Raymond J. Leopold is one of the three engineers who in late 1987 conceived of and later designed the Iridium satellite constellation, the first realization of global, wireless, personal communications.

He served two tours in The Pentagon, one in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and one on the Air Staff.

He was also an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at George Washington University, and he had been a senior lecturer at MIT and had chaired the Industry Advisory Board for the Aero/Astro Department.

He was also honored with a Doctor of Telecommunications Management Degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1997.

He has completed Executive Education courses at the Harvard Business School, MIT (Sloan), The University of California (Berkeley), The Center for Creative Leadership, and The Defense Systems Management College.