Carl Marchetto, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space’s new vice president and general manager. Photo: Lockheed Martin

[Via Satellite 08-11-2015] Lockheed Martin Commercial Space has placed Carl Marchetto at the helm as its new vice president and general manager. Following the company’s two-satellite contract with Arabsat and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Mike Hamel, former president of commercial ventures at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, has taken a new role focused on developing a strategic partnership with the two customers.

Marchetto is responsible for all commercial business including overseeing sales and manufacture of all of Lockheed Martin’s commercial communications satellites based on the modernized A2100 framework. Earlier in his career, Carl served as A2100 program director for Lockheed Martin and his signature is carried aboard the company’s first A2100 satellite, GE 1. He is also responsible for the company’s commercial remote sensing and wind business. Marchetto has more than 30 years in the space industry, having served as president and CEO of Polaris Associates, and also having held positions of leadership at Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Orbital Sciences, and Eastman Kodak prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2014.

Along with the orders for Arabsat 6A and Hellas-Sat 4/SaudiGeoSat 1, Lockheed Martin, KACST, and TAQNIA Space Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Technology Investment and Development Company, signed an agreement to explore future design, manufacture, assembly and integration of satellites in Saudi Arabia. Hamel is involved in the creation of a joint venture anticipated to be structured as a limited liability company, and the development of other long-term partnerships beyond this opportunity.