The field for the Satellite Executive of the Year award is one of the deepest in recent memory, as seven worthy executives guided their respective companies to new levels of success and achievement in 2008.

Masanori Akiyama, President and CEO, Sky Perfect JSAT

Masanori Akiyama has been instrumental in the satellite business in Japan since its inception and helped sell the first commercial satellite ever launched for Japan — JCSat-1 in 1989. Today, he leads the largest satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region — and the fifth largest fixed satellite services (FSS) provider in the world — a company he created by engineering the combination of the two largest satellite operators in Asia and one of the larger DTH services.

Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. was established through the integration of JSAT Corp. and Sky Perfect Communications Inc., and in 2008, the holding company converted Space Communications Corp. (SCC) into a subsidiary. Akiyama, president and CEO, formulated the acquisition strategy and guided the company through the various regulatory hurdles to complete the purchase, and since closing the deals, he has brought three distinct businesses together. Sky Perfect JSAT today has 950 employees and a fleet of 13 spacecraft providing fixed and direct-to-home satellite services to more than 4.2 million households and 400 corporate customers in more than 15 countries. The combined revenues of Sky Perfect, JSAT and SCC in 2008 were more than $1.5 billion, and the combined operations of JSAT and SCC are expected to exceed $500 million in FSS revenue in 2009, nearly triple the company’s closest rival in the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition to strengthening the satellite and broadcast TV industry within Japan, Akiyama also increased the company’s business beyond the domestic market, through methods such as the creation of JSAT International Inc. and a partnership with Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. (B-Sat) that recently ordered a next-generation broadcasting and telecommunications satellite to serve the region. He also established JSAT Mobile Communications Inc., a joint venture with Stratos Global Corp., Japan Radio Co. Ltd. and Furuno Electric Co. Ltd. that will expand Sky Perfect JSAT’s activities in the mobile communications market.

While working to broaden Sky Perfect JSAT’s horizons, Akiyama also completed a project in August with the launch of Superbird-7, the first commercial satellite built in Japan — by Mitsubishi Electric — and launched for a Japanese satellite operator. Sky Perfect rolled out its Sky Perfect! HD high-definition satellite TV service across Japan, with an initial offering of 15 HD channels with plans to expand to more than 70 by October.

Eric Beranger, CEO, Astrium Services

While Astrium Services, a fast-growing division within Astrium, the space business of EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space company), is smaller than the satellite manufacturing and space transportation divisions, Astrium Services has grown in importance in recent years. A few years ago, Astrium Services accounted for less than 10 percent of EADS Astrium’s overall revenues, but today, that figure has nearly doubled under the leadership of CEO Eric Beranger.

Astrium Services, which now has more than 2,000 employees, recorded a banner year in 2008, signing contracts with the Royal Australian Navy to supply wideband satellite communication terminals as well as a contract with the French Armament Procurement Agency to supply 54 ships in the French Navy with a military telecoms system. In another major win, Astrium Services signed a deal with France’s Economat des Armées (the French Ministry of Defence’s Joint Logistics and Supply Agency) to deliver Passerel end-to-end communications services to more than 10,000 troops deployed overseas. To help provide the service, Astrium Services opened its teleport in Toulouse, France, adding a satellite infrastructure network in France to existing networks in the United Kingdom and Germany.

The bigger news for Astrium Services was the completion of the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s next-generation military satellite system, Skynet 5. Paradigm Secure Communications, part of Astrium Services, is responsible for delivering secure communications services to the Ministry of Defence and its allies through 2020 via the three-satellite system as part of a service provision contract valued at 3.6 billion British pounds ($5.3 billion).

Amiee Chan, CEO, Norsat International

Since taking the position of president and CEO of Canadian ground-based satellite solutions provider Norsat International in 2006, Amiee Chan has reinvented the company. After 16 months on the job, Norsat rose from near insolvency with a year-end loss of more than $4 million in operations, to year-end earnings of $1.5 million. In 2008, Chan used the company’s momentum to score several lucrative defense contracts and expand into a new market with a maritime satellite subsidiary company, Norsat Italia S.R.L., and a strategic partnership with Navisystem Marine Electronics S.R.L.

Norsat has maintained profitability in every financial quarter under Chan’s leadership. After improving the company’s working capital from $4.9 million in December 2007 to $6.4 million in the first quarter of 2008 — while paying off debts and credit lines — Norsat ended the third quarter with revenues of $4.9 million, up from $3.8 million in the previous year.

Norsat then focused on expansion and adding products to the company portfolio, including three additions to the Ka-band portfolio of block upconverters and LNB downconverters, designed to be used in ground terminals operating on next-generation, high-powered military satellites. Norsat also released the first product in its vehicle-mount satellite terminal family, which helped the company secure contracts with the U.S. military, and an Asian broadcasting network for the transmission of video data feeds from these terminals.

Other notable contracts include a string of U.S. Department of Defense wins — a $5.5 million order for portable satellite terminals, ancillary equipment and associated implementation; a $600,000 maintenance service contract and a $1.2 million satellite system contract. Beyond the U.S. government, Norsat scored a $6 million repayable investment through the Canadian government’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative and $1.1 million in equipment contracts from the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Defense.

Andreas Gheorgiou, CEO, Spacenet Inc.

Under the leadership of CEO Andreas Georghiou, Spacenet experienced its best financial performance in its 27-year history, a quick turnaround that Georghiou engineered in just two years through a combination of technology introduction and global expansion. Spacenet posted revenues of more than $105 million in 2008, up more than 11 percent from 2007, and margin improved 5 percentage points in the same period. The number of VSATs deployed by Spacenet has reached 125,000.

Georghiou led this growth by shifting the company’s focus toward the enterprise market. Through the first nine months of 2008, Spacenet’s enterprise revenues improved nearly 22 percent from the same period in 2007. During this period, Spacenet’s share of the VSAT enterprise market grew 3 percentage points. Among the enterprise contracts captured by Spacenet in 2008 were deals with Dollar General, Intercontinental Hotel Groups, various gas and convenience stores and restaurant chains for nearly 3,000 sites, and more than 20,000 VSATs for the gaming industry.

Spacenet also expanded its presence in the government markets with agreements with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, Missouri Department of Transportation, Missouri Hospital Association, U.S. Postal Service and other unnamed public safety and U.S. Department of Defense agencies. Spacenet’s backlog has grown 22 percent from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008.

Georghiou also set the stage for continued growth in 2009 and beyond through a number of business initiatives, including the launch of international VSAT services to Europe, the Middle East and Africa; new rapid deploy satellite communications solutions for emergency response and homeland security; the launch of a Digital Media Alliance program that brings together the expertise of various companies to provide customers with a one-stop shop for digital content delivery; and expansion of the company’s portfolio of Connexstar services for industrial applications.

Pradman Kaul, Chairman and CEO, Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems and Chairman and CEO Pradman Kaul ended years of frustration in 2008, as the Spaceway 3 satellite began operations and placed Hughes at the forefront of the growing broadband satellite services market.

The spacecraft, the first communications satellite with on-board switching and routing, helped Hughes add new subscribers at the rate of 44,000 per quarter through the first three quarters of the year, bringing the total number of HughesNet residential and small business subscribers above the 420,000 mark.

Kaul also kept Hughes firmly atop the VSAT market with more than 50 percent of global market share, shipping more than 300,000 units in 2008 and expanding its reach internationally. Key international wins in 2008 include: Hughes Communications India Ltd. signing an agreement to supply 17,000 VSATs to be installed at rural kiosks across India; Hughes do Brasil receiving a contract to provide a turnkey WiMax and satellite backhaul solution to deliver high-speed Internet access throughout Amazonas; and Intelsat selecting Hughes’ HX System to enable maritime services in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Sistemas Técnicos de Loterías del Estado, the Spanish state lottery system, awarded Hughes a contract to provide an HN System network operations center, 2,800 broadband satellite routers and support and maintenance services for five years, and Orion Satellite Systems commissioned a Hughes HN satellite system to provide broadband Internet access services to remote areas in Australia. The North American enterprise business also posted strong gains, adding contracts from organizations such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Yum Brands, NuStar, PetroSun, True Blue and the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Hughes also expanded its business in other sectors, acquiring IPTV solutions provider Helius Inc. in February to broaden Hughes’ reach in the digital signage and business-based IPTV markets and completing follow-on development contracts for the ThurayaIP high-speed data terminal and a new system gateway. Hughes also introduced enhanced capabilities of its HX system to facilitate Ku-band satellite delivery of mobile broadband services on vehicles, ships, trains and planes.

Peter Shaper, CEO, CapRock Communications

CapRock Communications closed its acquisition of Arrowhead Global Solutions in May 2007, and after guiding the transformation, CEO Peter Shaper had CapRock operating at full capacity in 2008.

The combination of CapRock’s global network and Arrowhead’s experience and service offerings allow the combined companies to better serve the government, energy, engineering, construction and systems integration markets. The company’s assets include four international teleports, two network operations centers and service on more than 45 satellites. More than 650 employees serve some 300 customers with more than 1,000 VSAT spread around the globe. By leveraging both companies’ capabilities, CapRock was able to grow itself organically, producing double digit revenue growth in 2008 and posting record revenues and EBITDA for the year.

Among CapRock’s biggest commercial wins in 2008 were a multi-year agreement with Rowan Companies Inc. to deliver broadband satellite communications to its 28 land rigs located in the Gulf Coast region and 10 offshore rigs located in the Gulf of Mexico; a deal with Nor Offshore Ltd. to deploy CapRock’s SeaAccess Communications onboard nine vessels; and a three-year agreement with Condux S.A. de C.V. to deliver VSAT communication services onboard its fleet of construction vessels. CapRock closed the year with its biggest deal, a five-year contract with offshore drilling contractor Transocean to provide VSAT communications onboard Transocean’s offshore fleet. The deal marks the world’s largest global deployment of such services for a single drilling contractor, according to CapRock.

CapRock also unveiled two new initiatives for its clients: AssetTrax, a map-based tracking service that monitors the position and movement of assets around the world that customers can integrate seamlessly into operations using CapRock’s VSAT services, and NetSpot, an on-demand wireless Internet service designed for rigs located in the Gulf of Mexico equipped with CapRock’s turnkey VSAT solution.

On the military side, Arrowhead launched managed network services based on commercial X-band satellites, an offering designed to help military customers offset the shrinking supply of Ku- and C-band capacity. Arrowhead also signed an agreement with Spacenet Inc. to become a value-added reseller of the Connexstar-turnkey VSAT solution, enabling Arrowhead to offer Cisco-integrated Connexstar satellite services in a pre-packaged off-the-shelf solution.

Nick Thompson, Managing Director, Arqiva’s Satellite Media Solutions Division

Arqiva’s push into the satellite arena can be traced back to 2006, when the company spent 25 million British pounds ($36.6 million) to acquire BT’s satellite broadcast business. This acquisition served as the catalyst of Arqiva’s strategy today and particularly its attempts to crack the U.S. market.

Nick Thompson, who joined Arqiva in 2005, helped make this strategy a success in 2008, as the company’s satellite media solutions division became an increasingly important part of Arqiva’s overall business. During the financial year, revenues from the satellite and media division reached 220 million pounds ($322.2 million), accounting for nearly half of Arqiva’s overall revenues. In the previous financial year, the satellite and media division generated revenues of 117 million pounds ($171.5 million), or about 33 percent of Arqiva’s overall turnover. Nearly all of Arqiva’s revenue growth in its most recent year can be attributed directly to the satellite and media division.

In 2008, Arqiva teamed up with Sat-GE to deliver an MPEG-4 high-definition platform for Asia and also announced that it was supporting the expansion of GTV, a new pay-TV platform for sub-Saharan Africa. Arqiva’s satellite push also made inroads in the military sectors, through a deal with Services Sound and Vision Corp., to increase the number of British Forces Broadcasting Services channels delivered to U.K. armed forces personnel based overseas.

The company also distributed a full-length digital cinema feature via satellite, showcasing its technological expertise and followed that demonstration by signing an agreement with Arts Alliance Media for the satellite distribution of films and alternative content live events into European cinemas.