Management Team

AER scientists and technologists are led by a management team whose members have been recognized for excellence by NASA, the American Meteorological Society and the United Nations. To contact an executive or anyone at AER, click here.

We’re proud of the company’s reputation and contributions as a world-class research and development organization in atmospheric and environmental research. Through scientific knowledge and technical innovations we help minimize environmental risk and discover more about our planet and its systems.

Ron Isaacs, President and Chief Executive Officer

Ron Isaacs is president and chief executive officer of Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER). He oversees strategy and operations for weather-, climate-, and environment-related risk management and decision support products and services. Clients including insurance carriers, reinsurers, energy producers and investors, and government agencies and contractors rely on his insights to leverage the latest science and analytics in practical ways to improve operational results.

Mr. Isaacs has played a key role in growing AER to more than 180 scientists and engineers, and more than half hold Ph.D.’s or advanced degrees. The scientific research specializes in data analytics, modeling, sensing, and prediction of phenomena in the atmosphere, ocean, and space. Mr. Isaacs is the author of numerous articles in refereed scientific journals and a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and IEEE. He holds ME and MS degrees in Applied Physics and Earth and Planetary Physics from Harvard University. He is a veteran of the U. S. Air Force.

Cecilia Sze, Senior Vice President

As cofounder of AER, Ms. Sze transformed AER from a two-employee firm concentrating on atmospheric chemistry to an award-winning environmental research and consulting firm. She served as president and CEO 12 years from 1999 until 2011. Under her 35 years of leadership, AER’s world-renowned scientists and engineers have helped government and industry understand weather- and climate-related risks. Ms. Sze holds a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Purdue University and a master of business administration degree from Northeastern University. Ms. Sze is a member of the board of the Asian American Bank and Trust.

Guy Seeley, PhD, Executive Vice President

Under Dr. Seeley’s leadership, AER technical divisions deliver advanced science and technology projects ranging from basic research to commercial products. He has led contract R&D efforts at Air Force, Army and Navy laboratories for over 20 years. Dr. Seeley has developed and deployed advanced mission planning technologies in combat operations. These weather impact decision aids combine terrain, weather, radiative transfer and sensor hardware expertise with advanced computer graphics processing to provide pilots with vital situational awareness day or night.

Dr. Seeley also leads remote sensing projects in land surface and vegetation characterization from satellite observations and product integration of the resulting surface maps. One example is the development and operation of commercial GIS products assessing wildfire hazard for the insurance industry by integrating multi-spectral imagery with road network and terrain data. Dr. Seeley received his PhD in Physical Chemistry under Professor Thomas Keyes at Boston University.

David B. Hogan, Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President

Mr. Hogan oversees AER's Software Engineering and Information Systems and is responsible for the technologies, IT infrastructure and software processes employed by AER's commercial services and government programs. With over 30 years of advanced system design and development experience, Mr. Hogan’s career focus has been on the development of advanced solutions for challenging environmental and remote sensing problems including transition to operational systems for commercial, government and military applications. He managed AER's GOES-R and NPOESS programs where he developed AER's management and software engineering processes for large-scale software development. Mr. Hogan received a BS in Physical Sciences and an MS in Meteorology from the University of Maryland.

Ross N. Hoffman, PhD, Chief Scientist and Vice President, Research and Development

Dr. Hoffman’s principal areas of interest are objective analysis and assimilation methods, atmospheric dynamics, climate theory, and atmospheric radiation.  He has made significant contributions in the field of data assimilation, including the development of some variational techniques.  He is a member of the NSCAT Science Team and the EOS SeaWinds Science Team.  Dr. Hoffman holds a magna cum laude BS from Brown University, an MA in Mathematics from Boston University and a PhD in meteorology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Prior to AER, Dr. Hoffman worked at the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences as an NCR RRA and USRA Visiting Scientist.

Hilary E. "Ned" Snell, Ph.D., Principal Scientist and Vice President, GOES-R

Dr. Snell assumed leadership of AER's GOES-R team working on the nation's next generation geo-synchronous weather and environment satellite, and became Program Manager for AER's GOES-R effort in January, 2012. Earlier he was promoted to Vice President to lead Remote Sensing in 2008. Dr. Snell is experienced in all aspects of both theoretical and experimental remote sensing, including extensive infrared and ultraviolet radiative transfer model and retrieval algorithm development. He led the development of the infrared ozone retrieval algorithm for the infrared algorithms of the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) and served as AER Project Manager for algorithm development for the Cross-Track Infrared and Microwave Sounder Suite (CrIMSS), part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS).

Dr. Snell is a member of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Prior to joining AER in 1994, he studied and received a PhD in Atmospheric and Space Sciences from the University of Michigan and an AB in Geophysics from the University of Chicago.

Kyle Beatty, CCM, Vice President, Business Solutions

Mr. Beatty provides risk management and meteorological expertise for global customers in re/insurance, financial services, energy and other industries. He leads the strategy, development and customer adoption of weather-/climate-related risk management and decision support products and services. Mr. Beatty has a track record of success in product development, product marketing, operations and business development roles that address needs of the global reinsurance industry. Prior to joining AER, Mr. Beatty worked with Willis Re, one of the three largest global reinsurance brokers, where he led a team of catastrophe analysts that served North American P&C insurers and served as the analytical advocate for multiple U.S. brokerage accounts. Mr. Beatty is a recognized expert of the Florida catastrophe insurance market and has served as a bridge between the research and risk management communities as the North American Liaison for the Willis Research Network. Prior to his role at Willis, Mr. Beatty worked for Risk Management Solutions (RMS), where he directed a team of model managers in business planning, marketing, launch and support of Cat models and products. A former broadcast meteorologist, Mr. Beatty earned his BS and MS degrees from the University of Oklahoma, serves as Chairperson of an American Meteorological Society (AMS) board focused on private-sector meteorology and is an AMS Certified Consulting Meteorologist.

Steven J. Lowe, Senior Engineer and Vice President, Modeling and Simulation

Mr. Lowe has been actively engaged in the Department of Defense Modeling and Simulation community for over 15 years, pursuing the objective of including realistic environment representation in military applications. He has led the development of enabling technology and supported major simulation programs for all service branches, currently as the Principal Investigator for the Environmental Data Cube Support System (EDCSS) program, a tri-service initiative to provide ready access to multi-domain environment data, effects models and support products. Mr. Lowe holds BS and MS degrees in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech and has maintained a strong interest in atmospheric fluid dynamics throughout his career. Prior to joining AER, Mr. Lowe worked for SAIC, supporting the Naval Research Laboratory in the area of numerical weather prediction model development, and for Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in the area of air-sea interface research.

Robert Morris, Ph.D., Principal Scientist and Vice-President, Space Weather

Dr. Robert Morris leads AER's research, operations, and support in the areas of space environment and space weather. The initiatives include space physics research, space weather specification and forecasting, development of decision aids for government and commercial customers, and support of government space weather R&D and operations. Dr. Morris has over 24 years of government laboratory experience in space environment and remote sensing, including 10 years leading the Air Force Research Laboratory's Battlespace Environment Division. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and over 100 conference papers. Dr. Morris is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an AFRL Fellow. He earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Boston College and his B.S. in chemistry at Bates College.

Brenda Kelly, Vice President, Products and Marketing

Ms. Kelly provides leadership on commercial products and services and strategic communications and spearheads the company’s global marketing strategy. Prior to joining AER, Ms. Kelly co-founded SupplyScape, where she worked with companies across the pharmaceutical supply chain to reduce counterfeiting and fraud by improving their business processes. Earlier she managed and marketed software at IBM for data applications, messaging and collaboration. For over 25 years she has contributed to the growth and success of clients around the globe as they adopt innovative data applications. She earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.