Via Satellite's Satellite Executive Of The Year 2006: Our Nominees Are...

There were many notable performances in a year that saw the satellite industry continue its overall resurgence in the face of ever-growing expectations. But four executives stood out in a crowded field of potential candidates.

Patrick DeWitt

CEO,

Space Systems/Loral

Patrick DeWitt continued a remarkable story for satellite manufacturer Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), keeping the company at the top of a highly competitive sector of the space industry.
DeWitt has held management positions with SS/L and its predecessor companies for 34 years and guided the company through the satellite manufacturing slowdown and the bankruptcy of parent company Loral Space & Communications. His efforts in positioning SS/L to return to the top of the market as one of the premier commercial satellite manufacturers earned him a nomination for the 2005 Satellite Executive of the Year.
His performance in 2006 was just as impressive, as SS/L continued to be among the leaders in capturing contracts to build increasingly complex commercial satellites.
Among the seven contracts won by SS/L in 2006 were the Sirius FM-5 satellite for Sirius Satellite Radio. The spacecraft will feature a range of technologies, including a 9-meter unfurlable reflector for providing highly-concentrated transmissions to small, advanced devices. Industry analysts believe this will be part of a planned video offering.
SS/L also received the contract to build the TerreStar-2 satellite for TerreStar Networks Inc. The satellite, along with TerreStar-1 already under construction at SS/L, will work with an ancillary terrestrial component to form the network for TerreStar’s Mobile Satellite Services business.
SS/L also demonstrated continued success in Asia with a contract for AsiaSat 5, a new generation satellite designed to provide Fixed Satellite Services across the region.
Under DeWitt’s leadership, SS/L also expanded its head count by more than 800 employees and continues to grow in order to meet worldwide demand for increasingly complex satellites.
DeWitt’s vision and guidance has made SS/L a leader in the satellite manufacturing industry.

Dumrong Kasemset,

Executive Chairman,

Shin Satellite Co.

In the highly competitive satellite services market in Asia, it takes vision and creativity to succeed.
In 2006, Dumrong Kasemset, executive chairman of Shin Satellite Co., oversaw the roll out of commercial service on IPStar’s broadband satellite service as well as the launch of a new satellite to shore up the company’s conventional broadcast offerings.
Kasemset has been the driving force behind the IPStar program, with primary responsibility for the design, manufacture, launch and implementation of the satellite system. The IPStar satellite, also known as Thaicom 4, was the first next-generation satellite specifically designed to offer high-speed, two-way Internet Protocol (IP) broadband connectivity.
The satellite provides Shin Satellite with the capacity to provide service to up to 4 million subscribers throughout 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2006, Kasemset guided Shin Satellite through service rollouts in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, and the company completed the construction of gateways that will allow for the service to be available in the potentially lucrative market of China.
By late 2006, the total number of satellite user terminals provided by Shin Satellite had reached more than 50,000 in the Asia-Pacific Region.
While IPStar will help provide broadband access to large areas of the Asia-Pacific region that do not have access to terrestrial infrastructure, Shin Satellite also is committed to eliminating the price difference between satellite and terrestrial services and demonstrating that such a business model will be viable in both developing and developed regions around the globe. The key to this is the internal development of targeted turnkey applications such as satellite news gathering, distance learning and other applications.
While the IPStar project dominated Shin Satellite’s focus in 2006, Kasemset also positioned the company’s conventional satellite broadcasting business to remain viable in the market. Shin Satellite launched the Thaicom 5 satellite during the year and added an additional 20 TV channels to the 200 already carried over the company’s fleet.
The launch of IPStar commercial services has moved Shin Satellite from a regional broadcast satellite player to a much larger multi-service satellite company with a rapidly increasing global profile.

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