SSPI at the Table: A Report from the 2026 Leadership Breakfast
The SSPI Leadership Breakfast is exactly what the name suggests: a gathering of people who lead. This year, chapter leaders, SSPI-WISE representatives, and delegates from corporate member organizations came together to hear where SSPI is headed and to weigh in on what matters most to the industry professionals they serve.
Three topics anchored the conversation: the campaign calendar, the state of our web platform, and new additions to the SSPI board of directors.
The Campaign Calendar: Three Topics, One Year
SSPI's content campaigns have always aimed to do something harder than produce content: they aim to move an entire community into a sustained conversation about a topic that matters. This year, three campaigns carry that ambition forward.
The Space Safety Economy is already underway, running throughout the full year. It frames space safety not as a compliance obligation but as a distinct and growing domain of economic activity encompassing situational awareness, intervention and servicing capabilities, human safety systems, and the standards and services that support them all.
The Defense of Space launches in late May and runs through June. It examines how governments, commercial providers, and ground infrastructure operators build resilience and sustain operational stability in an era of strategic competition across orbit, spectrum, cyber, and ground systems.
The Space Advantage: Energy Security picks up in November, exploring how satellite capabilities underpin grid reliability, infrastructure monitoring, renewable integration, and operational continuity for energy systems operating at the edge of geography and geopolitics.
Each campaign reaches audiences through multiple platforms: virtual roundtables, podcasts, video content, Orbiter features, and WISE all-members meetings. Local chapters are actively encouraged to host their own events around campaign themes. Any company or chapter planning to contribute content to a campaign should let SSPI know so that we can cross-promote it and ensure it is represented on the campaign's dedicated web hub at sspi.org.
The Web Platform: An Honest Assessment
The move to Glue-Up was made with high expectations. Those expectations have not been fully met. As chapters have engaged with the platform, limitations have become increasingly apparent.
We are actively evaluating a move to a new platform and are gathering information and recommendations. In parallel, we will be conducting a member survey asking a direct question: what would you like to see from our website? We want honest feedback about what is working, what is not, and what members actually need from an SSPI digital presence. Watch for that survey and please take the time to respond.
A Stronger Board: Two New Vice Presidents
SSPI is adding two new vice president roles to its board of directors. Both appointments reflect a deliberate effort to build governance capacity in areas where the organization has room to grow.
David Marshack, SVP, Auria has stepped forward to serve as Vice President for Chapter and Affiliate Strategy. David comes to this role as VP-Elect and will carry a clear mandate: ensuring that SSPI's chapter network, affiliate relationships, and regional engagement efforts are pulling in the same direction as the organization as a whole. He will serve as a resource to local chapters, ensuring that their needs are heard and integrated into SSPI's planning.
Alexis Martin, CEO of River Advisors joins as Vice President of Governance and Member Engagement. Alexis brings expertise in organizational governance and will help SSPI bring its governance documents into alignment with its current reality. His ongoing responsibility will be ensuring that members have meaningful ways to communicate with and influence the direction of the organization. The annual meeting is the primary vehicle for that engagement, and the Leadership Breakfast is its precursor.
The SSPI annual meeting will take shape over the coming year, and we look forward to building it into something worthy of the community it serves.
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