US hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has unveiled a heavyweight management team to head up its planned nationwide satellite/terrestrial 4G-LTE wireless broadband network, LightSquared.
The first appointment, in April before the venture had a name,…
US hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has unveiled a heavyweight management team to head up its planned nationwide satellite/terrestrial 4G-LTE wireless broadband network, LightSquared.
The first appointment, in April before the venture had a name, was that of CEO Sanjiv Ahuja, the former chief executive of Orange and founder of emerging markets WiMAX provider Augere and Africa-focused telecoms infrastructure company Eaton Telecom.
Joining him on the LightSquared management team is a group of seasoned telecoms veterans.
Frank Boulben, as chief marketing officer, will be responsible for strategy, marketing and partner development. Previous roles include group commercial director at Vodafone and group chief marketing officer at Orange, as well as board level duties at the GSMA. Joining as general counsel is Curtis Lu, a former senior vice president, deputy general counsel, and chief ethics and compliance officer at Time Warner.
Drew Caplan will be chief network officer, having already held that role at SkyTerra before its purchase by Harbinger. Caplan, who boasts 25 years in the TMT industry, founded and headed up Nextel Communications’ national engineering organisation, where he was in charge of developing, engineering, planning, and deploying new technologies, products and services.
Another SkyTerra alumnus, who had served as vice president of Regulatory Affairs, is Jeff Carlisle, who joins as executive vice president for Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy. He will be responsible for all domestic and international regulatory and policy matters including those at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Congress, the Executive Branch, the ITU and in foreign markets.
Further official appointments will start in the autumn, and these will include the following:
Martin Harriman is to become executive vice president of Ecosystem Development and Satellite Business and will oversee satellite engineering, devices, chipset development, service applications and partner solutions. Harriman has previously served in senior management positions with Ericsson and was the chief marketing officer of Marconi. He has been acting as an adviser to Harbinger Global Wireless since Q1 2010.
Steve Olive, the new chief administrative officer, will look after human resources, procurement, facility management and internal communications functions. Former jobs include senior executive positions at France Telecom and Orange. Having also advised Harbinger Global Wireless since Q1 2010, his new role will begin in the autumn.
Doug Smith, as senior vice president, Engineering and Operations, will be responsible for the company’s network design, deployment, and operations. Formerly a senior vice president at Clearwire’s engineering division, he has also held senior technical and operations positions at Sprint Nextel and Nextel.
A third SkyTerra manager, Jeff Snyder, the new senior vice president for Satellite Engineering and Operations, held the same role at that company. He will now be responsible for the management of the procurement, construction, launch, testing, and operation of LightSquared’s next generation satellite network and spacecraft. Other previous positions include senior vice president for Space and Ground Systems at XM Satellite Radio and vice president of Space Systems for Worldspace Corporation.
Dion Oglesby, who joins as interim CFO, has more than 15 years of experience in restructuring, investment banking, and lending, including as vice president in the High Yield Capital Markets Group of Credit Suisse First Boston.
The former SkyTerra vice chairman, CEO and president Alex Good and chief financial officer Scott Macleod left the company not long after Harbinger completed its acquisition.
