Last year, Dan Berkenstock deservedly won Via Satellite’s prestigious Satellite Executive of the Year award. This year, we have six nominees ranging from a number of new players, as well as two of Europe’s most established space companies.
Greg Wyler, Founder, OneWeb
OneWeb is pioneering a massive new satellite constellation consisting of 720 spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide affordable broadband Internet access to the entire world. In a relatively short amount of time, the company raised $500 million from investors including Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Qualcomm, The Coca-Cola Company, the Virgin Group, and Totalplay.
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Michel de Rosen, CEO, Eutelsat
In 2009, when Michel de Rosen became CEO of Eutelsat, the company was a regional operator. In the six years since, de Rosen has built Eutelsat into a global powerhouse with a strong presence in Latin America and Asia. The operator closed deals with Facebook to bring satellite connectivity to Africa, and with Sigfox for IoT connectivity. Eutelsat performed strongly financially throughout his tenure.
Elon Musk, CEO and Lead Designer, SpaceX
SpaceX started 2015 with a $1 billion investment from Google and Fidelity, and closure of its legal battle with the U.S. Air Force. Despite the CRS 7 failure, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 first stage booster after an orbital mission, bringing a truly reusable launch system closer to reality. NASA purchased options for three more CRS missions and a commercial crew mission.
Stéphane Israël, Chairman and CEO, Arianespace
In 2015, Israël guided Arianespace to launch 12 rockets and signed 19 new contracts for 33 launches — records for the company. Arianespace inked one of the largest launch contracts in industry history with OneWeb for 21 Soyuz missions valued at more than $1 billion. Its manifest stands at 56 missions.
Masood Sharif Mahmood, CEO, Yahsat
Under Mahmood’s leadership, Yahsat gained its first In-Flight Connectivity contract with Etihad Airways, a connectivity agreement with the Square Kilometer Array project in Southern Africa, and progressed on the new Al Yah 3 satellite introducing Yahsat to Latin America. YahClick has more than 34,000 subscribers across 15 countries. Yahsat is now one of the top 10 satellite operators globally.
Steve Collar, CEO, O3b Networks
By September 2015, O3b had 25 Gbps of contracted capacity across 40 live customers in 31 countries. In 2015, O3b signed deals with operators across the world and closed its third round of financing with another $460 million. The company also ordered another eight satellites to keep up with growing demand. VS
