Speakers

Mr. Radford is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Nauticus Robotics, Inc., an ocean robotics company deploying a robotic navy of autonomous vehicles from the surface to the seabed to combat climate change and the global impact on the world’s marine environment. He’s also founder and CEO of Jacobi Motors, a startup in stealth mode commercializing variable flux electric motors for the traction motor markets. In 2020, he launched Rad Capital Ventures, a fixed transmission rights hedge fund and serves as managing partner. During his career, he has raised over $300mm in investment capital.

Prior to his starting his companies, Mr. Radford spent 14 years at the Johnson Space Center and led NASA’s humanoid robotics efforts for future spaceflight missions and to the International Space Station, including both Valkyrie and Robonaut. Additionally, he was also the principal investigator for NASA in DARPA’s advanced electric machine research for robotics. Mr. Radford led NASA’s efforts in exoskeleton research for the International Space Station crew exercise and mobility assistance and initially served as Co-PI for NASA on DARPA’s Warrior Web program. He has extensive experience leading multidisciplinary teams in challenging development timeline environments. During Mr. Radford’s tenure at NASA, he was the recipient of numerous patents, design awards, and commendations for his expertise and leadership that ultimately culminated in him receiving NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal. He has been published several times on topics relating to spaceflight robotics and contributed to Springer’s Humanoid Robotics Handbook. Mr. Radford earned his B.S. and M.S. from Purdue University in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In 2017, Radford was the recipient of the Houston Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 Award. In August 2020, he was highlighted by Houston's Innovation Map as an innovator to watch. Nic lives in Nassau Bay, Texas and is married to his beautiful wife Inna (also a successful entrepreneur), and he has 3 children – Hannah, Christian, and Alexandra.

All times are presented in the host university’s local time zone.