Pierre Chao
Chairman of the Board
Pierre Chao brings over 36 years of aerospace/defense/government services investment, corporate strategy, M&A, entrepreneurship, equity analysis and policy analysis expertise. In addition to his role at Athenix Solutions Group, he is the Chairman of KeyLogic Holdings (2018-present), and was a member of the board of directors of KeyW Corporation (NASDAQ:KEYW) (2010-2016) and Vistronix Intelligence & Technology Solutions (2014-2016). He is the co-founder (2007 – present) of a Washington D.C. and London-based aerospace/defense M&A due diligence, strategy and market research firm, and in 2012 was a co-founder of an aerospace/defense private credit and minority equity fund with $477 million of assets under management. Pierre spent a decade (1994-2006) on Wall Street as a Managing Director and the senior aerospace/defense analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley. Over the course of his Wall Street career, Pierre’s team was ranked #1 by Institutional Investor every year eligible, he was on the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team every year eligible, the #1 aerospace/defense analyst in the 1995-99 Greenwich Associates polls. He participated in 31 landmark aerospace/defense equity offerings/IPOs raising $11.7 billion.
Pierre is also a guest lecturer at the National Defense University and the Defense Acquisition University. He was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to the Defense Business Board (2010-13), and has served on multiple Defense Science Board, National Academies, Army Science Board and Defense Innovation Board task forces. He was named to the Defense News 100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defense, named three times to the Wash100 award and the 2021 Washingtonian Tech Titans. From 2006-2016, he served on the Board of Advisors of Charity Works, a philanthropic non-profit that focused on supporting Washington DC area education and wounded warrior charities. Pierre earned dual bachelors degrees from M.I.T.
