Maria E. Rengifo-Ruess – Member, Board of Trustees, Goldwater Foundation

Maria E. Rengifo-Ruess is the CEO & Founder of LSCW, LLC a consulting firm focusing
on helping clients address their most important aspects of strategic planning, business
development, organizational culture, personal brand, and STEM outreach. Additionally,
she is a lecturer at California State University Monterey Bay.

Prior to that, Maria was the Vice President of International Business Development for
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. In this position, she was responsible for all
aspects of international business development for Space Systems’ portfolio including:
Commercial Satellites, Earth Observation Satellites, Launch Services, Civil space,
Military space, etc. Prior to this role, she held several executive positions with Lockheed
Martin in business development, strategy, and capture management in global markets.
She has continuously focused on customer relationships, cultural understanding,
leveraging market domain and competition, and bringing complete solutions to secure
business. Additionally, she has held various positions of increasing responsibility in
business development, program management, engineering, and finance with Comsat
International, Global One/Sprint International, and MCI.

Maria is a Board of Directors member for Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) and the Chair of
the Strategy committee. She received the 2009 Pioneer Award from Hispanic Engineer
National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC) and in June of 2011 she received
an award as one of the “2011 Most Influential Hispanics in Technology.” In May of 2011,
Maria was nominated by President Obama to the Board of Trustees of the Barry
Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation and confirmed by
congress in September of 2011. Maria continuously volunteers in mentoring and round
table events with young professionals and K-12 students.

Maria received a BS in Industrial Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
and an MBA from George Washington University. She has completed executive
education courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Darden
School at the University of Virginia, and the Kellogg School of Management of
Northwestern University.veriana and an MBA from George Washington University. She has completed executive education courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University.