As Vice President, National Security Sales, Lars is responsible for helping Blue Origin deliver critical capabilities to the United States Government to support a diverse and growing set of national security space requirements.

Before joining Blue Origin, Lars was Senior Vice President at Rocket Lab where he helped build Rocket Lab from a private startup to a publicly traded end-to-end space company. From 2014 to 2018, Lars was an executive at SpaceX, directly supporting the National Security Space community. Prior to joining industry, Lars completed a distinguished career in the United States Air Force, as a U-2 reconnaissance pilot, a test pilot, and in senior leadership roles at The Pentagon.

Lars holds advanced engineering degrees from the United States Air Force Academy, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, and U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. Lars also earned national security degrees from MIT, Air University, and National Defense University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from UCLA.