Photo: Steve Collar

Steve Collar, former CEO of SES, is returning to the satellite industry to join the board of directors of Swissto12 and become its new chairman. Swissto12 announced the appointment, March 5.

Roland Loos, Swissto12 chairman since 2016, will continue as a member of the board and will hand over the chairman position to Collar.

Collar served as CEO of SES for five years before leaving the company in June of 2023. He previously led O3b Networks, which was acquired by SES.

Collar said in a LinkedIn post that he is “super excited” to be joining the board of SWISSto12 as chair. He is looking forward to working with CEO Emile de Rijk and the rest of the board at “one of the fastest growing companies in the industry.”

Swissto12, based in Switzerland, manufactures radio frequency (RF) products and the HummingSat small Geostationary (GEO) satellite platform.

Collar is a previous winner of Via Satellite’s Satellite Executive of the Year award. Swissto12’s current CEO Emile de Rijk is one of the nominees for this year’s award.