Jonas Mattsson has followed in the footsteps of his new boss and moved from SES to O3b Networks. Mattsson has left his role as chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance at SES New Skies to become CFO of O3b, reporting to new CEO and…
Jonas Mattsson has followed in the footsteps of his new boss and moved from SES to O3b Networks. Mattsson has left his role as chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance at SES New Skies to become CFO of O3b, reporting to new CEO and former SES CFO Mark Rigolle.
Mattsson joined SES in 2005 as CFO of SES Sirius, where he helped to develop the Nordic and Eastern European markets. Prior to SES, Mattsson worked extensively within management teams of various parts of Ericsson as well as the start-up company Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture.
Mark Rigolle, O3b CEO, said: “Jonas is an excellent addition to the O3b management team as we finalise our funding arrangements and actively sell applications ahead of the launch of our first satellites. We continue to make good progress in these areas and I will be working closely with Jonas to ensure that our progress is maintained.”
Gilat restructures business leadership following Antebi departure
Gilat Satellite Networks has moved quickly to fill the sudden departure of Erez Antebi, the CEO of its GNS and Spacenet Rural. The company has appointed Jaron Lotan to serve as its chief operating officer, where he will oversee the day-to-day business operations for all of Gilat’s businesses other than Spacenet Inc.
The company stated that the changes will create a more unified Gilat, combining Gilat, GNS and Spacenet Rural, while enabling Spacenet Inc to continue its operation as a separate wholly-owned subsidiary. Lotan, who will report to Gilat’s chief executive officer and chairman Amiram Levinberg, will take up his new role on April 6.
Gilat said that Antebi decided to leave the Company to seek other opportunities, and has agreed to continue to work for the company for an interim period as an advisor on special projects reporting to Levinberg.
Lotan joins Gilat having served as the president and CEO of Tecnomatix Technologies. Prior to that, he held various executive positions at Orbotech, including corporate executive VP for Business and Strategy and president of the PCB Division.
Leroy to head up strategy at Eutelsat
Eutelsat has named Yohann Leroy as its new director of strategy. Leroy joins Eutelsat from the office of the French Prime Minister, where he was technical advisor for Industry and Information Technology from 2007 to 2010. This followed four years as head of the industrial development department at the Île de France regional division for industry, research and the environment (DRIRE).
Eutelsat also announced that Yves Blanc, who headed a division combining strategy and institutional relations, is now director of institutional and international affairs and will in addition drive special projects. He has also been appointed chairman of FRANSAT, the subsidiary set up by Eutelsat to provide France’s Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels by satellite to homes in metropolitan France beyond range of terrestrial reception.
Carey in line to chair Sky Deutschland?
News Corp is rumoured to be mulling turning to DTH veteran Chase Carey to turn round the fortunes of Sky Deutschland. According to reports, Carey, who was the CEO of DirecTV until mid-2009 when he left to rejoin News Corp as Rupert Murdoch’s number two, would takeover as chairman of Sky Deutschland when Markus Tellenbach steps down later in the year. Tellenbach is also the President and CEO of Polish broadcaster TVN Group.
Earlier this year, News Corp raised its stake in the German DTH provider to 45.42% following a capital increase. The media giant has invested a substantial amount in Sky Deutschland as it seeks to get a grip of a German pay-TV market that is dominated by cable operators.
News Corp has made a number of changes at the top of Sky Deutschland to try and turn around its fortunes. At the end of last year, Brian Sullivan, managing director of successful UK DTH provider BSkyB’s customer group, was drafted in as CEO to replace
Mark Williams. Sullivan takes up his role in April.
Major changes at the top of IDC
In the space of a month the chairman, president and CEO and two board members of International Datacasting Corp have all departed as the company’s recent investors flex their muscles.
First to go was president and CEO Ron Clifton, who had been at the company for 13 years. He was quickly followed by Denis Colbourne, Stuart Smith and Kevin Rankin who all resigned from the board of directors, with Colbourne formerly chairman of the company. Subsequent to this Clifton also then resigned from the board.
Clifton has been replaced as president and CEO by Fred Godard, the founder, executive chairman, CEO and president of Qustream Corporation, a developer of integrated products such as switchers to creators and distributors of video content.
Adam Adamou, the president and managing partner of Toronto-based investment firm Caseridge Capital Corporation, has taken over as chairman from Colbourne. Stuart Smith and Kevin Rankin have been replaced by Del Lippert and Frank Ruffolo.
Godard, Adamou and Ruffolo were part of an investor group that took control of a 19.9% stake in IDC in December after they acquired the shares of Growthworks Canadian Fund. Following that investment, all three took seats on the IDC board after the resignations of Dr. Peter Scovell, W. Neil Bauer and Denzil Doyle, who had been with the company for fifteen years.
Integral names new security chief
Leonard Moss has been appointed the new vice president of Security for Integral Systems. Moss has almost 30 years experience in the security industry, both in the military and commercial defence sectors. He most recently served as the director of corporate security and facility security officer at AAI Corporation, where he implemented company-wide security policies for 2,600 employees at manufacturing facilities, subsidiaries and field offices.
Paul Casner, president and CEO of Integral Systems said: “As we increase our footprint within the Department of Defense, Leonard’s wealth of knowledge in security matters will ensure that we continue to meet the strict standards demanded by our customers.”
Moss has previously worked as senior manager and security and facility security officer at ATK Systems, as director of corporate security and safety for the Western Region at ADVO, Inc., and served in the United States Air Force.
GeoEye creates new sales role for Tully
GeoEye has appointed Chris Tully to the newly created position of senior vice president of sales. He will report directly to the company’s CEO and president Matthew O’Connell and have responsibility for the overall management, organisational vision and strategic direction of GeoEye’s sales organisation.
Tully has over 25 years of experience leading sales and customer service organisations, most recently as executive vice president/chief sales officer at Kastle Systems LLC. Before joining Kastle, he was senior vice president of Sales & Customer Service at CoStar Group and has also worked for GTSI Corporation and Dell.
*iDirect has promoted Chris Norem to the role of chief financial officer. Norem had previously served as vice president of finance with the company since 2006.
Before joining iDirect, Norem held several executive positions with US companies, including most recently Sprint Nextel and eLink Communications.
*Globalstar has appointed Stuart Mar as vice president and chief accounting officer. Mar joined the company as controller in April 2006. Prior to joining Globalstar, he was a senior finance manager at IBM for the Applications on Demand. Mar also served as Senior Accountant and Accounting Manager at Globalstar in its former incarnation from 1995 to 2000. Fuad Ahmad, the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, relinquished his duties as chief accounting officer upon Mar’s appointment.
