Former CapRock CTO Philip Harlow has found a new position as Xtar’s president and COO, responsible for the growth and strategic direction of Xtar’s global X-band business as well as overseeing management, marketing and technical aspects of the company.
Harlow, a British military veteran with experience in nearly every level of the military satellite service value chain, joined Xtar June 3, following Harris Corp’s $525 million acquisition of CapRock. He joins Xtar at a dynamic time for the X-band market. With 38,000 NATO and 47,000 U.S. troops in mountainous Afghanistan and 115,000 U.S. troops in the deserts of Iraq — the military’s communication needs have been elevated. With the restrictive protocol of limited troop engagement, the need for real-time linkage on surveillance platforms and command and control structures also has been elevated. Harlow’s efforts will be focused on yielding high-power, commercial X-band communications satellites designed to meet growing commercial and military bandwidth demands.
Via Satellite News Editor Jeffrey Hill spoke with Harlow during his first week on the job about the history, as well as the future, of the growing X-band market and what role Xtar will play in its development.
Via Satellite: What is the transition like when you go from the technical leadership of being CTO to the executive leadership role of president and COO?
Harlow: Leading a company is a role I relish, and it’s a step up from being CTO, as I have more responsibility than I did before. I’m also coming on board at a time when there is a lot to do at Xtar. We have two spacecraft up, and we’re selling capacity to a market with a growing awareness of X-band capability. Xtar-Lant serves as an important point of connection back to the Unites States for forces in the Middle East. Xtar-Eur is providing high-speed connectivity to small X-band terminals in [U.S. Central Command] areas of opertation. All of our services are backwards compatible with existing X-band. The company also plays a significant role in support of the Global Information Grid (GIG), so the technology is exciting and to have responsibilties in managing these assets is just as exciting.
Via Satellite: What attracted you to make the shift to Xtar?
Harlow: Xtar is a good for me and there are several reasons why. The first and most important being that I know a lot about the X-band market, and Xtar presents the unique challenge of serving that niche. The new job also puts me back in the satellite operator world, where I came from. It is also a good time to be getting into X-band, and I see a lot of potential as it continues to be in a growth stage. I believe that because of my experience as a customer of Xtar over the past four or five years. Xtar has a good foundation, and the company is on the cusp of doing something really special.
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