Christian Maender is a seasoned commercial space executive with over 25 years of leadership in human spaceflight, specializing in business strategy, commercialization, and in-space services. Currently, he focuses on building new in-space enterprises while advising space, climate, and AI deep-tech ventures, leveraging his expertise to drive the next generation of space commercialization.

As a founding executive at Axiom Space, he played a pivotal role in scaling the company from a startup to an industry leader, with Axiom securing over $2.2 billion in customer contracts and raising $500 million in investment. At Axiom, Christian led the development of new market frameworks for commercial space stations while pioneering international government partnerships for private astronaut missions. His work in in-space manufacturing and research enabled the launch of over 100 customer projects to low Earth orbit, advancing novel applications in microgravity. Previously, at NASA, he spearheaded initiatives to expand ISS commercialization, optimize research utilization, and enhance international collaboration.