Eutelsat’s headquarters in Paris. Photo: Eutelsat

Eutelsat Communications named a new president and CEO of its Eutelsat America business on Monday. Richard Mortellaro, who previously served as senior vice president of Sales, Marketing and Fixed Satellite Services at EchoStar, will succeed David Bair who is retiring.

Mortellaro will now lead Eutelsat’s U.S. government and military business activities in support of national security missions. His 30-year satellite industry career includes leadership positions at Intelsat and Loral Skynet Group, which merged with Telesat in 2007.

“We are delighted to welcome Richard to Eutelsat America Corp. and are confident that his extensive skill-set and experience will be a great asset to us as we strengthen Eutelsat’s development in the Americas region,” Eutelsat Board Chair Sidney Fuchs said in a statement.

In July, Eutelsat announced it reached reached an agreement with OneWeb to combine, bringing together satellite assets in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) for multi-orbit service. Plans specific to Eutelsat America were not mentioned in the announcement.