*Edited* Michael Hewins, the former chief operating officer and deputy CEO of struggling Australian satellite operator NewSat, has formed his own satellite industry consulting company called Hewins Ventures. He is currently providing advice to his old…
*Edited* Michael Hewins, the former chief operating officer and deputy CEO of struggling Australian satellite operator NewSat, has formed his own satellite industry consulting company called Hewins Ventures.
He is currently providing advice to his old Aon colleague Joshua Small at space underwriter Castor Aerospace, where he acts as a commercial consultant.
Hewins was COO and deputy CEO of NewSat until he left the company late last year. At the time, NewSat would not comment on the reason for his departure.
Hewins joined NewSat as COO in August 2011 and has played a central role in the Jabiru-1 satellite project, helping to secure its export credit agency backed financing and taking over as interim CFO between June 2013 and September 2014.
NewSat’s funding is currently in peril after the company breached the terms of the debt last year and recently suffered a setback to its wavier negotiations after French export credit agency COFACE said it would not support the waiver.
Hewins joined NewSat from AON / International Space Brokers, where he was the chief commercial officer. He was with Aon since 2007, having previously been its space global practice leader prior to the merger with ISB.
Before Aon, Hewins was the chairman and CEO of Earth observation content company AstroVision International.
Castor was founded by ex-Marsh and Aon broker Joshua Small in 2012. In April 2013, the New York-based underwriter was chosen by US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) as its new program administrator for space-related risks.
However, SatelliteFinance understands that AIG ended the relationship last year and now manages its own space-related coverage. Small is looking to secure fresh funding to create a new space insurance line.
