[Satellite News 08-12-08] The satellite industry should be innovative, exciting and most importantly, fun, according to Theresa Beech, vice president of business development for GMV.
    GMV, based in Spain with offices in Portugal and the United States, is trying to keep things fun while climbing the ladder in the space industry and enjoying the advantages of being an independent, mid-sized space developer, said Beech.
    “We get regular offers to be bought. As far as being acquired, we are just saying no at this point. We have been a private, family-owned company for approximately 24 years. At our size, we are big enough to do just about anything we want to in the ground system area. We have 900 people working for us right now. Last year our revenues were about $115 million. At the same time, we are small enough to be agile and quick to respond. There is an advantage to being a mid-sized company.”
            Satellite News News Editor Jeffrey Hill spoke with Beech at GMV’s Rockville, Md office.

Beech: In the last three years we have grown between 16 percent and 18 percent. Our growth has been mostly organic. We did make one very small acquisition. The company had approximately 60,000 square feet of space, and we outgrew it. The new Madrid facility adds about 12,000 square meters or 14,000 square meters. In terms of the United States, right now we’re just here in Rockville, but we will eventually be looking to expand.

Beech: About 12 percent of our budget goes into research and development, which is very high for a company of our size.

Satellite News: What makes it more difficult?

Beech: The consolidations make it harder for smaller companies, especially in the United States. In terms of size, the U.S. does not have many companies that are in the middle. It is harder for us to negotiate, but we learn to work with it.

Satellite News: How do you separate yourself from your competition?

Beech: We provide software that allows our clients to command it openly. We are very strong on Linux and other open source programs. When your hardware dies, it is easy to port it to another. For software, if a program crashes, you do not have to worry about porting it from system to system with open source programs. A lot of our customers appreciate that because it allows them to work independently and be less obligated to a specific hardware platform. 

Satellite News: What projects are on the foreground for GMV?

Beech: In the commercial arena, we are excited about the work we’re doing for Star One for their Brazilsat satellite. We are integrating the entire ground system for four existing satellites. It is a very cool project and a big deal for us. Brazilsat is the largest operator in South America. In the institutional world, we are working on the heart of the ground system, the mission planning and generation of stored command loads for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — the return to the moon mission for NASA after Apollo.
    We are providing all of the software associated with the stored command loads and providing the mission planning and scheduling.

Satellite News: Tell us about the GPS work your company is doing for Malaysia.

Beech: This is the year where the age gap is particularly apparent in the U.S. aerospace industry. The United States has the worst age gap by far. This is not as apparent in Europe.As people start retiring, younger people will need to fill those gaps. Perhaps because the GMV’s upper management is mostly comprised of engineers, the company has a real appreciation for technology. There is a real passion for it. We do not just want to be profitable, we want to be cool. … Our people tend to have more invested in the company — to push it and to have it grow. The company breeds a lot of loyalty in its upper management, and they have been with the company for at least 10 to 20 years.