John Thornton has grown Astrobotic's business of delivering affordable space robotics technology and planetary missions by attracting technology contracts, equity investment, and payload customers. Thornton is coordinating the team and alliance for Griffin's development and the first mission. At Carnegie Mellon, Thornton led the build of Scarab, a NASA concept robot for lunar drilling, and the first robot to carry a prototype of NASA's RESOLVE payload. He founded Carnegie Mellon's Advanced Composites Lab, a research, training, design, and manufacturing lab specializing in high performance, lightweight composites for robotics.

Philippe Cousteau Jr is an Emmy-nominated television host, environmentalist, author and social entrepreneur. Philippe is the host and executive producer of Fox and Hulu's Awesome Planet, as well as a special correspondent for CNN. Additionally, he has hosted several award-winning shows including Going Green and Expedition Sumatra. Philippe has co-written many books including Going Blue and Make a Splash both of which have won multiple awards including Learning Magazine's 2011 Teachers' Choice Award for the Family, a Gold Nautilus Award and a 2010 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Gold Award. In 2004, he founded EarthEcho International, a leading environmental education organization that is creating a whole new generation of environmental citizens; youth equipped with the knowledge to understand environmental challenges, the critical thinking skills to solve them, and the motivation to do so.