Patrick K. Brant has been named president of Loral Skynet, the satellite operating business unit of New York-based Loral Space & Communications, succeeding Terry Hart, who is leaving after seven years at the helm to pursue a career in academia. Brant recently had accepted an offer to become a key executive at Iridium Satellite LLC but he gave that up to rejoin the company.

The leadership transition is occurring at a critical time in Loral Skynet’s history as Loral prepares to file a plan of reorganization that should allow it to emerge from Chapter-11 bankruptcy court protection before the end of the year.

Loral Skynet owns and operates four telecom satellites that, when combined with its hybrid VSAT/fiber global network infrastructure, provides video broadcasting, broadband data transmission, Internet services and other value-added communications services to commercial and government customers.