EchoStar Satellite Services Hires Former SiriusXM, LightSquared Executive

EchoStar Satellite Services has hired SiriusXM vice president of engineering Derek de Bastos as its CTO.

De Bastos was among the first employees of XM Satellite Radio, where he was vice president of satellite engineering for nine years before the 2008 merger of Sirius and XM. He also held management positions with Worldspace and Lockheed Martin Astro Space.

De Bastos will be responsible for procurement, technical direction and technical operations for EchoStar’s satellite fleet and will manage the team responsible for systems engineering and program management, reporting to EchoStar Satellite Services president Anders Johnson.

Intelsat Appoints Marais as ITS NEW Regional Vice President of African Sales

Intelsat has appointed Grant Marais as its new regional vice president of African sales. Marais succeeds Jon Osler, who will join Intelsat’s Global Accounts team in Washington, D.C.

Marais will be responsible for supporting the growth of Intelsat’s customers in the region, which includes leading telecommunications and wireless operators, network services providers, and DTH platform operators and broadcasters. Intelsat provides customers in Africa with communications infrastructure and service from 23 satellites serving the region, which will be joined by the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellite platform when it is launched in 2015.