Findings summary
Pete should work this as a tight defense-UAS connector campaign, not a broad drone-network sweep. The strongest tier-1 names in the extracted network are Bobby Sakaki, Daniel D Fuller, David A Lewin, Adam Abram, and Bryan Sardoch, because they combine real UAS or defense adjacency with network leverage that can open multiple doors before the conference.
The priority-company affiliation map is thinner than the earlier connector list because the local LinkedIn export captured 1,242 of 1,402 connections and only exposed name, headline, connection date, and profile URL. I attempted browser verification for missing LinkedIn checks, but Pete's signed-in Chrome session was unavailable, so the affiliation section below is dataset-backed only and should be treated as a strong first pass rather than a complete census.
Tier 1: true UAS superconnectors
| Rank | Name | Why they matter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Sakaki | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbysakaki/ | Bobby is one of the clearest UAS ecosystem nodes in Pete's network because his industrial-base and robotics positioning gives him reach across founders, suppliers, operators, and defense-adjacent drone builders. |
| 2 | Daniel D Fuller | https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldfuller/ | Daniel matters because his market-entry and growth work in autonomy gives him broad cross-company visibility into who is active, credible, and commercially relevant across unmanned systems. |
| 3 | David A Lewin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidalewin/ | David is a top-tier connector because his radar, GBDAA, and industry-media position puts him in regular contact with serious UAS operators, vendors, and facility-security stakeholders. |
| 4 | Adam Abram | https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-abram-827b63317/ | Adam belongs in tier 1 because Anduril is one of the highest-leverage nodes in Pete's network for defense-UAS access and his tactical-products role is close to real buying and deployment conversations. |
| 5 | Bryan Sardoch | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sardoch/ | Bryan makes the cut because his defense-innovation and partnerships remit suggests he can connect Pete into multiple adjacent programs, founders, and ecosystem operators rather than just one company thread. |
30 additional relevant people
| # | Name | Why they are relevant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walter Lappert | https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterlappert/ | Walter is relevant because his business-development role across Inside Unmanned Systems, xyHt, and Inside GNSS gives him broad visibility into the UAS vendor and adoption ecosystem. |
| 2 | Chris Simmons | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-simmons-97a64164/ | Chris is relevant because mission-critical communications for unmanned systems makes him a useful bridge into the payload, comms, and operational-integration side of defense UAS. |
| 3 | Joseph Segura-Conn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephseguraconn/ | Joseph is relevant because his Doodle Labs sales role directly maps to one of Pete's target exhibitor categories and likely gives him direct exposure to embedded-comms buying patterns. |
| 4 | Alexander Sjödahl | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-sj%C3%B6dahl-22250856/ | Alexander is relevant because AeroVironment is a named beachhead-validation target and his systems-engineering seat anchors a direct network path into that company. |
| 5 | Alex Klimaj | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklimaj/ | Alex is relevant because ARK Electronics is a named compute and production target and his founder role sits close to the U.S. drone-manufacturing supply chain. |
| 6 | Arief Azis | https://www.linkedin.com/in/arief-azis-168b315a/ | Arief is relevant because his Hoverfly background creates a direct link into one of the named compute-evaluation and DDP-expansion companies. |
| 7 | Ben Sørlie | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensorlie/ | Ben is relevant because his senior avionics role at Anduril offers another route into a top defense-UAS node without relying on a single contact. |
| 8 | Catherine Washburn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathwash/ | Catherine is relevant because flight test at Anduril puts her near real product validation and fielding work inside one of the most important defense-UAS companies in Pete's network. |
| 9 | Jansen Griggs | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansengriggs/ | Jansen is relevant because his national-security UAS and C-UAS role gives him program-side perspective on what is actually landing inside defense and critical-infrastructure missions. |
| 10 | Mike Dewhirst | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldewhirst/ | Mike is relevant because his EW, ELINT, sensors, and UAS mix ties him to the harder tactical edge of the drone market rather than generic commercial operations. |
| 11 | Ossian F. Vogel | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ossian-vogel/ | Ossian is relevant because tactical-drone production and Ukraine support make him a strong window into industrial-base realities and fast-cycle defense demand. |
| 12 | Robert Jacobson | https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertcjacobson/ | Robert is relevant because strategic-partnership work across complex industries and defense makes him a useful connector for adjacent aerospace and autonomy introductions. |
| 13 | Ryan Jarvis | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-jarvis-476870123/ | Ryan is relevant because his Brecourt and Naval background gives him credibility at the intersection of mission users, unmanned systems, and defense operations. |
| 14 | Kevin McDonald | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcdonald7523/ | Kevin is relevant because compliance infrastructure for autonomy is increasingly central to real deployment and he is positioned around trust and operating permission, not just demos. |
| 15 | Brian Richman | https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrichman/ | Brian is relevant because his Skydio product leadership gives Pete a read on a major U.S. drone platform player even though Skydio is not on the exhibitor list. |
| 16 | Samuel Miller | https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-miller-916a6a239/ | Samuel is relevant because his defense-tech and self-described connector profile suggests he can help route Pete toward active mission-focused operators and builders. |
| 17 | Scott Van Broekhoven | https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-broekhoven-290b838/ | Scott is relevant because ISR and tactical-systems leadership lines up with the sensor, autonomy, and mission-integration side of Pete's conference goals. |
| 18 | Paul DeBitetto | https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-debitetto-555b9a1/ | Paul is relevant because autonomous-systems work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory gives Pete a research-to-deployment bridge in a defense-relevant technical community. |
| 19 | Scott N. Miller | https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottnmiller/ | Scott is relevant because maritime autonomy broadens Pete's target set into adjacent unmanned systems buyers and operators that often overlap with defense-UxV programs. |
| 20 | Peter Lee | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptlee/ | Peter is relevant because his venture focus on robotics and autonomy can help Pete identify which companies and categories have real momentum versus conference noise. |
| 21 | Michael Rennie | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rennie-691008b8/ | Michael is relevant because he has growth and robotics leadership across federal, defense, and public-safety markets, which makes him a good cross-market signal source even if public safety is not the core focus. |
| 22 | Courtland Penk | https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtland-penk-b6159165/ | Courtland is relevant because his work on autonomous robotics points toward deployment design and human-judgment integration rather than hobbyist or operator-only drone activity. |
| 23 | Neeraj Bansal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bansalneeraj/ | Neeraj is relevant because HHLA Sky gives him exposure to dual-use drone infrastructure and critical-infrastructure deployments across multiple regions. |
| 24 | James Earl | https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-earl/ | James is relevant because he is building in European defense and can help Pete understand where drone-system demand is moving outside the U.S. prime ecosystem. |
| 25 | Amir Emadi | https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiremadi/ | Amir is relevant because AI, robotics, and critical-infrastructure defense capability is close to where next-wave unmanned deployments are likely to be funded. |
| 26 | Thad Marshall | https://www.linkedin.com/in/thad-m/ | Thad is relevant because business development and partnerships in defense tech are useful for getting fast directional truth on who matters at the conference. |
| 27 | Andrew Hazelton | https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlouishazelton/ | Andrew is relevant because government-relations and business-development work in a defense startup makes him a useful adjacency play for expanding Pete's target map beyond pure UAS exhibitors. |
| 28 | Sergey Georgiev | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergey-georgiev/ | Sergey is relevant because his ex-DJI and government-enterprise drone position gives him a broad operator and platform perspective across the UAS market. |
| 29 | Kevin Gallagher | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-gallagher-2a5133a5/ | Kevin is relevant because his program-management work in UAS and AAM makes him a solid adjacency contact for understanding integration and execution realities. |
| 30 | David Geisler | https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-geisler-38886610/ | David is relevant because UAS, ISR, autonomy, and sensor-integration experience still make him a worthwhile contact even though he is not a tier-1 superconnector for this specific ask. |
Priority-company and organization affiliation map
This section is based on the local linkedin_connections_dump.json extract only. Where a match is obviously a false positive from plain-text keyword overlap rather than actual employer affiliation, I marked it as such and did not count it as a real hit.
Objective 1: how customers view Lantronix
| Target | Match status | Person | Relevance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm | Match | Dev Singh | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dev-singh-1615697/ | Qualcomm is a named comparison node and Dev's industrial IoT leadership gives Pete at least one path into how Qualcomm frames embedded compute and edge adoption. |
| Qualcomm | Match | Cristina Dobrin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinadobrin/ | Cristina is another Qualcomm connection, though her XR product seat is less directly tied to UAS than Dev's industrial role. |
| ModalAI | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Connect Tech | False positive, not counted | Tony Skurr | https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-skurr-4a3822a/ | His headline says "I connect Tech Buyers & Sellers," which appears to be generic wording rather than affiliation with Connect Tech. |
| ADLINK | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Forecr | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Neousys | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| VersaLogic | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Doodle Labs | Match | Joseph Segura-Conn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephseguraconn/ | Joseph is a direct Doodle Labs sales contact and likely useful for understanding how OEMs and integrators view comms and edge payload requirements. |
| Silvus | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| TrellisWare | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| DTC | Match | Chris Simmons | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-simmons-97a64164/ | Chris is a direct DTC unmanned-systems contact and maps cleanly to the mission-critical communications lane in Pete's conference brief. |
| Microhard | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Mobilicom | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
Objective 2: beachhead validation
| Target | Match status | Person | Relevance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense Theater / MDEX programming generally | None found | — | — | No clear programming or exhibitor-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
| Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| U.S. Naval Research Laboratory | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Aerovironment | Match | Alexander Sjödahl | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-sj%C3%B6dahl-22250856/ | Alexander provides a direct network path into AeroVironment, one of the clearest named defense-UAS targets on Pete's list. |
| Kratos | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Kratos UAS | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| BAE | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Honeywell | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| General Dynamics | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Kongsberg | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
Readout note: public-safety validation is thinner here, and Axon, BRINC, and Skydio are not on the exhibitor list Pete provided, so they should stay contextual rather than primary for this conference.
Objective 3: compute evaluation landscape
| Target | Match status | Person | Relevance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoverfly | Match | Arief Azis | https://www.linkedin.com/in/arief-azis-168b315a/ | Arief's Hoverfly background gives Pete a direct path into one of the named compute-evaluation companies. |
| Hylio | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Verge Aero | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Avidrone | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Skyfish | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Wing Aviation | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Censys | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Event 38 | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Ainstein | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Birdstop | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Imago Aerospace | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Aurelia | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Aerora | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Red Cat | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| CubePilot | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| MicroPilot | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| ARK Electronics | Match | Alex Klimaj | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklimaj/ | Alex is a direct founder-level connection into ARK Electronics, which is one of the more relevant U.S. production and compute-adjacent targets on the list. |
Objective 4: DDP context and target-list expansion
| Target | Match status | Person | Relevance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neros Technologies | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Saronic Technologies | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Hoverfly | Match | Arief Azis | https://www.linkedin.com/in/arief-azis-168b315a/ | Arief is again the only clean Hoverfly hit in the extracted dataset. |
| Skyfish | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| ResilienX | None found | — | — | None found in the extracted 1,242-row dataset. |
| Michigan pavilion | None found | — | — | No clean Michigan pavilion or state-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
| Indiana pavilion | None found | — | — | No clean Indiana pavilion or state-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
| Maryland pavilion | None found | — | — | No clean Maryland pavilion or state-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
| Oklahoma pavilion | None found | — | — | No clean Oklahoma pavilion or state-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
| Ohio pavilion | None found | — | — | A plain-text Ohio mention appeared in a non-UAS AI community headline, but it is not a valid pavilion or employer-affiliation hit. |
| Virginia pavilion | None found | — | — | A plain-text Virginia Tech mention appeared in one UAS engineer headline, but it is not a valid pavilion or employer-affiliation hit. |
| North Dakota pavilion | None found | — | — | No clean North Dakota pavilion or state-affiliation hit surfaced in the extracted dataset. |
Confidence and limits
Overall confidence in the superconnector ranking is medium-high, and confidence in the affiliation map is medium.
Why confidence is capped:
- The local extract covers 1,242 of 1,402 connections, so roughly 160 connections were not available for ranking or company matching.
- The extract includes only headline-level fields, which means current employer matches are visible only when the person surfaced that employer in their headline.
- Browser verification was attempted but unavailable because Pete's signed-in Chrome session was not running, so I could not search LinkedIn directly for missed target-company affiliations.
What is dataset-backed versus unverified:
- Dataset-backed: every ranked person above, every listed company match, and every "none found" statement refers strictly to the 1,242-row local export.
- Unverified gap area: any target-company affiliations or older connections that sit in the missing ~160 records, or any existing connections whose current employer is not exposed in their LinkedIn headline.
What would most improve this brief:
- Re-run a full 1,402/1,402 LinkedIn connection export.
- Re-open Pete's signed-in Chrome session and verify the target-company list inside LinkedIn search.
- Add Pete's relationship-depth memory, because warm-but-stale connections should rank above cold-but-impressive names for actual conference outreach.