OUR MISSION & OUR TEAM

Capital Composites, Inc. was founded in 2020 with the mission to manage and coordinate the contracting, subcontracting, and technical activities for multi-company collaborations in the aerospace and defense industries. In a time when defense capabilities need to perform better and be delivered in higher quantities faster, collaboration across industry, academia, and government is critical. This can be achieved when a pairing or grouping of multiple companies (both small and large) come together to solve technical challenges. Capital Composites provides the single node for facilitating the prime contracts of these multi-company collaborations. With engineering degrees and over 50 years of technical and contracts experience, Capital Composites personnel have worked with numerous industry partners in the part manufacturer, material supplier, and development and integration sectors, and therefore have the knowledge to manage collaborating companies in both contractual and technical coordination matters.

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  • Co-Founder

    Ms. Benzie (shown left) is the President and co-founder of Capital Composites. After a successful 18-year career as an Aerospace Engineer, she co-founded a small engineering and manufacturing business, from scratch, specializing in federal small business contracts in the Aerospace and Defense sector, called San Diego Composites, Inc. in 2003. As a small business owner, she wore all the hats associated with a start-up through full-scale production capable company, including: Member of the Board of Directors, Chief Financial Officer, Business Development Director, Intellectual Property Officer, Facility Security Officer, and Program Manager. She was the Principal Investigator of Aerospace engineering and manufacturing development projects for customers such as the Missile Defense Agency, Navy, NASA, and DARPA. After growing the business to $20M in sales and 100 employees, she was on the leadership team that led the sale of the company to a private equity firm in 2018. Ms. Benzie co-founded Capital Composites with Ms. Caprio when they saw a need in the industry for coordinating and managing multi-company engineering and development contracts for the government while also providing the necessary technical oversite for successful execution.

    Ms. Benzie has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University, and a California Professional Engineer License (#M26576). In 2012, she was the recipient of the Tibbets Award for Small Business Innovative Research.

    In her personal time, Ms. Benzie enjoys adventuring on the roads less traveled, such as backpacking in the National Parks and training and participating in the Rebelle Rally, the first women’s off-road navigation rally raid in the United States. She most recently placed 2nd in the Rally out of 52 teams with her teammate and daughter, Emily, in their 2021 Jeep Rubicon Hybrid.

  • Co-Founder

    Ms. Caprio (shown right) is the Vice President and co-founder of Capital Composites. She has experience in all aspects of the procurement cycle including responding to solicitations, leading proposals, contract negotiations, writing statements of work, issuing contracts, and project execution. Her responsibilities at Capital Composites include contract acquisition, subcontract management, technical oversite, and customer interface.

    Ms. Caprio has always been a believer that “more brains are better than one” and collaboration is the key to expeditious success. This has been demonstrated throughout her career with collaborative efforts with large and small companies as well as educational institutions. Prior to co-founding Capital Composites, she was a Program Manager and part owner at San Diego Composites, which was acquired by Applied Composites, for fifteen years. She managed numerous research & development and build-to-specification projects for missile defense, military, space, and aircraft sectors. She wore many hats in addition to managing programs during her tenure including Principal Investigator, Lead Engineer, Business Development Lead for Nanotechnology, Deputy Facility Security Officer, Marketing Lead, and Social Chair for Women of San Diego Composites.

    Ms. Caprio has presented at numerous national conferences including the National Space and Missile Materials Symposium (NSMMS), Composites Manufacturing for the Society for Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), Nanotechnology for Defense (NT4D), Manufacturing Problem Prevention Program (MP3), and the Forum for SBIR Transition (FST) in conjunction with the SeaAirSpace conference.

    Ms. Caprio has a Bachelor of Science degree in Structural Engineering (Aerospace Emphasis) from the University of California, San Diego and an EIT Certificate (2006). In her personal time, she enjoys traveling to faraway places, shuttling her three kids around to too many extracurricular activities, and relaxing with a nice glass of California wine with her husband.