Photo: Arabsat

Khalid bin Ahmed Balkheyour has resigned as CEO of Arabsat, and the company’s board of directors has assigned Dr. Badr bin Nasser Al-Suwaidan to head the organization. The Arabsat board announced the change on Monday, Sept. 6.

Al-Suwaidan is the former CTO of Arabsat. He has participated in several programs and space missions, including working on the first Saudi Geostationary satellite SGS-1 with Arabsat, and Saudi-Sat4 in cooperation with NASA. Before joining Arabsat, Al-Suwaidan worked as a director of the Institute of Research and Space in King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

In addition, Haitham Al-Ohali, vice minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology for Saudi Arabia, has been named chairman of the board.

Balkheyour became president and CEO of Arabsat in 2003, and received the Via Satellite Executive of the Year award for 2013. The company carries over 500 TV channels to more than 80 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. VS

This article originally appeared in the SATELLITE 2021 Show Daily.