Ken Traub is named CEO of Comtech. Photo: Comtech

Less than three months after naming a new CEO, Comtech Telecommunications is going through another leadership shakeup. The company’s board named Ken Traub as president and CEO on Jan. 13, effective immediately. 

The changes came as the satellite ground technology company reported its first quarter results for fiscal year 2025, with a 24% decline in sales year-over-year. Traub outlined a series of changes to turn Comtech around. 

“To be frank, we are starting with a trust deficit in light of the company’s poor track record of financial and operational performance, missed expectations, and lack of accountability,” Traub said in a call with investors on Monday, assessing the situation at Comtech. 

This is the latest in a series of leadership changes at Comtech over the past year. Traub replaces John Ratigan, who was recently named permanent CEO on Oct. 30. 

Ratigan, a former iDirect Gov exec, led the company for much of 2024 as interim CEO after the board fired former CEO Ken Peterman in March. Just one month after naming Ratigan as permanent CEO, Comtech brought Traub in as executive chairman of the company, with Ratigan to report to Traub. On the investor call on Monday, Traub spoke highly of Ratigan and thanked him for his time leading the company. 

Traub is new to Comtech and first joined the company’s board at the end of October. Traub said Monday he has spent much of his career dealing with “business transformations and turnarounds.” 

In addition to the 24% year-over-year decline in sales, Comtech reported a GAAP net loss of $148.4 million in the quarter that ended on Oct. 31, compared to a net loss of $1.4 million in the same time last year

CFO Michael Bondi said this net loss includes several non-cash and one-time charges, including a $79.6 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge in the Satellite and Space segment. 

Traub Details Next Steps for Comtech 

Traub outlined his plan to get Comtech on firmer financial footing. The company has two business segments and has been exploring options to divest its Terrestrial & Wireless Networks segment for a number of months. Traub said Comtech is broadening this effort and also looking at divesting within the Satellite and Space Communications segment as well. 

Traub said that Comtech has action plans in place to streamline the Satellite and Space Communications business and improve processes and accountability. Comtech reported it has discontinued 70 products in its satellite ground infrastructure product line to focus on higher margin revenue opportunities. The company also made layoffs during the second fiscal quarter and laid off more than 10% of total Satellite and Space Communications segment staff. 

“While some aspects of the satellite and space business perform very well and have significant future potential, other components of this segment have performed poorly,” Traub said. “There are several reasons for this, which include historical acquisitions that were not integrated successfully; poor product and market fits; misaligned incentives, in which sales people were incentivized to bring in low-margin business that did not fit well with the company’s core competencies; and an excessive cost structure, which has been misaligned with the realistic revenue expectations.” 

Daniel Gizinski will continue to lead this segment as president. Gizinski detailed steps for the turnaround on the investor call to simplify its engineering, manufacturing, and go-to-market structure with the smaller product line, and reviewing how Comtech structures its contracts. 

“While we still have much to do, we are making the right decisions to reduce overhead and empower the team to perform,” Gizinski said. “Our course has been charted to a more streamlined SNS segment that is focused on designing, manufacturing, and supporting sophisticated communications equipment for both our defense and commercial users that rely on us to provide mission-critical communications infrastructure.” 

Traub took tough questions from investors, who questioned whether another business transformation will be successful when others have not. 

“I’m the fifth CEO over a relatively short period of time. That’s not a good sign,” Traub said. “This isn’t going to be easy, but we’re going to do it. This company is committed to it. We are going to be a better Comtech going forward than what you’ve seen in the past.”