Tory Bruno
Tory Bruno (born November 3, 1961 as Salvatore Thomas Bruno) is an American aerospace engineer, rocket scientist and executive. He has been the CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) since August 2014. Before ULA, he worked at Lockheed Martin, where he made the transition from engineer to executive. Early life. Salvatore "Tory" Thomas Bruno was born in Monterey, California in 1961 to Martha Scott Bruno nee Martin and Thomas Salvatore Bruno, a commercial fisherman. Tory was raised by his maternal grandmother, Virginia Martin née Krause on her small ranch in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains in Amador County . As early as nine, he was interested in rocketry. Inspired by watching the moon landings, Bruno was determined to build his own model rockets. When he found a case of 80 year old dynamite in the back of the barn, he used a pen knife to cut open the sticks and extract the explosives which became propellant for his homemade solid rocket motors. Education. Bruno graduated from Amador County High School. He also briefly attended Queen Anne High School in Seattle. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo , California, and has completed graduate courses and management programs at Harvard University, Santa Clara University, the Wye River Institute, San Jose State University and the Defense Acquisition University. Career. Lockheed Martin. Bruno started with Lockheed as a summer intern while still attending Cal Poly. He worked as a mechanical engineer in the quality assurance organization of the Missile Systems Division. He spent that summer working on various generations of the Fleet Ballistic Missile. Upon graduation from Cal Poly, he returned to Lockheed as a structures designer working primarily on the Trident I and II missiles. After a few years, he  transferred to the mechanical controls group. There, he developed experience in reaction and thrust vector control systems. These were applied to a wide variety of systems including the UGM-27 Polaris, UGM-73 Poseidon, Trident, LGM-30 Minuteman, and LGM-118 Peacekeeper as well as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle. Bruno also briefly supported the Space Shuttle. Eventually, Bruno joined the advanced programs team where he worked on new rocket technologies, filing patents, trade secrets, and invention disclosures. After several years as a control systems designer and analyst, he transferred to the propulsion department where he became a ballistician and ordnance engineer. United Launch Alliance . In August 2014, Bruno left Lockheed Martin to become the president and chief executive officer of United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Bruno's appointment came as ULA was facing increased competition from newer entrants into the space launch industry, especially from SpaceX with their Falcon 9 rocket, in addition to political pressure from the United States Congress to stop purchasing the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines for use on the Atlas V. Under Bruno's leadership, ULA responded to these issues by announcing Vulcan, a new rocket building on the technology of Atlas  V and Delta IV, using the BE-4 engine developed by Blue Origin.