Andrew Nelson

Andrew Nelson joined XCOR in 2008 from Morgan Stanley where he was an advisor to entrepreneurs, their companies, and other individuals with complex investment banking, estate, tax and financial management issues. He served his clients’ needs in the areas of private placements (debt and equity), complex financial transactions, corporate balance sheet transactions, and private financial matters of founders and other ultrahigh net worth individuals. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 2005, Andrew played a similar role at Lehman Brothers for five years. Prior to Wall Street, he spent approximately 15 years in the aerospace, aviation and space field. Andrew spent the first part of his career as an undergraduate engineering student intern on NASA Ames-sponsored projects developing one of the first differential GPS suites from 1981 to 1985 then working at Cape Canaveral for three years where he worked on classified navigation systems and range safety applications. He then joined MITRE Corporation where he led teams designing and implementing avionics systems in military and civil aircraft, and participated in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and U.S.-based regulatory and standards committees. Following that, Andrew worked as a senior management and strategy consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton for nine years. He led the international aviation and space team from offices in London and Paris and covered commercial and government clients in the space and aviation fields in Europe, Asia, the former Soviet republics and Latin America. Andrew has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University. He studied at the London School of Economics and has an MBA with a dual focus on Finance and Entrepreneurship from MIT's Sloan School of Management. In 2003 he founded the MIT CFO Summit, the premier annual forum for U.S. corporate finance executives. Andrew was the former Fundraising Chairman for the Alumni Fellows of the Emerging Leaders Program of Boston, a highly selective civic leadership development program. Andrew enjoys racing sail boats, from small dinghies to former America's Cup winners.