Brig. General (ret.) Shimon Sarid is a decorated Israeli aerospace leader with over four decades of experience spanning military aviation, unmanned systems, and lunar exploration. A cum laude graduate in aeronautical engineering from the Technion and a top-ranked master’s graduate from Boston University, Shimon served 28 years in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), culminating as Head of the IAF Material Command. In this role, he oversaw all engineering, R&D, procurement, logistics, and flight safety operations for the IAF. He was awarded Israel’s highest national defense honor in 1998. After retiring in 2004, Shimon led Elbit Systems’ UAV division, where he pioneered the Hermes 900 platform. Since 2020, he has served as CEO of SpaceIL, architecting the Beresheet2 dual-lander lunar mission, one of the most ambitious private space exploration efforts to date