John Watson was recently promoted to be President of Starfish Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Torch Technologies (Torch), Freedom Real Estate and Capital, and Simvana. Previously, Watson served as the President of Torch, and was appointed to President and CEO in 2018. Prior to becoming Torch President, Watson served as Torch’s Vice President of Business Development and Program Manager for the Scalable Simulation Program with the USA AMRDEC. Watson has nearly 40 years of experience in the defense industry spanning numerous roles in project engineering support, line and program management, and corporate management. Prior to joining Torch, Watson served as the Director for New Product Development for Dynetics, Inc. where he led corporate business development efforts in hardware development, Air Force and technology programs. Prior to his role in Business Development, Watson led their Florida Division. Previous to that, Watson was Vice President of the Florida Division for Nichols Research Corporation. Watson received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University where he was named Outstanding Graduate from the School of Engineering and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida. Watson currently serves on the board for the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce and the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA) Association. He has previously served as a board member of the Alabama Business Council where he was selected for the Still Ambassadorial Award for membership outreach. He also served as co-chair for the Alabama Department of Education’s Strategic Planning Committee on Mathematics in 2017. Mr. Watson is a graduate of the Huntsville Leadership L-31 Flagship Program.