Satellite Industry Association Announces New Executive Committee Officers for 2018

Washington, D.C., January 09, 2018 – The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) today announced the election results for its 2018 Executive Committee. The SIA Board of Directors elected Gerry Oberst of SES to serve as Chair for this year, joined by Bruce Cathell of Viasat Inc., as Vice Chair and Susan Crandall of Intelsat, to serve as Treasurer.

“It is with great pleasure that I announce these three experienced industry executives will be leading our Executive Board for 2018,” said Tom Stroup, President of SIA. “These are exciting times for the commercial satellite industry with the launch of advanced new satellites and the deployment of new constellations, providing broadband, remote sensing and other new services. SIA’s Executive Board suitably reflects the expanding nature of the industry and each of these incoming leaders bring years of valuable commercial and regulatory expertise to our growing roster of diverse executive members. I would also like to thank SIA’s outgoing board for their service during the past 12 months and we look forward to a new year as the voice of the U.S. satellite industry.”

Gerry Oberst is Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory and Governmental Strategy at SES.  He has more than three decades of professional experience advising the satellite communications industry and before joining SES was a partner in the law firm Hogan Lovells. He started his career in Washington, D.C. and moved to Brussels in 1991 to help open a new European office for the firm and advise on international regulation of communications services. During his career he has worked with and advised a host of major telecommunications clients in their dealings with the International Telecommunication Union, the European Commission and EU Member States, as well as some emerging market administrations.  In Brussels, he was the chair of the Satellite Action Plan Regulatory Group.  For twenty years, he was the regulatory columnist for Via Satellite magazine has published extensively in other publications, including a blog at his law firm entitled the “International Spectrum Review” and the book “The Consolidated EU Electronic Communications Regulatory Framework” reflecting 2009 amendments. Gerry is a member of the International Institute of Space Law and Federal Communications Bar Association.

Bruce Cathell is Vice President, Government Operations at Viasat, Inc.  Bruce is the principle senior executive interfacing to the US Government and leads all aspects of Viasat’s Defense & Aerospace Operations in the Washington, DC area.  In this capacity, Bruce provides technical, policy, regulatory and budgetary leadership across all aspects of Viasat’s Government Systems broad products and services portfolio.  Bruce has worked a variety of space programs over his 25 year career in industry and government, having most recently worked at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he provided program oversight of multi-billion dollar satellite and terminal programs.  In this role, Bruce led a number of Department level studies on satellite communications, led acquisition efforts to turn around underperforming programs, worked policy, budget and legislative issues, authored a number of congressional reports on satellite communications and drafted speeches and press releases.  Bruce is well versed in commercial and military communications satellites, ground control segments, terminals, satellite manufacturing and launch operations.  Bruce holds engineering degrees from Virginia Tech University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Susan H. Crandall is Associate General Counsel of Intelsat Corporation, where she is responsible for compliance with U.S. communications law and policy.  Prior to joining Intelsat, Susan was Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Morrison & Foerster, where she counseled media and satellite clients.

About The Satellite Industry Association

SIA is a U.S.-based trade association providing representation of the leading satellite operators, service providers, manufacturers, launch services providers, and ground equipment suppliers. For more than two decades, SIA has advocated on behalf of the U.S. satellite industry on policy, regulatory, and legislative issues affecting the satellite business. For more information, visit www.sia.org.

SIA Executive Members include: AT&T Services, Inc.; The Boeing Company; EchoStar Corporation; Intelsat S.A.; Iridium Communications Inc.; Kratos Defense & Security Solutions; Ligado Networks; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Maxar Technologies; Northrop Grumman Corporation; OneWeb; SES Americom, Inc.; Space Exploration Technologies Corp.; and Viasat, Inc. SIA Associate Members include: ABS US Corp.; Analytical Graphics, Inc.; Artel, LLC; Blue Origin: DataPath Inc.; DRS Technologies, Inc.; Eutelsat America Corp.; Global Eagle Entertainment; Globecomm; Glowlink Communications Technology, Inc.; HawkEye 360; Hughes; Inmarsat, Inc.; Kymeta Corporation; L3 Technologies; O3b Limited; Panasonic Avionics Corporation; Planet; Semper Fortis Solutions, Inc.; Spire Global Inc.; Telesat Canada; TrustComm, Inc.; Ultisat, Inc.; and XTAR, LLC. SIA Affiliate Members include: The Aerospace Corporation; COMSAT; and Wiley Rein LLP

Media and PR Contact: Dean Hirasawa
Satellite Industry Association
Email: dhirasawa@sia.org
Endeavour Communications