[Satellite Today 11-16-09] Gary Parsons has resigned as a director and chairman of the board of Sirius XM Radio, the company announced Nov. 12. Parsons was the founder of XM Satellite Radio and chairman prior to the merger of Sirius and XM.

            The Sirius XM board appointed Eddy Hartenstein, an independent director, to serve as non-executive chairman. Hartenstein has been a director of Sirius XM since July 2008. In August 2008, he was named publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times. Previously he was vice chairman and a member of the board of the DirecTV Group Inc. and also served as chairman and CEO of DirecTV Inc. from late 2001 to 2004 and as President of DirecTV Inc. from its inception in 1990 to 2001.

            "As chairman of the board, Gary has very effectively steered our company in the right direction, through our merger and beyond,” Mel Karmazin, Sirius XM’s CEO, said in a statement. “… I am also looking forward to working closely with Eddy in his new role. As an independent director, he will bring an important new perspective to the chairmanship; a perspective that our stockholders will benefit from."