Matt Ondler

In March 2014, he co-founded the company Houston Mechatronics, a firm specialized in mechatronics and robotics, where he serves as the president and CEO of the corporation and oversees all company activities and functions. Houston Mechatronics Inc. has raised two funding rounds, most recently a Series B investment of $20M from Schlumberger and Transocean International. The company is currently developing Aquanaut, a transformative subsea robot designed to perform commercial work in Oil and Gas and to perform critical work for the Department of Defense.

Beginning at NASA, Ondler worked as an aerospace engineer in the Advanced Programs office and worked on the Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE), Mars Rover Sample Return, among many other advanced program initiatives. Later he was named Mission Manager for SPIFEX, a primary Space Shuttle experiment that flew aboard STS-64 from 1992 to 1994. Then he became International Integration Manager for Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) for the ISS Program. He created and managed the GN&C Hardware/Software Integration Test Facility in 1996 that is still used to this day. From 1997 to 2001 he was Deputy Branch Chief of the GN&C branch. In 1999 he led the Abort Improvement Team in the Space Shuttle Program office that was chartered with closing all ascent loss of vehicle/loss of crew abort scenarios. This effort led to all abort "black zones" being eliminated. After that assignment Ondler was selected as the Deputy Division Chief of the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division where he served until 2006. In 2006 he was asked to lead the Biomedical Systems Division, the division was responsible for all crew related health and medical equipment and flew over a 1000 pieces of flight hardware under his tenure. In 2007 Ondler was asked to lead the Software, Robotics and Simulation Division, an organization renowned for its leadership in robotics. Under his tenure the division produced Robonaut2, Lunar Electric Rover, Valkrie, and other robotic breakthroughs.

Matthew Ondler (born April 15, 1963) is the president and co-founder of Houston Mechatronics. Previously, he was the lead manager of the software, robotics, and simulation division of NASA's Johnson Space Center. Ondler earned his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. He then moved to Houston, TX, where he began a 28 year career at NASA Johnson Space Center. While at NASA he achieved his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Houston and completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University.