Southwind Quilty advises founders, boards, investors, and corporate leaders on M&A, capital raising, and strategic transactions across the national-security ecosystem. Our advice is grounded in senior transaction experience, deep sector relationships, and a proprietary Intelligence Layer built for these markets.
Co-advisor on the capital raise and strategic alignment that accelerated the build-out of the world's first space-based cellular broadband network.
Our advisory work is supported by a proprietary intelligence platform that tracks the companies, buyers, investors, programs, budgets, capital flows, and policy developments shaping space, defense, and intelligence markets.
That intelligence helps us identify the right counterparties, pressure-test valuation, sharpen positioning, and advise clients on timing, alternatives, and market receptivity — before a process begins, not after.
Sharper positioning, more credible growth narratives, and a better-informed buyer universe.
Proprietary target identification, market mapping, and conviction around valuation.
Investor targeting informed by sector exposure, mandate fit, and capital-markets activity.
Clearer views on timing, valuation, strategic alternatives, and competitive dynamics.
Southwind Quilty Advisors is the specialist M&A advisor for the defense, space, and intelligence-community ecosystem — built for companies and investors operating in markets where domain knowledge, discretion, and credibility decide outcomes.
Our partners bring decades of transaction experience supported by Quilty Space's proprietary research platform and long-standing relationships with strategic buyers, financial sponsors, and institutional investors across U.S., European, and allied markets.
Every engagement is partner-led and held to a deliberately small mandate count, so each client gets the judgment, attention, and discretion that a consequential transaction demands.
Every banker spent a career inside defense, space, or intelligence — no learning curve.
Proprietary data and analysis on 300+ public and private companies in the sector.
Partner-led on every mandate; no conflicts, no balance-sheet agenda.
Active relationships across U.S., European, and allied strategic and sponsor buyers.
Transactions in space, defense, and intelligence markets require more than a process. They require judgment, buyer knowledge, sector credibility, and the ability to tell a company's story without disrupting customers, partners, or employees.
Our team has advised, invested in, operated around, and analyzed companies across space, defense, and intelligence markets. That perspective helps us anticipate how buyers, investors, boards, lenders, and customers will evaluate a transaction — and position accordingly.
In national-security markets, a process must be managed with discretion. We help clients prepare, position, and execute without unnecessary disruption to customers, employees, partners, or mission delivery.
Our coverage extends across the three layers of the defense, space, and intelligence economy — organized to mirror how acquirers, sponsors, and capital allocators actually think about the market.
Satellite manufacturing, payloads, buses, and in-space infrastructure for LEO, MEO, GEO and cislunar missions.
Launch service providers, propulsion systems, and the supply chain powering access to orbit and beyond.
Fixed and mobile satellite services, managed connectivity, and ground-segment technologies for commercial and government users.
Mission-critical electronics, RF/EW, sensors, and platform-agnostic systems integration for DoD and allied customers.
Next-generation defense primes and dual-use challengers redefining the battlefield with autonomy, AI, and software-defined warfare.
Vertically integrated and specialty suppliers powering the defense and space industrial base.
Mission software, cyber, and analytics serving combatant commands, NSA customers, and the broader SIGINT & cyber enterprise.
Cleared services, mission IT, and GEOINT platforms serving the 18 agencies of the Intelligence Community and the national-security customer set.
Federal services, systems engineering, and program-management firms executing on DoD and civil-government contracts.
Founders, boards, and investors come to us at the inflection points that define the next decade of their business. Whatever the situation, our work is partner-led, sector-specialist, and grounded in proprietary intelligence.
From a discreet single-bidder conversation to a global competitive auction, we design processes that maximize value, preserve optionality, and protect confidentiality.
Strategic acquirers and financial sponsors retain us to identify, approach, and close on transformational targets — often sourced proprietarily through Quilty Space data.
Strategic, growth, and structured capital — placed with a curated base of defense, aerospace, and space-focused investors who already understand the market.
Trusted counsel to boards and management teams on the most consequential questions — before, during, and long after a transaction.
Our proprietary Intelligence Layer — operated through Quilty Space — covers 300+ public and private companies across space, defense, and intelligence markets, translating market activity into transaction judgment that informs every mandate we run.
Tailored secondary, continuation, and structured solutions for founders, early shareholders, and institutional LPs with concentrated defense and space exposure.
Our leadership team has spent careers inside defense, space, and the intelligence community. That domain knowledge — paired with proprietary market intelligence — is the difference between competent execution and informed advice.
Three decades of Industry M&A experience as an investment banker, CFO and private equity partner.
Lee Priest is a Managing Partner and founder of SQ Advisors, a middle-market investment bank serving companies across the Space and National Security economy.
He has extensive industry investment banking experience, having advised on over 70 transactions representing over $7 billion in transaction value. This experience includes transactions for clients in the following sectors: Defense Technology, Satellite Communications, Signals Intelligence, Commercial Aerospace, Defense Electronics, Intelligence Community, Transportation, Homeland Security, Government Services and Communications.
Over a 29-year investment banking career, Lee has advised on some of the more complex middle market transactions, to include “going private” transactions, takeover defense and taking clients public through Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) transactions. Other transactions include sell side and buy side M&A, Lead and sole managed IPOs and follow on offerings. He has advised many leading industry participants, having represented clients in transactions with buyers such as Boeing, TPG, Veritas Capital, The Carlyle Group, ManTech International, QinetiQ PLC, Arlington Capital, Chart Capital, SRA International and DC Capital, among others.
Prior to founding SQ Advisors and Southwind Capital, he served two years as a partner with Chart National, L.P. a private equity fund focused on the Defense & Intelligence Community sector and as a CFO for a publicly traded aviation firm serving the U.S. Navy, NASA and other government and commercial customers. Earlier in his career, he served eight years active duty as a commissioned officer and naval aviator (electronic counter-measures officer) in the U.S. Navy, flying carrier-based EA-6B aircraft.
Lee earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
Space and satellite investment banker focused on M&A and capital markets.
Justin Cadman is a Managing Partner and founder of SQ Advisors, a middle-market investment bank serving companies across the Space and National Security economy.
Justin has advised on more than 100 investment banking transactions spanning M&A, capital raising, and strategic advisory over more than 20 years of advisory experience. Over the last decade, Justin's focus has been on the space sector and related dual use technology areas.
His work has included over 50 Space industry engagements involving companies across nearly every segment of the Space industry value chain. Representative clients have included AST SpaceMobile, BlackSky, Gilat, Intelsat, Iridium, Kongsberg, KSAT, Trident, and numerous other commercial and defense-focused Space companies.
He previously co-founded Quilty Space, a leading research and advisory boutique serving the Space industry. Prior to Quilty Space, Justin spent twelve years as an investment banker at Raymond James, where he advised technology and communications clients on public offerings, private capital raises, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring transactions. He has also held roles in corporate finance, equity research, and entrepreneurial leadership.
Justin was an early advocate for emerging commercial space technologies and launched the industry's first venture-stage focused space investment conference series, which operated from 2013 through 2017.
Justin earned a B.S. in Finance with Honors from the University of Florida.
Founder of Quilty Space and one of the sector's leading satellite and space analysts.
Chris Quilty is a Partner and co-founder of Quilty Space, where he leads the firm's research and strategic advisory activities across the Space industry, and a Managing Partner of SQ Advisors, a middle-market investment bank serving companies across the Space and National Security economy.
Over more than two decades, Chris has established one of the Space industry's leading research franchises, publishing thousands of company, sector, and thematic research reports covering satellite communications, launch, Earth observation, manufacturing, downstream applications, and the broader Space economy.
In 2016, Chris co-founded Quilty Space, which provides independent research, strategic advisory, and market intelligence to satellite operators, manufacturers, government agencies, investors, and technology companies throughout the space ecosystem. He began covering the sector as a sell-side equity research analyst at Raymond James and was twice recognized by The Wall Street Journal as a “Best on the Street” analyst.
Chris earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Transaction execution lead bringing legal rigor and hands-on diligence to every mandate.
Harrison Powell is a Principal at SQ Advisors, a middle-market investment bank serving companies across the Space and National Security economy.
Mr. Powell has extensive experience serving aerospace and defense sector clients and a professional background in law, providing him with the background necessary to take a hands-on approach with clients throughout the transaction lifecycle. He has relevant deal experience across the industry and has represented clients in Commercial Aerospace, Intelligence Community, and Aerospace and Defense.
Prior to his investment banking career, Mr. Powell practiced law in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. After serving a highly sought-after term as a law clerk to a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, he shifted to private practice where he represented and provided counsel to individuals, commercial companies, and government contractors. Mr. Powell remains active with the Virginia State Bar and serves in a leadership role on the Board of Governors for the Young Lawyers’ Conference of the VSB.
He holds a law degree, with honors, from Regent University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, where he is also a published author.
A curated bench of operators, analysts, and sector veterans extending our reach across every corner of the defense and space economy.
Leads our space-sector research franchise. Former senior SpaceNews analyst covering the global satellite industry; widely cited industry thought leader.
30+ years in satellite communications with senior roles at FSS and MSS operators. Former Director of Marketing at Telesat (2002–2020).
Bio coming soon.
Principal at TXN Advisors. 25+ years in investment banking and 70+ M&A, private-equity, and recapitalization transactions across three boutiques; serial founder of seven firms including two investment banks.
General Partner at Tel Aviv–based Magma Venture Partners. Active investor and board member across Israel’s space and defense technology sectors. MBA, Kellogg School of Management.
Engagements across defense, space, intelligence, and capital markets — the kinds of mandates our clients trust us with at the most consequential moments in their business.
Representative experience includes transactions completed by Southwind Quilty professionals over the course of their careers, including select transactions completed at predecessor firms. Additional engagements held confidential at client request. Our partners and senior team have collectively advised on 120+ transactions representing more than $12 billion in aggregate value.
Annual outlooks, transaction perspectives, and Quilty Space research — the same intelligence that informs our advice to founders, boards, sponsors, and strategic acquirers.
Our monthly read on capital flows, transaction activity, and policy currents shaping space, defense, and intelligence markets.
Whether you want a monthly read on the market or first-look access to actionable transactions, we'll keep you informed.
A concise monthly read on capital flows, transaction activity, and policy currents shaping the sector — the same intelligence layer behind every mandate.
Strategic acquirers, financial sponsors, and institutional investors receive curated alerts on active sell-side mandates and capital-raise opportunities aligned to their stated criteria.
Whether you are considering a sale, evaluating acquisition opportunities, raising growth capital, or assessing strategic alternatives, your inquiry will be reviewed directly by a Southwind Quilty partner.
3200 Ironbound Road, Suite C
Williamsburg, VA 23188
+1 (703) 231-6924
200 Central Avenue, Suite 400
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
+1 (727) 808-1299
By appointment — Tysons / Crystal City
For government & IC engagements
+1 (703) 231-6924
All inquiries are held in strict confidence and reviewed directly by a Managing Partner.