Michael also hosts and produces the IBM Center’s The Business of Government Hour. The purpose is not to offer definitive solutions to the many management challenges facing executives, but to provide a resource from which to draw practical, actionable recommendations on how best to confront such issues. My work at that the Center complements frontline experience of actual government executives with practical insights from thought leaders who produce Center reports – merging real-world experience with practical scholarship. As the Center’s Leadership Fellow, his work is at the nexus of the Center’s mission – connecting research to practice. Michael leads the IBM Center for The Business of Government's leadership research.
Michael has two decades of experience with both the private and public sectors encompassing strategic planning, business process redesign, strategic communications and marketing, performance management, change management, executive and team coaching, and risk-financing. She is also a certified foresight practitioner and guest instructor at the Institute for the Future and the Center for Intelligence Studies. Before that, she was at Packer Engineering, where her contributions were key to winning Phase II funding via a NASA Small Business in Innovation Research (SBIR) award for extracting oxygen from lunar soil.Ĭunzeman received her bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary engineering and a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from Purdue University. Prior to working at Aerospace, Cunzeman held roles in space systems engineering, vehicle operations, and space sensor development at Raytheon and General Atomics. Cunzeman joined Aerospace in 2015, and served five years with Aerospace’s Project West Wing, providing thought leadership and strategic insight into critical issues for the nation spanning global space advancements, technology development, and threat futures to a broad range of customers across Department of Defense, intelligence community, and civil sectors. Cunzeman is trailblazing a new product line in strategic foresight for the corporation and is resolute in transforming opportunity mindsets for an abundant future space enterprise. In her role, Cunzeman is focused on cultivating a formalized approach to futures thinking at Aerospace through the strategic foresight Corporate Strategic Initiative (CSI), helping the enterprise adequately prepare its organizations and capabilities to proactively shape the future through innovative approaches across strategy, acquisition, science and technology portfolio management, policy, and operations.
Kara Cunzeman is a senior project leader for strategic foresight for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.