Tell me where you want to go.
Santiago “Rico” Vaca is the founder and senior principal of S Vaca & Associates, where he serves as a strategic advisor to chief executives and founders building consequential companies at the intersection of defense, aerospace, and emerging technology. His value to clients is not measured in introductions or access — it is measured in clarity of strategy, soundness of judgment, and the foresight to anticipate the inflection points others see only in hindsight.
Every engagement starts with the same question: where do you want to go? From there, Rico works backward — defining the goal, framing the timeline, and building the strategy to reach it. Government relations, federal business development, industry partnerships, and positioning are instruments he deploys in service of that strategy, not ends in themselves. Clients describe his counsel as steady, plain-spoken, and decisive — the kind of senior judgment that quietly shepherds a client’s technology from prototype to funded program of record.
That perspective is shaped by more than two decades at the intersection of three worlds. As an Air Force fighter pilot in the F-15C, F-16, and T-38, Rico understands operators, requirements, and what the warfighter actually needs. As a twenty-year veteran of Capitol Hill and the federal budget process, he knows how policy and money move — and how to build the political and policy case that turns a good idea into a funded line. As a longtime advisor to defense and dual-use companies, he knows where ambitious firms stumble and what it takes to position them for durable success across the national security enterprise.
Prior to founding S Vaca & Associates, Rico served as a Senior Policy Advisor at Holland & Knight, focused on federal appropriations, DoD budgets, and aerospace and defense business development. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and maintains an active security clearance.