Co-founder and CEO of QDIV
Thomas M. Atchison is co-founder and CEO of QDIV Corporation, a mobile manufacturing systems & services company delivering specialty materials and technology manufactured locally anywhere, anyplace and anytime.
Prior to his new venture, Thomas was the Managing Director for Agile Meta Partners, a technology and venture consultancy that serves early-stage technology ventures, government institutions, hedge funds, venture capital and investment banks is managing risk associated with AI, defense and space ventures. Mr. Atchison is also founder and chairman of the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, a 501(c) 3 California nonprofit focused on enabling the personalization of access to space by the common man.
With over 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and technologist in Silicon Valley, Thomas has pioneered new technology and ventures in the semiconductor, mobile computing, enterprise software, medical device, healthcare information technology, national security, aerospace, artificial intelligence and defense industries. Some of the products and technology innovations are exhibited in The Tech Museum in San Jose, and the delivery of the world’s first screen- phones and smartphone platforms, which were acquired by Microsoft in 1999. Most recently, Thomas was part of the founding team at Astra Space to develop small orbital launch and spacecraft orbital services and vehicles, where he was responsible for developing the technology and manufacturing capabilities to produce a orbital launch vehicles daily at the price of a small Cessna aircraft. Astra successfully developed and launched to orbit the first orbital services platform at the fastest rate in human history, at just under 4 years (SpaceX took 12 and Rocket Labs took 8), and Astra went public on the NASDAQ in July of 2021 with a $2.1 billion dollar valuation.
Media coverage of his efforts have been documented in Wired Magazine, Rockets Magazine, Make, and he has been interviewed on the Canadian Broadcast Network, CBS, and has two nationally broadcast documentaries on his work in his non-profit produced by PBS and Discovery Communications for the Science Channel, one of which won an Emmy Award, on civilian space exploration and STEM education.
Thomas mentors and has guest lectures on entrepreneurship at Stanford University School of Engineering Management, and he has also been a guest speaker for the University of California’s CONNECT program, the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, the New Space Frontier Foundation and provided business advisement to the UC Davis Medical Center and NSF Center for Bio-photonics, SolidWorks World and Siemens Automation’s Keynote speaker in 2019 at their worldwide conference.
Thomas holds Level 1,2,3 & Experimental rocketry certifications with the TRIPOLI Rocketry Association, a FCC Technicians license, a USC Chapter 40 Explosives License, and California Radiations Technicians license, and holds certifications under the United States / Canadian Defense Logistics Information Services.
Thomas completed undergraduate education in chemical engineering, and a second degree in radiochemistry, and completed graduate studies in engineering management at Santa Clara University and artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and biological engineering at MIT, Stanford, and Udacity.