There were many notable performances in a year that saw the satellite industry continue its overall resurgence in the face of ever-growing expectations. But four executives stood out in a crowded field of potential candidates.

Patrick DeWitt CEO, Space Systems/Loral

Patrick DeWitt continued a remarkable story for satellite manufacturer Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), keeping the company at the top of a highly competitive sector of the space industry.
DeWitt has held management positions with SS/L and its predecessor companies for 34 years and guided the company through the satellite manufacturing slowdown and the bankruptcy of parent company Loral Space & Communications. His efforts in positioning SS/L to return to the top of the market as one of the premier commercial satellite manufacturers earned him a nomination for the 2005 Satellite Executive of the Year.
His performance in 2006 was just as impressive, as SS/L continued to be among the leaders in capturing contracts to build increasingly complex commercial satellites.
Among the seven contracts won by SS/L in 2006 were the Sirius FM-5 satellite for Sirius Satellite Radio. The spacecraft will feature a range of technologies, including a 9-meter unfurlable reflector for providing highly-concentrated transmissions to small, advanced devices. Industry analysts believe this will be part of a planned video offering.
SS/L also received the contract to build the TerreStar-2 satellite for TerreStar Networks Inc. The satellite, along with TerreStar-1 already under construction at SS/L, will work with an ancillary terrestrial component to form the network for TerreStar’s Mobile Satellite Services business.
SS/L also demonstrated continued success in Asia with a contract for AsiaSat 5, a new generation satellite designed to provide Fixed Satellite Services across the region.
Under DeWitt’s leadership, SS/L also expanded its head count by more than 800 employees and continues to grow in order to meet worldwide demand for increasingly complex satellites.
DeWitt’s vision and guidance has made SS/L a leader in the satellite manufacturing industry.

Dumrong Kasemset, Executive Chairman, Shin Satellite Co.

In the highly competitive satellite services market in Asia, it takes vision and creativity to succeed.
In 2006, Dumrong Kasemset, executive chairman of Shin Satellite Co., oversaw the roll out of commercial service on IPStar’s broadband satellite service as well as the launch of a new satellite to shore up the company’s conventional broadcast offerings.
Kasemset has been the driving force behind the IPStar program, with primary responsibility for the design, manufacture, launch and implementation of the satellite system. The IPStar satellite, also known as Thaicom 4, was the first next-generation satellite specifically designed to offer high-speed, two-way Internet Protocol (IP) broadband connectivity.
The satellite provides Shin Satellite with the capacity to provide service to up to 4 million subscribers throughout 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2006, Kasemset guided Shin Satellite through service rollouts in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, and the company completed the construction of gateways that will allow for the service to be available in the potentially lucrative market of China.
By late 2006, the total number of satellite user terminals provided by Shin Satellite had reached more than 50,000 in the Asia-Pacific Region.
While IPStar will help provide broadband access to large areas of the Asia-Pacific region that do not have access to terrestrial infrastructure, Shin Satellite also is committed to eliminating the price difference between satellite and terrestrial services and demonstrating that such a business model will be viable in both developing and developed regions around the globe. The key to this is the internal development of targeted turnkey applications such as satellite news gathering, distance learning and other applications.
While the IPStar project dominated Shin Satellite’s focus in 2006, Kasemset also positioned the company’s conventional satellite broadcasting business to remain viable in the market. Shin Satellite launched the Thaicom 5 satellite during the year and added an additional 20 TV channels to the 200 already carried over the company’s fleet.
The launch of IPStar commercial services has moved Shin Satellite from a regional broadcast satellite player to a much larger multi-service satellite company with a rapidly increasing global profile.

Andy Mullins President and CEO, DataPath

Under the leadership of president and CEO Andy Mullins, DataPath has firmly established itself as a formidable competitor in the satellite communications field, and in 2006, Mullins established DataPath as a satellite industry leader by offering broad-based network communications solutions for a variety of government customers. 
During the year, the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command awarded DataPath a pair of contracts to continue its work as the prime integrator to provide specialized satellite terminals and support services for the Joint Network Node program. DataPath also received several contracts to support the U.S Marines’ Storage Wide Area Network program.
Mullins expanded DataPath’s opportunities with non-military government customers as well. The company was chosen as a prime integrator for the Worldwide Satellite Systems program and also was named one of eight partners for AT&T’s Government Solutions team to support a $4 billion blanket purchase agreement from the U.S. Agency for International Development. These wins validated Mullins’ efforts to build upon DataPath’s military expertise to support civil government applications.
DataPath’s success stems from Mullins’ vision of differentiating the company and its offerings through innovative and flexible design methodology, including the use of best-of-breed, commercial-off-the-shelf components; self-funding of working prototypes and the integration of key suppliers in the design process. This process had provided business and technological benefits, including faster times to market, lower product costs and faster adaptation of technology to different platforms and environments.
DataPath also has built on its satellite capabilities to include wireless solutions that extend the reach of its networks through the last mile. This hybrid network allows DataPath to better support a variety of wireless networking frequencies, including those reserved for civilian first responders.
Mullins has also strengthened DataPath’s ability to compete in the intelligence and news broadcast markets with partnerships that allow the company to offer an improved means to produce and manage high-quality video.

Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO, Inmarsat

Inmarsat, a leader in the mobile satellite communications sector, took steps in 2006 under Chairman and CEO Andrew Sukawaty to strengthen its position.
With shareholder pressure squarely on Sukawaty following the company’s 2005 initial public offering, he responded with the global launch of the company’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service, the linkup with Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS) and other strategic business moves that will keep Inmarsat at the top of its field in the face of growing competition.
BGAN, Inmarsat’s next-generation mobile service, went live at the end of 2005, but it was in 2006 that the service really began to make an impact in the market with the expansion of its service into North and South America in April. The service is the cornerstone of Inmarsat’s strategy going forward, and a pair of Inmarsat-4 satellites now cover 85 percent of the world’s total landmass, serving about 98 percent of the global population.
BGAN revenue for the first nine months of the year was $5.3 million and the company had 5,547 subscribers as the end of September. Media agencies have been a big contributor to growth of the service, which has generated business mainly from new customers rather than pull existing customers from other Inmarsat services, the company said.
In September, Inmarsat accelerated its entry into the handheld satellite phone market by unveiling a collaboration with ACeS that will see the company roll out low-cost hand-held and fixed voice services in the Asian market, with extended coverage expected in early 2007 by combining satellite resources. Inmarsat will assume responsibility for satellite and network operations, wholesale service provision and service development. ACeS will focus on distribution of Mobile Satellite Services products in the Asian land and maritime markets as well as distribute BGAN services.
Inmarsat also made moves in the growing market for providing satellite-based communications services to aircraft. In August, Ryanair announced it would outfit its fleet of more than 200 aircraft with a hybrid cellular-satellite communications system based on Inmarsat SwiftBroadband which will enable passengers to make calls using their own mobile phones.

The ONES to Watch

The performances of several executives have set their companies up to achieve great things in the coming year. Here are some industry executives to watch in 2007:
Both Romain Bausch, president and CEO of SES Global, and David McGlade, CEO of Intelsat, wrapped up major acquisitions in 2006 that position their respective companies as the two unquestioned global Fixed Satellite Services behemoths. The challenge in 2007 will be to convert their new-found size into business gains.
Pradman Kaul, CEO of Hughes Network Systems faces a similar challenge. The company emerged as an independent, publicly traded entity at the beginning of 2006 and in March introduced its new HughesNet brand. Now Kaul faces the challenge of leading the provider of broadband satellite network solutions to new heights.
WildBlue Communications Inc. had trouble keeping up with demand for its satellite broadband service in 2006, but the company should be able to solve that problem following the December launch of the WildBlue-1 satellite. Now CEO Dave Leonard must find a way to satisfy his investors as well.
The competition between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio continues to garner daily attention, and after a year in which Sirius closed the subscriber gap, the two companies will be closely scrutinized again in 2007. Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius, is credited with bringing even more attention to satellite radio, and the world is watching to see if he can engineer a rumored merger.
Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, gained publicity for the failure of his Falcon 1 rocket, which crashed less than a minute into its inaugural mission in March. But among the small companies that have unveiled plans for new rockets, none have come as close as Musk to achieving their goal, and he plans to try again in 2007.
Another launch executive who will be closely watched is Frank McKenna, president of the leaner International Launch Services. While launches of Russian Proton rockets have formed the bulk of the company’s business throughout the past several years, it will be up to McKenna to keep the company viable without the support of Lockheed Martin Corp.
The remaining two commercial satellite imagery competitors are in a race to place the first next-generation spacecraft in orbit. Both DigitalGlobe and GeoEye plan to have their advanced imaging systems in orbit before mid-2007, and that will set up a competition between Jill Smith, president and CEO of DigitalGlobe, and Matt O’Connell, CEO of GeoEye, to capture the larger share of the lucrative military market as well as develop a viable commercial business.