[Satellite TODAY Insider 06-03-11] CapRock Communications CEO Peter Shaper is retiring from the company and stepping down from his interim position of the Harris Corp. division’s group president.
Shaper, the former head of the Houston-based communications services provider and Via Satellite’s 2009 Satellite Executive of the Year award winner, was instrumental in CapRock’s 2007 purchase of Arrowhead Global Solutions, a commercial satellite bandwidth and end-to-end networks re-seller to the U.S. government, as well as the acquisition of his own company by Harris Corp. last year, which placed him at the forefront of the 2010 satellite industry consolidation wave.
“Peter was instrumental in bringing together the strategic acquisitions and combining businesses to form Harris CapRock. We thank him for his dedication to making Harris CapRock the successful business that it is today,” Dan Pearson, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Harris, said in a statement.
Harris appointed CapRock’s global operations officer and formerly government division business leader Tom Eaton to replace Shaper as president of Harris CapRock. Eaton previously served as president of G2 Satellite Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of PanAmSat.
The company said that Eaton would be responsible for managing a customer service model that reaches across the energy, government and maritime vertical markets. Reporting to Eaton are: Keith Johnson, president of Energy Solutions; David Myers, president of Government Solutions; and Rick Simonian, president of Maritime Solutions. Andrew Lucas will fill Eaton’s previous role overseeing the operation and deployment of the company’s global network and service delivery infrastructure.
Pearson credited Eaton for transitioning Harris CapRock from a bandwidth reseller to a fully managed services and terrestrial network provider. “He led the strategic growth of a key terrestrial program, the DISN Access Transport Services (DATS) contract, and managed the subsequent acquisition of Core180’s terrestrial infrastructure, which was part of the DATS business. This infrastructure now serves as the foundation of Harris CapRock’s global terrestrial network,” he said.
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