Tory Bruno

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Tory Bruno is the CEO of United Launch Alliance... a space launch provider for the United States Government and certain commercial satellite operators. He took over in August of 2014 just as the eight year old company transitioned from a sole sourced monopoly, focused on US National Security and NASA exploration missions, to a competitive environment. Tory's tenure to date has been marked by the initiation of a new launch system development, corporate transformation and substantially declining costs. Before coming to ULA, Tory Bruno worked for Lockheed Martin for 30 years. Beginning as an engineer and rocket scientist, Mr. Bruno eventually became the Vice President and General Manager of LM's Strategic Missile and Missile Defense Line of Business, Which he led for several years before coming to ULA.

Early Life

Tory (Salvatore Thomas Bruno) was born in Monterey California in 1961 to Martha Scott (Martin) Bruno and Thomas Salvatore Bruno. Thomas (Tommy) Bruno was a commercial fisherman. Tory was raised by his maternal Grandmother, Virginia (Krause) Martin on her small ranch in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains in Amador County.

The physical lifestyle was especially important for Tory who struggled with a physical disability. At an early age, Tory was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy that left his left arm and leg nearly paralyzed. Physical therapy and daily exercise returned the use of his limbs and reduced the handicap to a minor limp by high school.

His interest in rocketry began early. Inspired by watching the moon landings, Tory was determined to build his own model rockets. When he found a case of 80 year old dynamite in the back of the barn, he commenced construction. Using a pen knife, the 12 year old Tory cut open the sticks which were liberally sweating nitroglycerin, and extracted the explosives to become propellant for his homemade solid rocket motors.

He Graduated from Amador County High School as part of a class of 70 students. Tory briefly attended Queen Anne High School in Seattle when his grandmother relocated to care for her aunt who was over 100 years old at the timer. They returned to the Ranch in Amador County a year later.

Family

Tory is married to Rebecca (Isaacs) Bruno, whom he met in collage, also and Engineer. Tory and Rebecca have two childrend.

Education

Tory put himself through college. Upon graduation from high school, he began commuting each day from the Ranch to a community college in Stockton California. While a somewhat arduous, 150 mile daily round trip, this afforded an opportunity to start a degree in engineering.

While at San Joaquin Delta College, Tory earned money working as a Physics, Algebra and Calculus Teaching Assistant (TA), a Tutor, Planetarium Lecturer, and an Astronomer's Assistant at the Lick Observatory. He also taught an introductory physics class. Summers were occupied with other, often less academically focused jobs. These included Commercial Fisherman, Lumber Jack, Dishwasher, Forklift Driver, and others.

Having saved enough money for university, Tory took the advice of a professor and transferred to the California Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo where he earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1985.

In addition to the structured Mechanical Engineering degree, Tory also studied two concentrations: composite structures and control systems.

While employed at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Tory began an Engineering Masters program at San Jose State University. However, he interrupted his studies while assigned to the Palo Alto Research Laboratory leading a project to create and demonstrate a new type of steerable hypersonic vehicle. This assignment lasted for over a year, during which, the team worked 7 days per week with no days off.

Tory continued to take graduate courses in engineering and management for the next several years, but did not earn any further formal degrees. His graduate coursework occurred at San Jose State, Santa Clara University, Harvard University, The Wye River Institute, and the Defense Acquisition University

Career

Lockheed Martin

Rocket Scientist

Tory started with Lockheed as a summer intern while still attending Cal Poly. He worked as a Mechanical Engineer in the Quality Assurance Organization of the Missile Systems Division. He spent that summer working on various generations of the Fleet Ballistic Missile.

Upon graduation from Cal Poly, he returned to Lockheed as a Structures Designer where he worked primarily on the Trident I and II SLBM Missiles. After a few years, he transferred to the Mechanical Controls group. There, he developed experience in reaction and thrust vector control systems. These were applied to a wide variety of systems including the Polaris SLBM, Poseidon SLBM, Trident SLBM, Minuteman ICBM, and Peace Keeper ICBM as well as the Lockheed Launch Vehicle. Tory also briefly supported the Space Shuttle.

During this time, Tory lead a small team to sort out the root cause and generate design data to create a fix for the first Trident II sea launched development test which ended in failure.

Eventually, Tory joined the Advanced Programs team where he worked on new rocket technologies, filing patents, trade secrets, and invention disclosures. After several years as a Control Systems Designer and Analyst, Tory transferred to the Propulsion Department where he became a ballistician and ordnance engineer.

After a time, Tory was sent to the THAAD DEM/VAL (Theater High Altitude Area Defense Technology Demonstration and Validation) Program to lead the Structures, Ordnance, and Propulsion Development Teams. This missile defense program was initiated as an urgent need after the first Gulf War when Iraq had launched Scud missiles against coalition forces and Israel. Consequently, it was planned with an almost unrealistically short schedule and a "fly-fail-fix" strategy. After several high profile failures amidst the claims of skeptics that THAAD's unique Hit to Kill Technology was infeasible, success was finally achieved and the technology was proven. This Dem/Val program was then wound down to eventually be replaced by the THAAD Full Scale Program since completed and in Production.

Tory returned from THAAD Dem/Val to lead Lockheed Space Systems Company's Propulsion Design Group. Eventually he became the Propulsion Program Manager. This period of his career also saw a long series of special assignments leading the failure investigations of several systems that were in development or test.

Patents

Net Molded Tantalum Carbide Rocket Nozzle Throat. Patent 6,510,694, B4

Net Molded Tantalum Carbide Rocket Nozzle Throat and Method of Making. Patent 6,673,449 B2

Executive

Eventually, Tory became the Chief Engineer for the Fleet Ballistic Missile Program. His tenure there saw the transition of a major nuclear weapon system to a post Cold War stance, requiring restructuring and transformation.

Next, Tory became the Vice President of Engineering for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. Satellite programs during this time included MUOS, SBIRS, AEHF, MilStar, Gravity Probe B, GPS, and many others.

After a few years, Tory returned to THAAD as Program Manager to develop the now full scale, war fighting missile defense interceptor. Although the physics had be proven in the Demonstration and Validation Program, the THAAD EMD (Engineering and Manufacturing Development) Program then underway had numerous technical and programmatic challenges to make this technology into a practical weapon system. These were, however, overcome and THAAD now in production.

Once THAAD was in production and initial deployment with the Army, Tory became the Vice President and General Manager of the Strategic Missiles Line of Business at Lockheed Martin. This made Tory responsible for a multi-billion dollar business supporting America's Sea and Land Based Strategic Deterrent. His term there saw the redefinition of these missions and the transformation of the teams that made them possible.

After a few years, a much larger business was formed combining Strategic Missiles and Missile Defense Systems (SMD) under Tory's leadership. This encompassed a vast portfolio of programs including Trident, Minuteman Reentry, Ballistic Missile Targets, which simulate enemy capabilities, Directed Energy systems such as the Air Born Laser (ABL), ADAM and ALADIN Lasers, THAAD, and many others. Under Tory's tenure, this unit acquired Imes, Ltd in Scotland and also became part of the Joint Venture that runs the UK's AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) at Aldermasten. Including the the Joint Ventures, SMD encompassed a multi-bilion dollar business employing nearly 10,000 people located in the US, the UK, and other locations.

United Launch Alliance

In August of 2014, Tory left Lockheed Martin to become the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA is a joint venture owned in equal shares by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. ULA was facing numerous challenges at this time. While ULA had achieved an unprecedented record of success as the USG's monopoly provider for the prior 8 years, it was then entering into a very competitive environment driven primarily by the low cost space start up, Space X. Complicating matters, the Russian invasion of Crimea resulted in a broad outcry from Congress to immediately outlaw the Russian RD180 Rocket Engine employed on ULA's workhorse, the Atlas V Launch vehicle. This would have banned the Atlas V, and driven ULA from the market place.

Tory's tenure has experienced a moderating of the RD180 stance to allow time for an American engine to be developed in its place. A notable departure from tradition was ULA's partnership with Jeff Bezos through his space start-up Blue Origin to develop the BE4 as an RD180 replacement. The American engine will power a new launch vehicle, the Vulcan, which Tory started into development. This new system promises reduced cost, increased capability and a significant reduction in the complexity of ULA's current fleet of 3 rocket families in 41 configurations

The vast scale business transformation under Tory also includes a consolidation of ULA's supply chain into a smaller set of strategic partnerships, both lowering costs and generating private investment in Vulcan. The company structure itself has also been flattened, losing a third of its executives. Span times have also been collapsed. Innovations include RapidLaunch, which cuts the lead time to buy a launch by a factor of 10, and RocketBuilder.com, a website that allows users to build and price their own rocket with an unprecedented level of transparency. Unfortunately, these changes also involve significant headcount reductions at ULA as well

All of this has reduced ULA's prices by nearly 40% so far, while continuing to maintain a perfect reliability record in an industry where 1 failure in 10 is considered normal

Books

"Templar Organization, The Management of Warrior Monasticism", by S. T. Bruno

"Templar Incorporated", by Tory Bruno

references added substantiating Mr. Bruno's prominence in the Space industry and his frequent national news coverage

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