Our Leadership
Our leadership team combines deep expertise, strategic vision, and a shared commitment to advancing mission-critical undersea capabilities that support the evolving needs of allied naval forces.
Carlo Zaffanella
President & CEO
Carlo Zaffanella
President & CEO
Carlo Zaffanella is President and CEO of Ultra Maritime, joining the company in 2022 when it was acquired and brought private by Advent International. Carlo proudly leads an extraordinary group of more than 2,000 people worldwide in the innovation, development, production and support of undersea warfare solutions for five eyes nations and their allies. Under his leadership and through significant investment and rapid expansion, Ultra Maritime has rebuilt itself as the leader in autonomous and modular capabilities suited to the demands of modern undersea sensing and anti-submarine warfare, while building on a rich legacy of world leadership in critical undersea warfare technologies like acoustics and specialty packaging.
Prior to joining Ultra Maritime, Carlo was Vice President and General Manager of the maritime business of General Dynamics Mission Systems, leading a national team of more than 3,000 people across a broad array of primarily naval defense programs and technologies.
Carlo earned his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a proud member of the board of Soldier On, a nonprofit dedicated to helping homeless veterans, and he is a trustee of Berkshire Community College.
Marcus Onvani
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Marcus Onvani
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Marcus Onvani is the Chief Financial Officer of Ultra Maritime, a role he has held since September 2022. He leads the company’s Finance and Accounting organization, as well as the Information Technology function. In partnership with the Chief Executive Officer and Advent International, Ultra Maritime’s private equity shareholder, he drives strategies aimed at maximizing longterm shareholder value.
Before joining Ultra Maritime, Marcus served as Senior Vice President of Finance at private equity-backed GKN Aerospace. He previously held a range of executive leadership roles in the aerospace and defense industry, including at Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
Marcus studied at Northwestern University and the University of Texas, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Science in Quantitative Finance and additional graduate credentials.
Greg Kelble
Chief Human Resources Officer
Greg Kelble
Chief Human Resources Officer
Greg Kelble is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Ultra Maritime, joining the company in October 2022. He brings to this role significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, culture change and leadership development in both public and private equity environments.
Previously, Greg was Chief Administrative Officer at Sparton Corporation, overseeing human resources, compliance, communications, marketing, real estate and risk management after its acquisition by Cerberus Capital Management. He also served as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Cerberus Operations & Advisory Company, and held senior HR leadership roles at AMETEK, MSCI, Honeywell and BOC Group.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Marquette University and a Master’s degree
in Industrial/Organizational psychology from the University of West Florida.
Mark Kenny
Senior Vice President, Strategy, Technology & Business Development
Mark Kenny
Senior Vice President, Strategy, Technology & Business Development
Mark Kenny is the Senior Vice President for Strategy, Technology and Business Development, joining the company in January 2023. He is responsible for the strategic and business growth of Ultra Maritime, and for the development and rapid fielding of new, ground-breaking technology.
Mark was a nuclear submariner and retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with operational and Pentagon leadership tours in undersea warfare, unmanned fielding and counterterrorism. Following his naval service, Mark held various roles as Vice President and General Manager for Anti-Submarine Warfare and Unmanned Maritime Systems at L3Harris and Northrop Grumman, and was President of Adaptive Methods before its acquisition by L3Harris.
Mark received a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy and Master’s degrees in National Security Strategy from the Naval War College and Salve Regina University, and is a graduate of the MIT Seminar XXI program for national security. Mark serves on the Board of Directors of the Naval Submarine League and the Undersea Warfare Division of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).
Danielle Willard
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Danielle Willard
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Danielle Willard is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Ultra Maritime, joining the company in March 2023. She leads the company’s risk-related functions, including legal, contracts, security and compliance, bringing an integrated, business-focused approach to risk management across the enterprise.
Previously, she led Jacob’s Risk Management Group for the Divergent Solutions line of business, supporting a $1B cyber and intelligence U.S. government contracting portfolio and overseeing legal, contracts, procurement, security, facilities, health and safety, quality and cyber governance.
Danielle earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law while working full time as a paralegal and trade compliance professional at The KeyW Corporation.
Laura Wilde
Vice President, Quality
Laura Wilde
Vice President, Quality
Laura Wilde serves as the Vice President of Quality at Ultra Maritime, joining the organization in 2023. In this role, she provides strategic leadership for the company’s quality programs, ensuring that products, processes and systems adhere to rigorous standards and all applicable regulatory requirements.
She directs teams dedicated to advancing continuous improvement initiatives, mitigating organizational risk and enhancing customer confidence. Laura’s career includes senior quality leadership positions of increasing responsibility across the aerospace, defense and automotive sectors, including key roles at L3Harris and TransDigm.
Laura holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Indiana Wesleyan University. She serves on the Board of Directors for Women in Manufacturing, a global trade association dedicated to supporting, promoting and inspiring women with careers in the manufacturing industry.
Katie Ducharme
Vice President, Supply Chain Management
Katie Ducharme
Vice President, Supply Chain Management
Katie Ducharme is the Vice President of Supply Chain Management at Ultra Maritime, joining the company in 2023. She brings more than 30 years of supply chain, program management, engineering and leadership experience to her role, leading a team responsible for the subcontract management and procurement of all material, services, and support across the company. Under her leadership, the Supply Chain organization has become a strategic advantage for Ultra Maritime, successfully negotiating and executing supplier contracts to ensure customers receive high quality parts on time.
Previously, she served as the Business Segment Director for Surface Ship Warfare Systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems and held positions of increasing responsibility in supply chain, engineering, program management and quality at General Dynamics, Raytheon and CAES. Katie began her career as a Military Police Officer in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Captain.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Katie serves on the Board of Directors for Soldier On, a private nonprofit dedicated to ending veteran homelessness.
Robert Van Dyke
Vice President & General Manager, Seaborne Sensors & Systems
Robert Van Dyke
Vice President & General Manager, Seaborne Sensors & Systems
Robert Van Dyke is the Vice President and General Manager of the Seaborne Sensors and Systems line of business, joining Ultra Maritime in November 2022. In this role, Robert is responsible for the growth of major programs that include Next Generation Surface Search Radar (NGSSR), countermeasures and torpedo nose arrays. He previously held the position of Senior Vice President of Operations at the company.
Prior to joining Ultra Maritime, Robert was the Vice President of Operations for Advent International backed Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES), playing an instrumental role in leading the transformation of the business to improve customer satisfaction, quality performance and overall business profitability. Robert has held leadership roles in operations, engineering and business development throughout his career in the aerospace and defense industry.
Robert holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration.
Gabe Kopin
Vice President & General Manager, Airborne ASW
Gabe Kopin
Vice President & General Manager, Airborne ASW
Gabriel Kopin is the Vice President and General Manager of Ultra Maritime’s Airborne ASW line of business, joining the company in 2022. Gabe leads the organization responsible for the U.S. sonobuoy and receiver portfolio. Under Gabe’s leadership, Ultra Maritime successfully qualified the newest generation of all five independent U.S. sonobuoys and has transitioned manufacturing lines for high-volume independent production.
Gabe previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer of both Ultra Maritime and Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (now “CAES by Honeywell”). Gabe is a seasoned business operator, transformation leader, strategist and engineer — with experience spanning commercial, industrial and global defense markets.
Gabe graduated from The University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University.
Wayne Clifton
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime UK
Wayne Clifton
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime UK
Wayne Clifton is Vice President and General Manager of Ultra Maritime UK, a role he assumed in April 2023. Wayne leads a team that designs, builds and delivers intelligent solutions across surface and subsurface platforms to support and protect allied navies.
Wayne brings extensive experience in the delivery of large, high-profile programs across the air, land and maritime domains. Prior to joining Ultra Maritime, Wayne spent more than 25 years with Leonardo and its predecessor organizations, including Selex Galileo, BAE Systems and GEC Marconi, where he held a number of senior leadership positions with full profit and loss accountability. Throughout the last 15 years, he has led, stabilized and grown four international businesses in succession, with leadership focused on building strong teams and empowering people to make decisions where expertise resides.
Wayne began his career as an electrical engineering apprentice, achieving a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Electrical Engineering.
John Gallagher
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime Canada
John Gallagher
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime Canada
John Gallagher serves as Vice President and General Manager of Ultra Maritime Canada, a role he assumed in August 2023. In this capacity, he is responsible for driving business strategy and growth, strengthening customer relationships, fostering talent development and ensuring operational excellence, while providing overall leadership and direction for the organization.
John brings extensive industry experience and a proven track record of exceptional leadership, having held roles in the UK, the U.S. and Canada. Prior to joining Ultra Maritime, he spent nearly two decades at Raytheon, where he held several senior leadership positions including Director of Engineering and Managing Director of Raytheon ELCAN in Canada. Most recently, he served as Managing Director of Raytheon UK’s Weapons and Sensors business, where he played a key role in advancing strategic initiatives and delivering strong business performance.
John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
Jonathan Sadleir
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime Australia
Jonathan Sadleir
Vice President & General Manager, Ultra Maritime Australia
Jonathan Sadleir AM is the Vice President and General Manager of Ultra Maritime Australia, joining the company in 2025. He leads the planning and significant growth of the Australian line of business. He is internationally recognised for developing highly effective strategies and then leading diverse teams in pragmatic, transparent and impactful ways to ensure successful execution and delivery of outcomes for customers.
Prior to joining Ultra Maritime, Jonathan has had a diverse and distinguished career across a variety of senior and highly demanding positions as both as a Senior Naval Officer, senior executive and board member.
Jonathan holds post graduate qualifications from several international institutions and was inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant contributions to Defense.
Board of Directors
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Shonnel Malani
Board of Directors
Shonnel Malani is an experienced business leader with over 20 years’ experience in the financial and private equity sectors. As Managing Partner of Advent International, he has overseen significant investment in innovative companies across the UK, US and Europe. He joined Advent International in 2011 and has led large companies through significant change in the engineering, space, and national security sectors.
Shonnel is currently chair of UK-headquartered aerospace and defence companies Cobham and Ultra Electronics and is a non-executive director of Maxar Technologies.
Shonnel also serves as Lead Non-Executive Director for the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
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Patrick Oehlschlaeger
Board of Directors
Patrick Oehlschlaeger joined Advent in 2015. Following business school, he rejoined Advent in the London office, focusing on industrial investments. Previously, Patrick was a consultant at Bain & Company in Frankfurt, focusing on strategy, private equity due diligence and post-acquisition value creation projects. He also spent time as an intern at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Elliott.
Patrick earned a BSc, summa cum laude, in International Management from ESB Reutlingen / Northeastern University, an MSc with distinction from London Business School and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Patrick worked on Advent’s investments in Cobham, Maxar Technologies, Rubix (formerly known as IPH-Brammer) and Ultra Electronics.
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Bob Hitt
Board of Directors
Bob Hitt serves as Chairman of Advent portfolio companies Ultra Maritime, Maxar Intelligence and Maxar Space Infrastructure and a board member of Cobham Advanced Electronics. Ultra Maritime is a leading global company specializing in design, development and production of maritime defense technologies, particularly in Undersea Warfare. Maxar Intelligence is a world leading in secure, precise geospatial intelligence and Maxar Space Infrastructure manufactures satellites including the largest commercial communications satellite ever built. Cobham Advanced Electronics is a leading provider of mission critical electronic solutions for the United Staes Aerospace and Defense industry. Previously, Bob was Chairman of the Advent portfolio company Laird, Chairman of Cobham Mission Systems and Chairman of Ammeraal Beltech. The three companies were successfully sold by Advent with an above average return for the investors. Prior to his Chairmanships, Bob was President and CEO of Rexnord Industries which he grew to $1.85 billion sales under the ownership of first Carlyle and then Apollo. He was previously the President of Invensys Climate Controls and then the divisional CEO of Invensys Automation Systems.
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Kim Gillis
Board of Directors
Kim Gillis AM serves as the Chairman of Avincis Aviation a company based in Portugal that provides aeromedical, fire fighting and search and rescue across Europe. He is the former Chairman of Cobham Australia , which was successfully sold by Advent in 2022. He is also a former Deputy Secretary for Defence Acquisitions in Australia and a former Vice President of the Boeing Company. In the early 2020s he led the Austal Ships design team for the US Navy Littoral Combat Ships. Kim was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the Australian Defence Department and defence projects.
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Mark Sirangelo
Board of Directors
Mark Sirangelo is currently an independent board member for several Advent companies. He is the current Scholar in Residence for the University of Colorado and a member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Panel.
Mark is the most recent past Chairman of the DOD’s Defense Innovation Board for the Secretary of Defense. Previously Mark was the founding executive and former head of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems which led teams which have managed billions of dollars programs for over 300 missions. He has been inducted into NASA/Space Foundation’s Technology Hall of Fame, is AIAA Fellow, was appointed as the Chief Innovation Officer of the State of Colorado and has served as an officer in the US Military.
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Sir Nick Hine
Board of Directors
Sir Nick Hine is Managing Director for Babcock plc leading on all AUKUS relationships and future programming and the lead for new international business. He moved to Babcock after 37 years’ service in the Royal Navy ultimately serving as Second Sea Lord, Chief Executive of the organisation.
Nick is a member of the board of Directors of Ultra Maritime and an adviser on maritime matters for Advent and Bain & Company consulting leading on strategic future capability. He is Chairman of the two UK secure companies Ultra PMES and Ultra Cyber ensuring UK Government equity is protected.
Hine’s military career was wide ranging and impactful – he spent the first twenty years of his career as a submariner on classified operations in the North Atlantic, the second in Command of HMS Splendid who tested and operationally employed the first Tomahawk missiles for the Royal Navy, then in Command of the nuclear submarine HMS Talent at 33. He also Commanded surface ships HMS Blackwater in the Northern Ireland troubles and then HMS Westminster. He spent a year under US Command in Baghdad leading on the reconstruction of the Iraqi Navy during the Iraq War in 2009. His senior Naval career took him from procurement to being the sole military adviser in HM Treasury working directly to the Chancellor, then into policy and strategy development and finally delivery as Second Sea Lord. He is well known for his original strategic thinking and no nonsense, blunt attitudes to problem solving.
Nick is chairman of UK Charity Resources for Autism, bringing his own autistic experiences and change management skills to help the charity move to the next level in delivering world-beating support to individuals and their families.
Hine has taken on the Chairmanship of the ADS International group working to influence Government in support of industry and is a member of the Corbett Group, the influential academic think tank for maritime matters.
Hine has been decorated by the UK and US Governments and was knighted in 2023.
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Rob Weiss
Board of Directors
Rob Weiss retired in 2018 as the Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs (aka, the Skunk Works), after 35 years with Lockheed Martin.
Rob Weiss is an Operating Partner with Advent International, currently serving as Chairman of the Board for Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES), and as a Board Member for Ultra Maritime.
He is also an advisor to Bell Helicopter/Textron, Catalyze Dallas and Hermeus Corporation. Rob serves on the executive board of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering.
Rob is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy (BS), University of Southern California (MS), and retired as a U.S. Naval Reserve Captain and aircraft carrier jet pilot.
