Our Leadership | DESE Research, Inc.

Our CEO

Michael Kirkpatrick is currently the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of DESE Research, Inc., a missile research, engineering, and development company in Huntsville, Alabama. He has over 25 years of management experience at DESE Research, Inc., and 15 years previous to DESE with other high technology companies including Intergraph and United Technologies.

Education

Bachelor of Science

Auburn University, 1981

Master of Science - Management (Technology)

University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2000

Honorary Societies

Phi Kappa Phi

Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honorary Society

Community & Professional Involvement

American Heart Association, Heart Ball Chairman 2020
Leadership Alabama Board of Directors 2020 to Present
City of Guntersville Chairman Airport Advisory Board, 2011 to present
Downtown Huntsville Rotary Foundation Board
Boy Scouts of America:
- Friends of Scouting Fundraising Chairman, 2013 to 2018
- District Nominating Committee Chairman, 2012
- Greater Alabama Council Executive Board, 2000 to 2018
- District Finance Chairman, 1997‑2000
Auburn University Research Advisory Council, 2009 to 2019
Auburn College of Business Advisory Council, 2009 to 2019
Auburn Management Information Systems Advisory Council, President, 2009 to 2011

University of Alabama/Huntsville College of Business Advisory Council, 2005 to present
Association of the United States Army, Board of Directors, 2006-2009
Downtown Huntsville Rotary Club, Board of Directors, 2009
Rotary Strive youth mentoring program at Butler High School, 2013
Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama, Board of Directors, 2001
Huntsville Aerospace Marketing Association, President, 2001
Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Class of 2000
President, Graduate Business Student Council, 2000
Chamber of Commerce Member, Huntsville and Guntersville, 2013
President of the Exchange Club of Huntsville, 1990
Madison County Republican Executive Committee, 1985 to 1990

DESE Senior Leadership

Dewey Granger

Chief Growth Officer

Mr. Granger retired in 2016 as a Colonel from the US Army after more than 27 years of active-duty service culminating with Brigade Command. The highlight of his service was deploying 600 of America’s sons and daughters to Iraq and returning them all home safely to their families. In his last assignment, Mr. Granger served as the Chief of Staff of the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command located in Huntsville, Alabama.
Prior to DESE, Mr. Granger served as the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Dynetics’ Weapons Technology and Manufacturing organization where he managed a sales portfolio of products valued at more than $750M. Before Dynetics, Mr. Granger served as an Executive Director for the Boeing Company focused on Homeland Missile Defenses and managed an annual portfolio valued at greater than $1 billion per year. During that timeframe, he captured the Redesigned Kill Vehicle program along with an extension to the Development and Sustainment Contract.
Dewey Granger holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Computer Information Systems from Northwestern Louisiana, a Master of Arts in Strategy and Policy from the US Naval War College, and a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies from the US Army School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS).

William Hall

Chief Operating Officer

Mr. William Hall is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for DESE Research, Inc. where he leads the company's operational efforts including strategy development and implementation, execution, business management, compliance, policy, practice, and procedure development and implementation, communication, collaboration, and growth. Mr. Hall is focused on functional leadership, people, team building, performance management, and growth. Over Mr. Hall's 40 year career, he has built and led teams and organizations with increasing levels of responsibility in businesses and organizations that span national security mission systems, manufacturing, services, solutions, and the high tech industry.

Prior to joining DESE Research in 2023, Mr. Hall was the Deputy Director of Manufacturing for Leidos (formerly Dynetics Technical Solutions in Huntsville AL) from 2020 to 2023. From 2011 to 2020, Mr. Hall was the Director of Professional Services and Global Hardware Services at ADTRAN in Huntsville AL. Prior to 2020, Mr. Hall held a variety of leadership positions with various organizations to design, develop, and deploy complex technologies. Mr. Hall currently resides in Huntsville AL with his family, and his hobbies include cooking, boating, and auto racing.

Dr. Timothy A. Barton

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Timothy A. Barton is currently the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for DESE Research, Inc. where he helps oversee all technical aspects of the company’s efforts including growth, strategy, technical discrimination, planning, execution, investments, and change management. Dr. Barton is a dedicated, results-oriented, senior technical leader and CTO with more than 30 years’ experience developing solutions, teams, and strategies to solve some of the Nation’s most critical Department of Defense and Intelligence Community national security challenges. Dr. Barton is a committed leader that drives learning, mentorship, and inclusion with a specific focus on mission and people. Dr. Barton’s technical background and research interests include radar and sonar signal processing, platforms, sensors, weapons, electronic and acoustic warfare, electronic and acoustic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures, algorithm development, autonomy, test and evaluation, propagation, and sensor and platform engineering.

Prior to joining DESE Research, Inc. as CTO, Dr. Barton was the Leidos (formally SAIC) Dynetics Group CTO from 2020 to 2023, and the Leidos Defense Group CTO from 2019 to 2020. From 2005 to 2019, Dr. Barton held technical leadership roles with increasing levels of responsibility in CTO and Chief Engineer positions within various parts of the Leidos organization including Maritime, C4ISR, and Advance Solutions Operations and Divisions. Prior to joining Leidos/SAIC in 2005, Dr. Barton was a Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory from 1993 to 2005 in the Air Defense Division.

Dr. Barton holds B.Sc. (1987) and M.Sc. (1989) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and a D.Sc. (1993) degree in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Barton currently resides in Huntsville Alabama with his family, and his hobbies include fly fishing, photography, and music.

Shawn Wilson

Senior Vice President

PAC3
Shawn Wilson is an Executive Vice President with DESE Research, headquartered in Huntsville, AL. Mr. Wilson is a US Army Air Defense Artillery (ADA) PATRIOT Missile System Veteran. Mr. Wilson has extensive defense industry experience in systems engineering and has supported several programs over his 25-year career in the defense industry.
Mr. Wilson has worked on several systems to include PAC-3 Seeker, Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) system, Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Systems, Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), Theater High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD), PATRIOT Air Defense System, Future Combat Systems (FCS), Army Battle Command System (ABCS), and the Maneuver Control System (MCS). Mr. Wilson is a subject matter expert in Enterprise Architectures (to include Operational, Systems, and Technical) and the tools to support development of those architecture - from requirements development, through design and test, to deployment.

Patrick Price

Vice President of Cyber Security and System Protection

Patrick Price joined DESE Research, Inc. in 2018 and serves as the Vice President of Cyber Security and System Protection. In this role, he leads a diverse team and oversees efforts supporting customers on Redstone Arsenal through a variety of DoD cybersecurity-related projects including supply chain protection and analysis, software vulnerability detection and remediation, and the research and development of new technologies to protect modern military platforms. His responsibilities include technical leadership, program management, and personnel and client relationship management.

Prior to coming to DESE, Patrick worked for telecommunications giant ADTRAN, Inc. for over ten years where he gained extensive experience in both advanced, carrier-grade networking technologies as well as enterprise software design. He is also an inventor who helped develop four U.S. Patents.

Helen Wang

Comptroller

Finance
Hui (Helen) Wang is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) since 2002. Before joining DESE, she was a Director of Corp. Finance and Accounting for twelve years with a DOD Contractor and brings extensive experience in Finance and Accounting in the Government Contract Industry.
Her experience includes 20 years working directly with Government Contracts and 5 years with a professional Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm. She received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Rhode Island and Master of Science in Acquisition and Contract Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Dewayne Hall

Director of Simulation Applications

Dewayne Hall has over thirty-five years of experience in Modeling and Simulation in the defense industry. He joined DESE Research in 2000 and currently serves as the Director of Simulation Applications.
Mr. Hall serves as a DESE program manager for MSIC, MDA HWIL, and the U.S. Army AvMC providing simulation modeling guidance and expertise in areas ranging from model software development to post-processing analysis to verification and validation.
Mr. Hall brings a wealth of knowledge in force-on-force or Systems of Systems modeling and analysis.
Mr. Hall’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science followed up by a Master of Science, both from the University of Alabama in Huntsville specializing in Computer Science and Mathematics.

Dr. Christine Schaefer

Director of Human Resources and Security

Dr. Christine Schaefer has over twenty years of diverse experience in Human Resources and Industrial Security. She joined DESE Research in 2020 as the Director of Human Resources and Security.
Dr. Schaefer is responsible for day-to-day operations related to Human Resources and Security including benefits administration, staffing, regulatory compliance, employee relations, learning and development, facility clearance management, and personnel clearance management. Dr. Schaefer does an exceptional job at creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction.
Dr. Schaefer received a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) from Florida Institute of Technology. Additionally, she completed the Industrial Security Professional (ISP) Certification from NCMS.

John McLaurine

Director of GMD

John McLaurine is the Director on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Development and Sustainment Contract (DSC) for the Boeing Company. Mr. McLaurine has 25+ years of Test Engineering experience in ballistic missile defense programs. Mr. McLaurine’s background ranges from Hardware In The Loop (HWIL) testing to integrated system-level test campaigns.
Mr. McLaurine assumed the Director role in 2022 and primarily supports the SE&I IPT in the System Test Laboratory (STL) Hardware/Software & Integration support team.

Elijah Evans

Director of Cyber Security and System Protection

Elijah Evans serves as the Director of Cyber Security and System Protection where he works to build and position DESE capabilities to meet the emerging security engineering needs for advanced Defense, Energy, Space, and Environmental systems. Elijah joined DESE Research in 2019 as Senior Data Scientist and Weapon System Assurance Task Lead where he successfully led research, demonstration, and transition of Science and Technology projects for the Army Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC). Elijah has served government clients in National Security, Homeland Security, and Defense for over 15 years, with a particular focus on design and execution of novel risk-based solutions. Throughout his career, Elijah has gained extensive experience and delivered results across a range of applications including critical infrastructure protection, homeland security grant programs, data science for intelligence analysis, and mission-based cyber risk assessments for weapon system assurance.

Elijah holds a BA and MSc in Geography (Geographic Information Systems) from the University of North Alabama and the University of South Carolina, respectively, and is an alumnus of the USC Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute (HVRI).