Striking a Balance
Clearly, most satellite executives still have some technical background. The shift away from engineers as leaders raises the question of how much technical know-how is enough.
Georghiou, who was hired as CEO of Spacenet in August, developed technical and business specialties by moving between engineering and marketing and sales roles, first at General Electric, then SES Americom. He began his career at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Labs and was so adept at engineering, though he is not an engineer, that he was Americom’s senior vice president of engineering and operations. But armed with an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, he quickly moved into the executive ranks.
For a CEO, “It really is more skills like leadership and people skills, in general, and you have to have the fundamentals of understanding technology,” Georghiou says. “You can’t have people [at the top] who don’t understand the technology. They don’t have to do the calculations, but they need to understand the ramifications.”
One company still solidly controlled by engineers is Hughes Network Systems (HNS), where three of the top four executives — Chairman and CEO Pradman Kaul and Executive Vice Presidents Bahram Pourmand and Paul Gaske — are electrical engineers.
Kaul, whose career was built on early satellite engineering feats, says HNS’s leadership distinction speaks to the company’s brand. “Hughes, from the days of Howard Hughes, has epitomized technology and innovation,” he says. “We view ourselves as a technology company, first.” That said, Kaul sees the general push toward business executives as good for the industry. “Like anything in life, moderation is optimum,” he says. “Historically, our industry has been dominated by technocrats. We probably need more understanding of the financial marketplace.”
Kaul says he is confident in his team’s business leadership, which was honed on the job. Starting as an engineer “I think is still the best way to climb, assuming you can pick up the business skills,” he says. “My job is easier than someone else [without an engineering background] because I understand the limits of technology and the opportunities. I understand when someone wants to make an investment in new products.”
But Kaul admits much has changed since the company went public last fall. “Now we are a totally public company, and that changes significantly how we operate,” he says. “Now we not only have to satisfy our bosses in the big corporations but our bosses who are our shareholders give us a report card every day in our stock price.”
That change, while uncomfortable, puts the satellite industry where so many technology industries before it have gone.
“I’m sure the early airline companies were all about airplanes and technology,” Desch said. “As they evolved, they became more about what their products are. Today, they’re more about bankruptcy protection, commoditization and consolidation. Now their leaders are not former pilots, they are bankers. I imagine we’ll get to that stage, but we’re not there yet.”
Lisa Daniel is a freelance business writer who covers the satellite industry. She may be reached at daniel2@verizon.net.
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