My time at Purdue taught me to surround myself with people that shared common goals and wanted to make a difference in the world; that being a part of a great team was where each member of the team brought their piece of the solution to the challenge and encouraged one another to excel. Those types of teams do make a difference.
Mike Dreessen has over 35 years of experience in engineering and program management. He is the Executive Director of Missile Defense and Space Systems (MD&SS) Engineering in General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS), providing engineering oversight for railguns, high energy storage and delivery systems, hypervelocity projectiles, glide bodies, missiles, satellites, specialty payloads, and aerospace systems design, development, integration, and test. Dreessen joined Miltec Corporation in August 1999, where he served as the Vice President of Engineering. Miltec was acquired by GA-EMS in March 2016.
Dreessen is responsible for the overall management of the MD&SS engineering and technician staff and coordinating staffing and facility requirements supporting the program managers within GA-EMS.
He also served as the Program Manager for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon Technology Demonstration Program. As Program Manager, he was responsible for managing program cost and schedule and for providing overall technical and resource coordination between all 16 industry teammates and the government partners (USASMDC/ARSTRAT, Sandia and AMRDEC).
Previously he served as the Integrated Product Team lead for avionics, power network and ground support equipment for the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile and Low Cost Interceptor programs; Product Development Team lead for the Space Vehicle on both SMDC’s Advanced Space Vehicle Development and Army Counterspace Technology Testbed programs; Program Manager of the Infrared Instrumentation System airborne IR data collection system integrated on a Gulfstream IIB aircraft; Program Manager for Theater Missile Defense at CACI Automated Sciences Group; and Assistant Program Manager and Lead Engineer for Teledyne Brown Engineering in the HEDI Test and Integration Program.
He received a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue in 1983.