As the director of operations for HEO USA, Hilary Cohen spends a lot of time making sure HEO is a known entity around DC.
HEO is an Australian Near-Earth Imaging (NEI) startup that opened its first US office in DC in December. As employee #2 at the DC office, Cohen describes her work environment as “a startup at a startup.”
“People know who we are but don’t know our full story and the full capability that we provide,” she said. “It’s been a lot of storytelling of who we are and what we do to government entities across DOD, IC, NASA, the Hill, and regulators… been a lot of that.”
Not the bad guy: One of the most common misconceptions she faces? That NEI presents ominous security challenges.
“I deal with that all the time; I actually had that conversation last night,” she told Payload, adding that the company also doesn’t sell images to adversaries such as Russia or China. “People are always afraid we’re gonna take pics of US spy sats and government sats. As an organization, we don’t do that.”
The path to HEO: Cohen decided to pursue a career in space after a Navy internship taught her about the service’s space capabilities. After graduating from San Diego State University, she spent five years at Velos, moving up to be the director of strategy and government relations.
Since joining HEO in January, Cohen has led 60+ engagements with 18 government agencies from the US, Canada, Israel, and Australia, according to her nomination.
Matchmaking: Cohen also recently took over running the DC-based “Friends of Space” happy hour, which is intended to bring together young professionals and more experienced space industry officials. Industry vets wear red name tags, and newcomers wear green.
“If you’re seeing a bunch of green or red name tags clumped together, that’s no good,” Cohen said. “The whole goal is to get people interacting with one another and comfortable talking to higher-ups.”
