked in many sectors including Automotive, Energy and Industry sponsored research projects while in academia.
Brent’s grasp of the complex and the ability to distill it down to only the important aspects and his ability to communicate how this makes products and people’s lives better is driven by his desire to make the world better for the next generation. Born and raised in South-Eastern Michigan, he studied Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University before getting his M.S.E from the University of Michigan.
Brent Ewald
VP of Informatics & Engineering
Kaarta Maron
Chief of Staff
Kaarta Maron is the Chief of Staff at Windpact currently helping oversee the in-house operations and external marketing efforts for Windpact, where she was one of the original team-members strategizing the vision and assisting founder and CEO Shawn Springs with the development and delivery of the tech start-up. She has spent her career designing strategic communications, coordinating events, managing public relations and facilitating operations in roles that supported businesses, professional sports individuals and not-for-profit organizations.
Her experience in communications, marketing and non-profit engagement has included spearheading the Springs for Life Foundation, organizing a variety of sports charity initiatives and overseeing notable endorsement deals and public speaking engagements. A passionate sports enthusiast, she started her career managing community relations for the Seattle Seahawks, as well as assisting the Seattle Sonics with media relations.
Kaarta is currently working towards her MBA at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at William & Mary. She holds a Bachelors degree in English from Willamette University. Originally from Bainbridge Island, Washington, she currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia.
Kaarta Maron
Chief of Staff
Max Moyer
General Counsel
Max Moyer is General Counsel for Windpact, as well as the Founding Partner at Triumph Law. Prior to joining Windpact, Max practiced law at Cooley LLP as an associate in their Venture Capital and Mergers and Acquisitions practice groups. He specialized in venture capital and private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, and the representation of technology and emerging growth companies. Max earned a BA from Middlebury College and a JD from Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, he earned a joint Law & Business Certificate from the Owen School of Management. Max is a member of the Virginia State Bar.
Max Moyer
General Counsel
Alaia Masuda
Sr. Business Operations Analyst
Alaia Masuda is the Lead Systems Engineer at Windpact, directly supporting the company’s tactical execution of big-picture strategies and initiatives as well as acting P&L leader for the military/government vertical. Alaia initially joined the Windpact team in 2018 as an engineering intern and promptly joined full-time upon graduating from Rutgers University. A cum laude graduate, Alaia holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering and is a Certified Scrum Master, bringing an engineering perspective to the operations role while simultaneously supporting Windpact’s engineering teams from a project management role.
While at Rutgers, Alaia was a “Top 4” executive board member of the Rutgers University Biomedical Engineering Society, a heavily involved member of the Rutgers Association of Philippine Students, and spent time as a Global Brigades volunteer in Nicaragua. Prior to her studies at Rutgers, Alaia graduated from the Academy for Engineering and Design Technology of Bergen County Academies, a technical magnet school of New Jersey.
Alaia has been practicing various Martial Arts for most of her life, mainly Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, bringing her discipline, perseverance, and “learning and executing best when thrown in the deep end” attitude to the Windpact winning team. She also enjoys watching American football–go NY Giants!
Alaia Masuda
Sr. Business Operations Analyst
Brian Coyne
Project Engineer
Brian is a Project Engineer at Windpact with a focus on commercial applications. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Brian has a BS in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Biomechanics and Mathematics. At Pitt, he studied the effects of tension and compression on varying ligaments and tendons and developed physical prototypes to solve certain issues including patient migration in hospitals and a device to pull tendons in tension underwater.
An athlete, he competed in soccer, football, and baseball throughout high school and college, winning back to back PA state titles in football.
Brian Coyne
Project Engineer
Parker Benzie
Project Engineer
Parker Benzie is a project engineer at Windpact with a heavy focus on finite element analysis (FEA) and the execution of Windpact’s material database. Parker graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Biomedical Engineering. While there, he was able to work in a variety of areas, ranging from FEA of a test dummy for the army, disease modeling in mice, and creation of medical device prototypes for underdeveloped areas.
Parker grew up playing soccer, and has journeyed to Sweden, Denmark, and England to play in and attend matches.
Parker Benzie
Project Engineer
Casey Charron
Project Engineer
Casey Charron is an Engineer at Windpact. Born a Hokie, Casey graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. She worked at the Helmet Lab for two years as an undergraduate impacting sports helmets and analyzing acceleration data to evaluate concussion risk. Reflecting her love of travel and experiencing new things, Casey also participated in a global engineering program where she traveled to Italy, Switzerland, and Germany while learning about the value of cultural diversity in engineering.
In her free time, Casey is likely watching or playing sports — she participated in 10 different intramural sports at VT, from flag football to innertube water polo.
Casey Charron
Project Engineer
Advisors
Windpact is supported by a respected group of professionals who understand the importance of the team’s mission and provide their leadership, expertise and business acumen to ensure the company is building smartly and achieving milestones.
Business Advisors
Katherine Hill Ritchie
Founder & CEO, Private Capital Investments
Katherine Hill Ritchie founded PCI while she was working in Geneva, Switzerland in 2009 when she realized there was a need for personalized investment services for family offices beyond typical brokers, bankers or wealth managers. Before working in Geneva, Ms. Hill Ritchie was in New York City, where she worked as a Director for Wedge Alternatives, a family office backed fund marketing firm and also the fintech database, Hedgefund.net. Katherine received her MBA from the Fordham Graduate School of Business and her BS in Psychology from the University of Maryland. She is an Angel Investor interested in environmental and impact investments and has personally invested in and supported female and diverse founders of companies and funds.
Katherine Hill Ritchie
Founder & CEO, Private Capital Investments, LLC
David Amirault
Founder of Air-Protect Technology
David is the inventor of Safety First’s Air Protect technology. Air Protect is the cornerstone of Windpact’s founding. Amirault invented the technology while working as the Director of Engineering and Product Development at the Dorel Juvenile Group. David is currently the Vice President of Marketing at Sterno Products.
David Amirault
VP of Marketing, Sterno Products & Inventor of Air Protect
Lou DiPietro
Global Sales & Marketing, W.L. Gore
Lou is a Global Sales and Marketing Leader for Gore-Tex Consumer Goods. Lou spent 16 years working in Gore-Tex’s shoe division before crossing over to lead the Sales and Marketing efforts of Elixir Strings, a division of Gore-Tex.
Lou DiPietro
Global Sales & Marketing, W.L. Gore
Mike Millegan
Retired President, Verizon Global Wholesale Group
Mike is the retired President of Verizon’s Global Wholesale Group and a former member of the Verizon Leadership Committee decision team (top 15 execs at Verizon). As head of the Global Wholesale Group, he was responsible for $11 Billion in annual revenue and 13,000 employees providing coverage to Asia, Europe and North and South America. He currently sits on the advisory board of Finsphere, a leader in mobile identity authentication. Mike was named to the Black Enterprise Top 100, Global Telecoms Top 100, Savoy Top 100 and is a member of the Global 50. He holds an MBA and BS in Business Administration from Angelo State University.
Mike Millegan
Retired President, Verizon Global Wholesale Group
Scientific Advisors
Ed Herderick
Director of Additive Manufacturing, The Ohio State University
Ed Herderick is the Director of Additive Manufacturing at The Ohio State University Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME). He is responsible for all additive activities supporting CDME’s mission to provide industrial education to students, user facilities for faculty and partners, and bringing manufacturing innovation to Ohio industry. Ed received his PhD from The Ohio State University in Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to joining OSU he was the Global Sales Leader for Portable NDT products at GE Inspection Technologies. As part of that role he led an initiative on inspection and NDT of additively manufactured metal parts.
Ed Herderick
Director of Additive Manufacturing, The Ohio State University
Jay Sayre
Ph.D. Engineer
Jay Sayre is an Engineer at Windpact. Additionally, Jay works as the Asst. Vice President of Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability and the Director of Innovation for the Institute of Materials Research at The Ohio State University. Previously, Jay spent 16 years as the Director of Internal Research & Development, Energy, Health and Environment at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH. Jay has a BS in Chemical Engineering and a PHD in Materials Engineering Science from Virginia Tech and an MS in Polymer Engineering from The University of Tennessee.
Jay Sayre
Ph.D. Engineer
Fio Omenetto
Associate Dean for Research, School of Engineering, Tufts University
Professor Omenetto, the Associate Dean for Research at the School of Engineering at Tufts University, focuses his research heavily on interdisciplinary themes that span nonlinear optics, nanostructured materials (such as photonic crystals and photonic crystal fibers), optofluidics and biopolymer based photonics. The Omenetto Laboratory has pioneered the use of silk as a material platform for photonics, optoelectronics and high-technology applications and is actively investigating novel applications that rely on this new technology base. Fio received a PhD from the Universita’ di Pavia, Italy in Electrical Engineering/Applied Physics and a Laurea (MSEE) from the Universita’ di Pavia, Italy in Electrical Engineering.
Fio Omenetto
Associate Dean for Research, School of Engineering, Tufts University
Mark Pankow
Ph.D. Engineer
Mark, an engineer for Windpact and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University, specializes in the mechanics of materials,